Introduction

Welcome to the seventeenth annual issue of The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims. We are very pleased that we have made it this far and that the book has evolved as it has. We thank you for all your support and suggestions and look forward to continually receiving them.

There are approximately 2.1 billion Muslims in the world today, making up over a quarter of the world’s population. As well as being citizens of their respective countries, they also have a sense of belonging to the ‘ummah’, the worldwide Muslim community.

This publication sets out to ascertain the influence some Muslims have on this community, or on behalf of the community. Influence is: any person who has the power (be it cultural, ideological, financial, political or otherwise) to make a change that will have a significant impact on the Muslim world or Muslims. Note that the impact can be either positive or negative, depending on one’s point of view of course. The selection of people for this publication in no way means that we endorse their views; rather we are simply trying to measure their influence. The influence can be of a religious scholar directly addressing Muslims and influencing their beliefs, ideas and behaviour, or it can be of a ruler shaping the socio-economic factors within which people live their lives, or of artists shaping popular culture. The first two examples also point to the fact that the lists, and especially the Top 50, are dominated by religious scholars and heads of state. Their dominant and lasting influence cannot be denied, especially the rulers, who in many cases also appoint religious scholars to their respective positions.

This doesn’t discount the significant amount of influence from other sectors of society. How to measure this influence is of course the most challenging aspect of the publication, and the one where opinions diverge the most. Influence can sometimes be gauged on a quantitative basis, the number of followers, the number of books written, the amount of sales etc., but more often it is not something measurable in quantitative terms and is more related to the qualitative and lasting effect of that influence. A combination of social metrics, public opinion (we have a month-long open call for nominations every year, and all suggestions are considered) and expert opinion are the basis of this attempt to measure influence. The achievements of a lifetime are given more weight than achievements within the current year. People who are trailblazers, or the lone voice in a remote area are also taken into account as we give weight to people breaking barriers and to local influence as well as global influence. This means that our list of names will change gradually, rather than dramatically, year-on-year.

The Top 50 individuals are ranked and listed first. The remaining 450 names are then listed (not ranked) in categories of influence, with a small number also chosen to be in our Honourable Mentions section to value the notable contributions made in their fields.

Our 13 categories are:

  • Scholarly
  • Political
  • Administration of Religious Affairs
  • Preachers and Spiritual Guides
  • Philanthropy/Charity and Development
  • Social Issues
  • Business
  • Science and Technology
  • Arts and Culture
  • Qur’an Reciters
  • Media
  • Celebrities and Sports Stars
  • Extremists

The individuals are ordered in each category according to geographical region (Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America, South America), then in alphabetical order by country and finally by surname.

This publication combines aspects of a review of the past year, including a timeline and statistics, but it also hopes to serve as a prospective guide to the new year, much like a Who’s Who.

WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE?

We have our Persons of the Year; these individuals are recognized for their significant contributions in the past year or over their lifetime.

Our editor then offers his Selected Survey of the major events which have affected the Muslim world over the past twelve months.

Then we have our regular House of Islam essay which gives an overview of Islam and its branches. An updated Top 50 and 450 lists (including Honourable Mentions) then follows.

The final part of our lists is the Obituaries section which lists the people from last year’s book who have since passed away.

Our Guest Contributions section has exclusive articles covering a wide range of issues. These are sure to stimulate thought and discussion around current pressing issues.

Our Book Reviews cover some books that have been published recently. The ‘Major Events’ section provides a timeline of the major events that have taken place over the past year.

Appendices I and II provide us with lots of statistics. Appendix I shows total population and Muslim population by country, for all the countries in the world. Appendix II compiles a list of the most popular Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok and Instagram Muslim users, as well as worldwide.

To give a richer visual experience we have also included several calligraphy pieces throughout the book, which we hope will serve as a beautiful reminder to pause and reflect as you go through the book. We have also added write-ups within the main body of the text about major initiatives (see the Amman Message on page 49, A Common Word on page 121, the Marrakesh Declaration on page 124, The Muslim Council of Elders on page 114, Free Islamic Calligraphy on page 180, UN World Interfaith Harmony Week on page 152, Altafsir.com on page 163 and QuranicThought.com on page 20)

Our website [www.TheMuslim500.com] is a popular destination. We welcome your feedback and will take nominations for the 2024 edition through it.

To ensure that our publication maintains strict and professional editorial standards, the editorial team of the Muslim 500 has adopted a new stylesheet for the 2024 edition and for all subsequent editions. Our new housestyle will ensure editorial consistency and accuracy in the spelling of Islamic terms and foreign names. We hope this will set the standards and guidelines to help us define how our content is presented in terms of formatting, typography, grammar, punctuation and other stylistic elements.