The 500 Most Influential Muslims

The 100 Most Influential Muslims

Author	John L. Esposito, İbrahim Kalın, Usra Ghazi, Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding, Kenan Stockmore
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	1st Edition (2009) 2nd Edition (2010) 3rd Edition (2011) 4th Edition (2012) 5th Edition (2012/13) 6th Edition (2014/15) 7th Edition (2016) 8th Edition (2017) 9th Edition (2018) 10th Edition (2019) 11th Edition (2020)
Subject	Biographical dictionary
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Createspace
Publication date	January 16, 2009 (2009-01-16)
Media type	Online, print
Pages	206
ISBN	978-9957-428-37-2
OCLC	514462119
Website	https://www.themuslim500.com/

500 Most Influential Muslims is an annual publication that ranks the most influential muslims in the world.

Current top nine influential muslims in the World

Rank	Change	Name	Citizenship	Age	Image	Occupation	Source of Influence	Influence	School of Thought	Previous rankings:
*01	10+	Umar bin Hafiz	Yemen	(1963-05-27) 27 May 1963		Founder and Dean of Dar al-Mustafa Islamic seminary	Scholarly, Lineage	Preacher, Spiritual Guide	Traditional Sunni	33 (2009) 37 (2010) 4 37 (2011) 36 (2012) 1 28 (2013/14) 8 28 (2014/15) 28 (2016) 25 (2017) 3 10 (2018) 15 8 (2019) 2 9 (2020) 1 9 (2021) 11 (2022) 2 11 (2023)
*02	1-	King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud	Saudi Arabia	(1935-12-31) December 31, 1935		King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques	Political & Administrative.	King with authority over 38.5 million residents of Saudi Arabia and approximately 14 million pilgrims annually.	Hanbali Sunni-Salafi	3 (2016) 3 (2017) 2 (2018) 1 2 (2019) 4 (2020) 2 2 (2021) 2 2 (2022) 1 (2023) 1
*03	1-	Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei	Iran	(1939-04-19) April 19, 1939		Supreme Leader of the Republic of Iran	Political, Administrative	Supreme Leader of 82.5 million Iranians. Ayatollah of Twelver Shias worldwide.	Traditional Twelver Shi‘a, Revolutionary Shi'ism, Usuli	2 (2009) 3 (2010) 1 5 (2011) 2 6 (2012) 1 3 (2013/14) 3 3 (2014/15) 4 (2016) 4 (2017) 4 (2018) 4 (2019) 2 (2020) 2 3 (2021) 1 3 (2022) 2 (2023) 1
*04	1-	Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani	Qatar	(1980-06-03) 3 June 1980		Emir of Qatar	Political	Ruler of Qatar.	Traditional Sunni	19 (2019) 12 (2020) 7 11 (2021) 1 1 (2022) 5+ 3 (2023) 2
*05		King Abdullah II of Jordan	Jordan	(1962-01-30) January 30, 1962		King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan	Political, Lineage	King with authority over approximately 7 million Jordanians and outreach to traditional Islam. Custodian of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem.	Traditional Sunni	4 (2009) 4 (2010) 4 (2011) 7 (2012) 3 4 (2013/14) 3 4 (2014/15) 1 (2016) 3 2 (2017) 1 3 (2018) 1 3 (2019) 5 (2020) 3 4 (2021) 1 5 (2022) 1 5 (2023)
*06	2+	Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan	UAE	(1961-03-11) March 11, 1961		Ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the UAE	Administration of Religious Affairs, Philanthropy, Charity and Development, Political	Military and political leadership.	Traditional Sunni	22 (2009) 22 (2010) 18 (2011) 4 15 (2012) 3 10 (2013/14) 5 9 (2014/15) 1 7 (2016) 2 12 (2017) 5 15 (2018) 3 15 (2019) 3 (2020) 12 7 (2021) 4 8 (2022) 1 8 (2023)
*07	3-	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	Turkey	(1954-02-26) February 26, 1954		President of Turkey	Political	President of over 85 million Turkish citizens	Traditional Sunni, Hanafi	5 (2009) 2 (2010) 3 3 (2011) 1 2 (2012) 1 6 (2013/14) 4 6 (2014/15) 8 (2016) 2 8 (2017) 5 (2018) 3 1 (2019) 4 6 (2020) 5 1 (2021) 5 4 (2022) 3 4 (2023)
*08	2-	Mufti Taqi Usmani	Pakistan	(1943-10-05) October 5, 1943		Deobandi leader	Scholar	Leading scholar of Islamic jurisprudence who is considered to be the intellectual leader of the Deobandi movement. Veteran figure of Islamic banking and finance.	Traditional Sunni, Hanafi, Deobandi Movement	27 (2009) 31 (2010) 4 32 (2011) 1 32 (2012) 25 (2013/14) 7 19 (2014/15) 6 22 (2016) 3 6 (2017) 16 7 (2018) 1 6 (2019) 1 1 (2020) 5 5 (2021) 4 6 (2022) 3 6 (2023
*09		Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani	Iraq	(1930-08-04) August 4, 1930		Marja' of the Hawza, Najaf, Iraq	Scholarly, Lineage	Highest authority for 21 million Iraqi Shi‘a, and also internationally as religious authority to Usuli Twelver Shi‘a.	Traditional Twelver Shi‘a, Usuli	7 (2009) 8 (2010) 1 10 (2011) 2 13 (2012) 3 8 (2013/14) 5 7 (2014/15) 1 9 (2016) 2 7 (2017) 2 8 (2018) 1 7 (2019) 1 8 (2020) 1 8 (2021) 9 (2022) 1 9 (2023)

