Saudi Arabia announces new Grand Mufti
Sheikh Dr Saleh bin Fawzan bin Abdullah Al Fawzan is appointed
Dubai: King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday issued a royal decree appointing Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan bin Abdullah Al Fawzan as the Kingdom’s fourth Grand Mufti, succeeding the late Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Sheikh, who passed away on September 23 at the age of 82.
Sheikh Saleh Al Fawzan has also been appointed as Chairman of the Council of Senior Scholars, and Chairman of the General Presidency of Islamic Research and Ifta, with the rank of minister.
Born in 1935 in ash-Shimasiyyah, Qassim, Sheikh Saleh Al Fawzan grew up as an orphan. He was nurtured by his extended family and guided by the local mosque’s imam, Sheikh Hammoud bin Suleiman Al Tilal, who taught him the Quran and the basics of reading and writing.
Al Fawzan began his formal education at a public school in ash-Shimasiyyah in 1950, completing his primary studies at Al Faisaliyah School in Buraydah in 1952. He initially worked as a primary school teacher before joining the Scholarly Institute in Buraydah in 1954 as one of its first students. After four years, he graduated and went on to study at the College of Sharia in Riyadh, earning his degree in 1961.
He subsequently completed both a master’s and a doctoral degree in Fiqh at the same institution. His master’s thesis focused on “Satisfactory Investigations Applying Hypothetical Approaches in the Science of Inheritance,” while his doctoral thesis explored “Rulings Concerning Food in Islamic Sharia.”
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