Chargingmoneyforruqyah

This is a question that people ask with some embarrassment, from both directions. The person seeking help wants to know: is it wrong that he charged me? And the person doing ruqyah wants to know: is it wrong that I need to eat? The answer to both is more relaxed than they fear, and more demanding than the market would like.

The hadith of the flock of sheep

Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri narrates that a group of the Companions were travelling and stopped at an Arab settlement. They asked for hospitality and were refused. Then the chief of that tribe was stung by a scorpion, and his people tried everything they had. Someone suggested asking the travellers. The Companions replied, in effect: you refused us hospitality, so we will not treat him unless you agree a fee. They agreed on a flock of sheep. One of the Companions went and recited al-Fatihah over the man, blowing on him, and he got up as if untied from a rope.

They took the sheep but did not divide them until they had returned and asked the Prophet ﷺ. He asked how the man had known al-Fatihah was a ruqyah, then said: you have done right; divide them, and give me a share with you (Bukhari, Muslim).

The scholars take several things from this. Payment for ruqyah is permitted; the Prophet ﷺ not only allowed it but joined in. It may be agreed in advance. It may be a condition of the service. And, as Ibn ‘Abbas reports him saying in the same context, the most deserving thing for which you take payment is the Book of Allah (Bukhari).

So there is no basis for saying that anyone who takes money for ruqyah is a fraud. Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymeen both affirmed the permissibility clearly. A raqi who gives his hours to the sick may take a fee for those hours, just as a teacher of Quran or an imam may.

Where the ethics come in

Permitted is not the same as praiseworthy in every case. The same scholars who affirmed permissibility warned in the next breath.

Ibn Uthaymeen distinguished between a person who recites over others as an act of kindness and accepts what he is given, and a person who has turned ruqyah into a trade with a shop-front and price list. The first is on the safer path. The second is permitted in principle, but he cautioned that when ruqyah becomes a business, sincerity suffers, the numbers of "patients" grow, and the temptation to inflate diagnoses grows with them.

There is also a difference between paying for time and paying for a cure. A doctor charges for the consultation, not for the recovery. A raqi is in the same position. He can charge for an hour of his life. He cannot charge for something only Allah gives, and he should never let the person believe that a higher fee buys a stronger recitation.

And ruqyah has one feature that medicine does not: the patient can do it himself. A raqi who keeps his clients dependent, discourages self-ruqyah, and books them in indefinitely is selling something the Prophet ﷺ gave away free.

Signs that a fee has become exploitation

Because payment is permitted, exploiters hide behind that permission. Here are the signs that something has gone wrong, in roughly ascending order of seriousness.

• The fee is not stated up front, or it changes after the diagnosis.
• Fees rise as the case is declared "more difficult". A "strong sihr" that requires seven sessions instead of one, at a higher rate each.
• Products are pushed: special water, special oil, special honey, at many times the market price, presented as necessary.
• The person is discouraged from doing ruqyah at home, or told it will not work unless the raqi does it.
• Sessions continue for months with no plan, no review and no end in sight.
• Guarantees are given: "pay this and it will be finished".
• Fear is used to secure the next payment: "if you stop now it will get worse".
• Large lump sums, sometimes running to thousands, sometimes with instalments and debt.
• Payment is demanded for something that has no place in ruqyah at all: an amulet, a slaughter, a "reading" of your future.

The last of these is not really a question of fees. If a man is selling amulets and slaughters, the money is the least of the problems.

What a fair arrangement looks like

• The fee is clear before you begin, and it is for time.
• You are taught to recite over yourself, and encouraged to.
• The raqi is happy if you never need to come back.
• No products are required, though lawful ones may be suggested with no pressure.
• There is no promise of a cure, and no threat if you stop.
• Anyone who genuinely cannot pay is not turned away.

That last point comes from the spirit of the hadith rather than its letter. The Companions charged a tribe that had refused them bread. They did not charge the poor of Madinah, and neither did the Prophet ﷺ.

For those who recite over others

If you have been given knowledge and the ability to recite, and people come to you, there is nothing wrong with accepting payment for your time. But keep a few things in view.

Do not let the fee become the reason you do it; if you notice that it has, take a break. Recite over the poor for nothing. Teach every person you see to do it themselves, and mean it. Never inflate a diagnosis, never claim a guarantee, and never let anyone believe that your recitation is different in kind from theirs. It is the same Quran. Your job is to recite it well and hand it back.

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ قَدْ جَاءَتْكُم مَّوْعِظَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَشِفَاءٌ لِّمَا فِي الصُّدُورِ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

Yā ayyuhā n-nāsu qad jā’atkum maw‘iẓatun min rabbikum wa shifā’un limā fī ṣ-ṣudūri wa hudan wa raḥmatun lil-mu’minīn

O mankind, there has to come to you instruction from your Lord and healing for what is in the breasts and guidance and mercy for the believers.

The healing came to all of mankind. Whatever we charge for our time, we do not own that.