The imam’s salary and food from unlawful income

Question

Bakr leads the prayer at a mosque and has a fixed salary. The salary that the mosque’s mutawallis pay Bakr is given from donations and the like that they collect, and in these donations money is also taken from a usurer and from a bribe-taker. What is the ruling on taking donations from such people and then paying the imam a salary out of them? Since in leading the prayer it is necessary to pay particular attention to taqwa (God-consciousness), is it permissible for the imam to take the salary or not?

Answer

If it is specifically the case that someone gives the imam or the teacher income from bribery or usury, whether in the form of money or in the form of food, then taking it is haram. If someone’s income is of both kinds, halal and haram, but the halal income is greater and the haram less, then if he gives the imam or the teacher food or cash from such mixed income, taking it is…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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