Paying salaries from zakat

Question

Is it proper to pay a salary or an allowance to a teacher who teaches children and students from a community fund into which ‘ushr, sadaqa and the like are collected? For there is no other way, and nowadays in large madrasas where zakat and the like are collected, the teachers are paid their salaries without any hila (legal device).

Answer

It is not proper to give the sums whose transfer into ownership is obligatory (wajib al-tamlik) directly as the teachers’ salaries. It is proper to meet the needs of the eligible students who study — food, clothing, books and the like — from these sums by way of tamlik (transfer of ownership).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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