Previous top ten entrants

Rank	Change	Name	Citizenship	Age	Image	Occupation	Source of Influence	Influence	School of Thought	Previous rankings
Top 10* List.:	03*.	Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani	Qatar Emir of Qatar	(1952-01-01) January 1, 1952		Political, Administrative, Lineage, Philanthropy	Political leader of over 1.5 million residents of oil-rich Qatar.:	Moderate Sunni Islam.:	Top 10* List(2009) 21 (2010) 6 (2011) 15 5 (2011) 1 top 10* (2013/14) Top 450 (2014/15) Top 450 (2016)
Top 10* List	19*.	King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz	Saudi Arabia	(1924-08-01)August 1, 1924 – January 23, 2015(2015-01-23) (aged 90)		King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.:	Political,Administrative, & Lineage.:	King of over 31* million in Saudi Arabia, 2.4 million Hajj pilgrims and 12+ million Umrah pilgrims annually.	Moderate Sunni & Salafi.:	1 (2009) 1 (2010) 1 (2011) 1 (2012) 2 (2013/14) 1) 1 (2014/15) 1 top 10* (2016)08*.
11	25*.	Suldan:Qaboos bin Said al Said	Oman	(1940-11-18) November 18, 1940		Sultan of Oman	Lineage, Political, & Development.:	Leader of 04 * million citizens and residents of Oman.	Traditional Ibadi.:	6 (2009) 6 (2010) 9 (2011) 3 12 (2011) 3 9 (2013/14) 3 8 (2014/15) 1 6 (2016) 2.
12.	23*.	Sh.Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan: (General) (MBZ):	UAE	(1961-03-11) March 11, 1961		Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces	Administration of Religious Affairs, Philanthropy, Charity and Development, Political	Military and political leadership.	Traditional Sunni.:	22 (2009) 22 (2010) 18 (2011) 4 15 (2012) 3 10 (2013/14) 5 9 (2014/15) 1 7 (2016) !!.
Top 25* List.	21*.	Dr. Mohamed Morsi : Prf.	Egypt	(1951-08-08) August 8, 1951		Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood	Administrative, Political, International Islamic Networks.:	Leader of a movement in Egypt the Middle East, Australia, Canada; & United Kingdom.:	Traditional Muslim Sunni, Islamic & Muslims+Brothers.:	Unlisted (2009) 12 (2010) 8 (2011) 4 4 (2012) 4 36 (2013/14) 32 Top 450 (2014/15) 414 Top 450 (2016) .
13.	24*.	Dr. Sh.:Ahmed el-Tayeb Prf.:	Egypt	(1946-01-01) January 1, 1946		Grand Sheikh of the Al-Azhar University and Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque	Administrative, Lineage.:	Highest scholarly authority for most Sunni Muslims, runs the largest Sunni Islamic university. 450,000+” students.!!	Traditional Sunni	25 (2009) 7 (2010) 18 7 (2011) 8 (2012) 1 1 (2013/14) 7 2 (2014/15) 1 2 (2016) .
55	25*.	(Dr.Sh.)Ali Gomaa: Emm.:	Egypt	(1953-03-03) March 3, 1953		Grand Mufti of The Arab Republic of Egypt	Scholarly, Political.:	Legal authority over 111+* million Egyptians.	Traditional Sunni, Shafi‘i	10 (2009) 10 (2010) 12 (2011) 2 14 (2013/14) 2 15 (2014/15) 1 16 (2016) 1.
Top 20* List*.	26*.
48	28*.	Dr. Prf. Sh.Muhammet Fethullah Gülen	Turkey	(1941-04-27) April 27, 1941		Turkish Muslim preacher and founder of the Gülen movement	Scholarly, & Lineage.:	Figure of spiritual and social leadership for millions of Turkish Muslims.	Own movement.:	13 (2009) 13 (2011) 15 (2011) 2 10 (2011) 5 11 (2013/14) 1 14 (2014/15) 3 15 (2016) 1.
Top 20* List	29.	Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah (Dr.) (Prf.)	Syria	(1960-08-31) August 31, 1960		Supreme Guide of the Muslim Shia group in the Levant Area of Muslim Shia	Administrative, Political, International Islamic Networks	Leader of a movement in the Levant Area; Middle East; and the United Kingdom. !!	Traditional Muslim Shia	Unlisted (2009) 12 (2010) 8 (2011) 4 4 (2012) 4 36 (2013/14) 32 Top 450 (2014/15) 414 Top 450 (2016) .
Top 20* List	31.	President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	Indonesia	(1949-09-09) September 9, 1949		Indonesia : Former President.:	Development, Economical, & Political.:	Leader of 233.3 million citizens and residents of Indonesia.	Traditional Sunni. !!	Unspecified (2009) 9 (2010) 11 (2011) 2 9 (2011) 2 7 (2013/14) 2 Unlisted (2014/15) increase (2016)1. .: .:

Other websites

• Official website
• The 500 Most Influential Muslims 2009 on Google Books
• The 500 Most Influential Muslims on Facebook
• A Defense of the Powerful: The Muslim 500 Archived 2021-05-20 at the Wayback Machine. The Islamic Monthly. June 18, 2012
• List of “Most Influential Muslims” Illustrates the Problem – and Presents Opportunities. American Islamic Forum for Democracy. November 30, 2012

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