Mufti

A mufti (/ˈmʌfti/; Arabic: مفتي‎ muftī; Turkish: müftü) is an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law (Sharia and fiqh). A muftiate or diyanet is a council of muftis.

William Cleveland wrote in his A History of the Modern Middle East that muftis were "experts in Islamic law qualified to give authoritative legal opinions known as fatwas; muftis were members of the ulama establishment and ranked above qadis".

Within Islamic legal schools, a mufti is considered the pinnacle in the hierarchy of scholars because of the advanced training required for the individual aspiring to be a mufti. Originally, muftis were private individuals who gave fatwas informally, regulated their own activities, and determined their own standards of the fatwa institution. A mufti could also be defined as an individual well-grounded in Islamic law.

Qualifications

A mufti will generally go through a course in iftaa, the issuance of fatwa, and the person should fulfill the following conditions set by scholars in order that he may be able to issue verdicts (fatwas):

Mufti (dress)

Mufti, or civies/civvies (slang for "civilian attire"), refers to plain or ordinary clothes, especially when worn by one who normally wears, or has long worn, a military or other uniform.

Origin

The word originates from the Arabic: Mufti (مفتي) meaning an Islamic scholar. It has been used by the British Army since 1816 and is thought to derive from the vaguely Eastern style dressing gowns and tasselled caps worn by off-duty officers in the early 19th century. Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive (1886) notes that the word was "perhaps originally applied to the attire of dressing-gown, smoking-cap, and slippers, which was like the Oriental dress of the Mufti".

Mufti day

A mufti day (also known as casual clothes day, casual Friday, colour day, own clothes day, home clothes day, plain clothes day, non-uniform day, mufting day, free dress day, civvies day, dress down day, uniform-free day) is a day where students and staff go to school in casual clothing instead of school uniform. This is found in many countries where students are required to wear uniform, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is particularly used in this way in state schools.