mufti

Definition

A Muslim scholar and interpreter of sharia law, who can deliver a fatwa.

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish مفتی (müfti), from Arabic مُفْتِي (muftī, “fatwa-deliverer”, literally “deliverer of formal opinion”).

Example Sentences

• "Mujtahidd's online claims have prompted an aggressive backlash against social media from the Saudi religious establishment. The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, said in January that Twitter was a platform for "promoting lies" and a "dangerous practice" that should be avoided by Muslims. Commentators have described the phenomenon as symbolic of the growing political debate about use of Twitter in Saudi Arabia."
• "He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin."
• "The innate reluctance of the Englishman to make himself conspicuous has stood him here in good stead. Except on special occasions, the British officers are almost always in mufti."