QUESTION

In the name of God, the Beneficent the Merciful

Greetings and compliments to His Eminence, Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani (May Allah grant him long life).
 Respectfully, we would like to state that in some cases your Muqalledin (followers) fail to meet you in person (for paying their religious dues) so they refer to clerics in the districts and towns and calculate their properties with them. It so happens that sometimes they pay their dues but do not receive your  receipt sheet or in some cases the clerics give their own receipt sheets or bring receipt sheets from other Marjas (religious authorities). Is paying of religious dues in such manner allowed? Is he who pays his dues in this manner absolved? What is the responsibility of your Muqalledin?

May Allah prolong your life.
A group of your followers  

ANSWER

In His name, the Most High

With greetings and compliments. Keeping in view that the Hawzas (religious seminaries) of Isfahan and Khurasan and more than three hundred smaller Hawzas maintain part of their livelihood with  monthly salaries which they are receiving from me and given that the amount of the salary of the Islamic Seminary of Qom which is more than the salaries given by other seminaries, the entire salary of a student received from the offices of all the Jurisprudents does not exceed a hundred thousand Tumans in spite of thirty years of study background in the seminary. In view of the economic inflation which is unfortunately dominating our population, inappropriate giveaways and incorrect compromising are not consented by God, the Holy Prophet  and Imams (a.s.). If individuals, who are my followers, pay their obligatory religious dues without receiving my receipt sheet, it would not be sufficient on their part and they are not absolved.

Muhammad Fazel Lankarani
4/1/2005