MAKKAH (Kashmir English): Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 81, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) confirmed.
He had been ill for some time. Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh was the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia and also served as the head of the Council of Senior Scholars, the highest religious body in the country.
Mufti devoted life to religious service
Born in 1943, the Kingdom’s top religious authority Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh became one of the most respected clerics in the Islamic world.
Over the decades, he played a central role in shaping religious thought and guidance across the Kingdom.
Sheikh also holds the distinction of delivering the most Hajj sermons in history, addressing millions of pilgrims who travelled to the holy sites of Makkah and Medina.
According to SPA, the funeral prayer for the late Grand Mufti was held at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh after the Asr prayer.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz directed that absentee funeral prayers be performed for Sheikh Abdulaziz at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Masjid-e-Nabwi in Medina, and in all mosques across Saudi Arabia following the Asr prayer.
Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh’s decades of service as Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti and his leadership of the Council of Senior Scholars made him a central figure in the Kingdom’s religious and social landscape.
His sermons, rulings, and guidance were followed not just in the Kingdom but across whole the Muslim world.
His death marks the end of an era for the Kingdom’s religious leadership.
