The 500 Most Influential Muslims: 2025

The annual publication which lists the movers and shakers of the Muslim World. Including Top 50 ranking, exclusive Guest Articles, Persons of the Year

JORDAN, March 25, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Welcome to the 2025 annual issue of The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims.

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.

We then have a special feature on the genocide that Gaza has been subject to since October 7, 2023. This gives a small taste of the horrific situation.

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.

We then list the Muslim Olympian medalists from the Paris Olympics.

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.

Guest Contributions - CONTENTS

-Transforming Perceptions, Improving Lives:
Sir Mufti Hamid Patel

-Defining the Core Identity of a 21st Century Islamic University:
Osman Bakar, PhD

-Bangladesh's Intellectual Renaissance: A Call to Action:
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari

-The World’s Open Wounds – and the Remedy:
Sheikh Faid Muhammad Said

-Gaza: The Graveyard of Liberal Values:
Faisal Kutty

-A Comment on the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony:
Paul Williams

-Mirror of Reality:
Usman Isa Modibbo

-Bradford Literature Festival – Culture as Social Intervention:
Syima Aslam

Our Book Reviews cover some books that have been published recently and others which may be of interest.
The ‘Major Events’ section provides a timeline of the major events that have taken place over the past year. Given the events on Gaza, we have included a separate timeline for Gaza in the special features section.
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, Instagram, Tik Tok, X and YouTube Muslim users, as well as worldwide.
Contents GCs

AA
Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought
email us here
Visit us on social media:
Facebook
X
Instagram
Other