Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, dies

Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti and the kingdom’s top religious figure for over a quarter century that saw the ultraconservative Muslim nation socially liberalize, died yesterday. He was in his 80s.

Sheikh Abdulaziz’s role as grand mufti made him one of the top Islamic clerics in the world of Sunni Muslims. Saudi Arabia, home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, hosts the annual Hajj pilgrimage required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their lives, making the pronouncements of the grand mufti that much more closely followed.

Saudi Arabia’s state media reported Sheikh Abdulaziz’s death, without offering a cause. The kingdom’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who runs the kingdom’s day-to-day governance under his 89-year-old father, King Salman, attended funeral prayers for the late mufti in Riyadh.

Eid al-Fitr morning prayers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti and the kingdom’s top religious figure for over a quarter century that saw the ultraconservative Muslim nation socially liberalize, died yesterday. He was in his 80s.

Saudi Arabia’s state media reported Sheikh Abdulaziz’s death, without offering a cause. The kingdom’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who runs the kingdom’s day-to-day governance under his 89-year-old father, King Salman, attended funeral prayers for the late mufti in Riyadh.

 “With his passing, the kingdom and the Islamic world have lost a distinguished scholar who made significant contributions to the service of Islam and Muslims,” the Saudi Royal Court says in a statement.