Opinion: If you pay peanuts you get monkeys

By Imam Ajmal Masroor[1][2]

I saw a post on one of the WhatsApp groups. A number of things in this advert intrigued and alarmed me. The [organisation] is looking for an Imam who is:

1. A Hafiz – someone who has memorised the entire Quran, it has taken that person 2-4 years to complete that.
2. Mawlana – an Asian title attributed to those who have completed their Islamic education from a reputable seminary and it takes 8 years usually.
3. This Imam must be a British born for obvious reasons, but most important reason probably is to be able to speak English and relate to people.
4. The Imam should have graduated from a Qawmi Madrasah which is a non political private seminary usually aligned to Deobandi brand and Hanafi school of thought of interpretation of Islam from Indian subcontinent.
5. The Imams job would be leading prayers and teaching children Monday to Friday.
6. In return he would be given a salary of £13200 per year which comes to £1100 per month.

This advert raises a number of questions for me. When a person invests 8-10 years of their youth in memorising the entire Quran and studying books upon books of Islamic literature, do they graduate to be paid peanuts by the community they would serve? Would we accept our graduate children earning such a salary after completing their university degrees?