Reflection:

There’s no right or wrong answer here — these polls are just meant to get people thinking or talking about topics that matter. For this one, I picked Shaykh ʿAbdul ʿAzīz ibn Bāz (rahimahullah) as my favourite contemporary scholar because he became one of the world’s leading scholars even though he lost his eyesight at a young age. Even after going blind in his teens, he still: * Memorised huge amounts of Islamic texts just by listening and repeating. * Became a teacher, judge, mufti, and eventually the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. * Issued thousands of fatwas and taught generations of students — including Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn, who most of you voted for. * Left behind a massive collection of recorded lessons and writings. Many of his students said that his blindness wasn’t a setback at all — it actually sharpened his focus and made his knowledge even stronger. As Grand Mufti, he had a lot of influence, and he used it to spread the Salafi da‘wah around the world. If you want to learn more about him, I’d really recommend reading this book.