A cleric has been arrested for selling meth to his students, claiming it would “help them study and recite the Quran better”.

According to The Star, the religious leader from Madura, Northeast Java in Indonesia had been selling the drug to his students at an Islamic boarding school and reasoned that it was permissible under Islamic law.

Being an avid drug user himself, Ahmad Marzuki managed to avoid the police for two months after they learned of his actions.

Despite being a fugitive, the religious leader still taught at other Islamic boarding schools in Surabaya and Mojokerto cities.

On January 20, authorities finally managed to capture him when he was attending a funeral in Madura. Police officers located Marzuki and two other drug users at his home where they found a small quantity of the substance and other drug paraphernalia.

After he was arrested, Marzuki said he knew meth is illegal under Indonesian laws, but found “no evidence against it in the Quran”.

K.H. Said Aqiel Siradj, head of Nahdlatul Ulama — Indonesia’s largest independent Islamic organisation — on the other hand, said that while the Quran does not explicitly mention the drug, the religious text’s verses should be interpreted with a consensus among Islamic scholars and deductive analogy.

Meanwhile, Marzuki will be charged under the Indonesian Narcotics Law. He reportedly also faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of 10 billion Indonesian rupiahs (PKR112 million).