Government employment and its income

Question

Question: Government employees who have no authority to rule by the Shari‘a — for example, a sub-district revenue officer or a deputy revenue officer and the like — apparently fall under (the verse) “Whoever does not judge by what Allah has sent down…” (من لم يحكم بما أنزل الله الآية) (Surah al-Ma’ida, 5:44). What, then, is the way for their employment to be permissible, and how should their money be spent on religious works?

Answer

Those jobs in which the employee is compelled by the government to rule contrary to the Shari‘a — those jobs and their income are all impermissible. If this is the situation of the sub-district revenue officer, the same ruling applies to him. The way to spend the money of such a job on religious works is that it be given to some poor, needy person (miskin)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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