Follow Those Who Do Not Expect Anything in Return – A Reflection on Surah Yaseen
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Islam
Follow those who ask no reward of you and are rightly guided.”
[Surah Yaseen: 21]
We must deeply reflect on this verse of the Holy Qur'an. Here, Allah identifies the act of not seeking any return as a unique sign of being on the path of guidance—on the straight path (Sirat al-Mustaqeem). What kind of return is meant here? Since prehistoric times, the practice of barter has existed in trade, which later evolved into using gold coins and now, currency.
Allah is essentially saying: those who do religious work in exchange for compensation—whether money or material gain—are not to be followed. They are clearly in misguidance (dalalah). How can someone who is themselves misguided guide others to the path of truth?
In our society, there exists a class of people who are professional religionists—those who earn their livelihood from religious work. While this might sound harsh, this tradition has been ongoing for centuries.
Typically, they lead prayers in mosques, act as muezzins, speak at religious gatherings (waaz-mahfils), perform supplications, conduct funerals, officiate marriages, etc., all as a source of income. One might ask: if teaching, driving a rickshaw, or working a 9 to 5 job is a valid profession, then why is leading prayer, calling the azan, or giving sermons considered blameworthy?
These acts, in and of themselves, are virtuous, but if done in exchange for money, they become acts of religious commercialization. In a society where religious acts require monetary compensation, religious practice itself comes to a halt when there is no money.
Suppose a person tasked with delivering God's message becomes beholden to financial gain. In that case, he cannot protest against social injustices, cannot oppose a mosque committee president who engages in usury, cannot speak out against extortionist leaders.
In such a case, religion becomes helpless before wealth. That is why taking compensation for religious work is haram. This prohibition comes from Allah Himself. No prophet ever took payment for preaching the religion. Each of them was involved in some worldly profession. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was also a businessman, but never a religious merchant.
Yes, a religious merchant—this class has now grown substantially in our society. Especially in waaz-mahfils where, under contractual agreements, they collect large sums from the audience. In many places, speakers won’t even show up unless paid in advance. If a speaker dares to voice a small objection against the event organizers, he is physically assaulted or humiliated on stage.
This cannot be the fate of a respectable religious scholar. These so-called scholars are actually religious businessmen. Their speech is often more vile than that of ordinary, decent people. In the age of social media, people mock and ridicule them. About such people, Allah has warned us in the Qur'an:
“Among them is a group who distort the Book with their tongues so that you may think it is from the Book, but it is not from the Book. They say, ‘This is from Allah,’ but it is not from Allah. And they speak lies against Allah knowingly.”
[Surah Aal-Imran: 78]
This is exactly how the religious professionals of our society recite scripture with twisted tongues, as though they are conveying divine messages. But in truth, they are presenting a completely distorted version of Islam, originally corrupted by their predecessors, now repackaged with emotive tone and expressions in the name of Allah.
The responsibility of the prophets was to distinguish between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, and to struggle against injustice alongside those who followed the righteous path. Naturally, after believing in a prophet, every believer is entrusted with the same divine responsibility. Allah declares in the Qur'an:
“You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah.”
[Surah Aal-Imran: 110]
But can these so-called scholars and religious merchants truly separate truth from falsehood and fight against injustice? Never. Because they have sold themselves to a certain class of people. It has always been this way: when rulers commit injustices, they create laws to justify those actions and protect themselves.
These laws are drafted by lawmakers and defended by intellectuals. In earlier times, when religion governed the state, even religious doctrines were tampered with to support rulers’ wrongdoings. This was done by religious scholars of the time, who legitimized the ruler’s sins in the name of Shari’ah. What we see today as “Islam” is only partly the divine revelation; the rest is crafted by religious merchants. Sultans and kings used hired scholars—who, out of greed for rank and wealth, misled the people about Islam. That same class still exists today—those who conveniently issue fatwas and interpretations according to the needs of state policymakers.
One very common form of religious commercialization is the role of salaried mosque imams. It is now a widely accepted norm that the wealthy and influential (many of whom are corrupt) become mosque committee members.
No one questions their source of income—their wealth and influence are considered qualifications. The real objective here is economic. Imams work under the authority of these committees. Their domain is confined within the mosque walls. They’re summoned for funerals, inaugurations, circumcisions, marriages, and animal slaughter—but have no involvement in real-life societal affairs.
The Imamate Today:
Due to the influence of the Western Christian education system and way of life, our society now has two types of leaders: religious and secular.
Today, in mosques, the so-called religious imam—semi-educated and earning a small salary—leads the prayer while the so-called secular (political and social) leaders stand behind him and obey his commands during prayer. Once the prayer ends, these secular leaders don’t even glance at the imam. Because they know his worth does not exceed his small salary—he has no social value or authority.
If that imam dares to offend or disobey any of them, he immediately loses his position. Blind imitation and obedience to Western Christian models have brought us to a point where even their Christian priests hold more influence over their communities than our imams.
No matter how corrupt or immoral the committee members may be—whether involved in usury, drug trade, bribery, or shady politics—our imams cannot speak out against them.
This is how religion is sold for personal interest. When the voice of justice is silenced in exchange for gain, religion is defeated. And when the pulpit of religion fails to speak against immorality, society quickly loses its faith.
Once a nation loses the courage, resolve, and capacity for ideological struggle, imbalanced Sufism introduced an alternative: jihad against the self (nafs). T
Today, Jihad-e-Akbar is equated with the struggle against the nafs. The proponents of this idea cite only three hadiths—reported by Ibn Najjar, Dailami, and Khatib—all of which scholars unanimously consider weak (da'if). Renowned muhaddith Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani even declared these hadiths to be not hadiths at all, but mere Arabic proverbs.
[Tashdid al-Kabais – Hafiz Ibn Hajar]
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For centuries, the promotion of this version of Jihad-e-Akbar—contradictory to Allah’s declaration—has caused the entire Muslim nation to lose its character of resistance and protest. As a result, even this invented jihad against the nafs could not protect them from defeat, slavery, or moral decline.
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