Ibn Baz Biography

Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz was the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia and one of the most influential Sunni scholars of the twentieth century. Born in 1330 AH / 1912 CE in Riyadh into a family of modest means, he began his Islamic studies in childhood and was reading the Qur'an by age seven. Sight loss began afflicting him in his teens — first reduced vision, then complete blindness by age nineteen — yet his memorization, scholarly output, and capacity to dictate detailed fatwas from memory became proverbial. He studied under Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al al-Shaykh, then Mufti of Saudi Arabia, alongside the Qur'anic sciences, hadith, fiqh, and the classical Hanbali manuals.

Ibn Baz served as a judge in al-Kharj for fourteen years before being appointed to teaching positions in Riyadh and Madinah, eventually becoming Vice President and then President of the Islamic University of Madinah from 1390 AH / 1970 CE. He chaired the General Presidency of Islamic Research, Ifta', Da'wah and Guidance from 1395 AH / 1975 CE and was named Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia and head of the Council of Senior Scholars in 1413 AH / 1993 CE, a position he held until his death. His fatwa collection — Fatawa Ibn Baz, gathered into more than thirty volumes by his students — covers creed, ritual worship, family law, finance, contemporary issues, and matters of public administration, and remains one of the most widely consulted contemporary fiqh references in the Arabic-speaking world.

Ibn Baz died in Ta'if in 1420 AH / 1999 CE and was buried in Mecca after a funeral attended by an estimated million mourners. His positions were not without controversy — both within and beyond Saudi Arabia — but his personal piety, accessibility (he answered questioners daily after every prayer), and devotion to teaching are universally acknowledged. Generations of students from across the Muslim world studied under him at the Islamic University of Madinah, carrying his methodology into da'wah and academic institutions worldwide.