100 Notable alumni of
Al-Azhar University
Updated:
Al-Azhar University is 220th in the world, 2nd in Africa, and 2nd in Egypt by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Al-Azhar University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Aliko Dangote
- Occupations
- business magnatebusinesspersonentrepreneurphilanthropistchief executive officer
- Biography
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Aliko Mohammad Dangote GCON is a Nigerian businessman known for his key roles in Dangote Group and Dangote Refinery. In 2011, he was appointed as member of the economic management team by President Goodluck Jonathan. Globally, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes, he is the 91st richest person and the wealthiest Black individual, with a net worth of nearly $30 billion as of January 2026.
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Ahmad Yasin
- Years
- 1937-2004 (aged 67)
- Occupations
- teacherclericpoliticianpreacheractivist
- Biography
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Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, an Islamist political and military organization. He also served as the first chairman of the Hamas Shura Council and de facto leader of Hamas since its inception from December 1987 until his assassination in March 2004.
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Abdurrahman Wahid
- Occupations
- journalistpolitician
- Biography
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Abdurrahman Wahid, more colloquially known as Gus Dur ( Indonesian: [ˌɡʊs ˈdʊr] ), was an Indonesian politician and Islamic religious leader who served as the fourth president of Indonesia, from his election in 1999 until he was removed from office in 2001. A long time leader within the Nahdlatul Ulama organization, he was the founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB). He was the son of Minister of Religious Affairs Wahid Hasyim, and the grandson of Nahdatul Ulama founder Hasyim Asy'ari. Due to a visual impairment caused by glaucoma, he was blind in the left eye and partially blind in his right eye. He was the first (and to date only) president of Indonesia to have had physical disabilities.
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Mohammed Amin al-Husseini
- Occupations
- muftipolitician
- Biography
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Mohammed Amin al-Husseini was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. He was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles, who trace their origins to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
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Taha Hussein
- Occupations
- university teacherliterary criticnovelistlinguistliterary historian
- Biography
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Taha Hussein was among the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a leading figure of the Arab Renaissance and the modernist movement in the Arab world. His sobriquet was "The Dean of Arabic Literature" (Arabic: عميد الأدب العربي). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twenty-one times.
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Hawwari Bumadian
- Occupations
- military personnelpolitician
- Biography
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Houari Boumédiène was an Algerian military officer, revolutionary and politician who was the second head of state of independent Algeria from 1965 until his death in 1978. He served as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Algeria from 19 June 1965 until 12 December 1976 and thereafter as president of Algeria until his death.
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Yusuf al-Qaradawi
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- 1944-1958 graduated with doctorate
- Occupations
- muhaddithIslamic theologianulemawriterpoet
- Biography
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Yusuf al-Qaradawi was an Egyptian Islamic scholar based in Doha, Qatar, and chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. His influences included Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim, Sayyid Rashid Rida, Hassan al-Banna, Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi, Abul A'la Maududi and Naeem Siddiqui. He was best known for his programme الشريعة والحياة, al-Sharīʿa wa al-Ḥayāh ("Sharia and Life"), broadcast on Al Jazeera, which had an estimated audience of 40–60 million worldwide. He was also known for IslamOnline, a website he helped for establishment in 1997 and for which he served as chief religious scholar.
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Tariq Ramadan
- Occupations
- Islamicisttheologian
- Biography
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Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss Muslim academic, philosopher and writer. He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St Antony's College, Oxford and the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford. He is a senior research fellow at Doshisha University in Japan and a visiting professor at the Université Mundiapolis in Morocco. He was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, and used to be the director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), based in Doha. Ramadan describes himself as a "Salafi reformist".
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Muḥammad Mutawallī al-Shaʻrāwī
- Occupations
- theologianulemawriter
- Biography
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Muhammad Metwalli al-Sha'rawi was an Islamic scholar, former Egyptian minister of Endowments. He has been called one of Egypt's most popular and successful Islamic preachers, and "one of the most prominent symbols of popular Egyptian culture" in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
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Burhanuddin Rabbani
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- 1966-1968 graduated with master's degree in Islamic philosophy
- Occupations
- university teacherpedagoguepolitician
- Biography
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Burhanuddin Rabbani was an Afghan politician and teacher who served as the sixth president of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996, and again from November to December 2001 (in exile from 1996 to 2001).
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Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
- Occupations
- mujahidimamteacherresistance fighter
- Biography
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ʿIzz ad-Dīn ibn Abd al-Qāder ibn Mustafā ibn Yūsuf ibn Muhammad al-Qassām was a Syrian Muslim preacher and a leader in the local struggles against British and French Mandatory rule in the Levant and an opponent of Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s.
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Muhammad Abduh
- Occupations
- lawyerwriterphilosopherjuristjournal editor
- Biography
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Muḥammad ʿAbduh was an Egyptian Islamic scholar, judge, and Grand Mufti of Egypt. He was a central figure of the Arab Nahḍa and Islamic Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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Abdul Somad Batubara
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Graduated with licentiate
- Occupations
- television producerda'iuniversity teacherulema
- Biography
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Abdul Somad Batubara is an Indonesian Islamic preacher, scholar and motivator from Asahan, North Sumatra. He served as a lecturer at the Sultan Syarif Kasim II State Islamic University (UIN Suska) in Riau.
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Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi
- Occupations
- poet
- Biography
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Aboul-Qacem Echebbi was a Tunisian poet. He is probably best known for writing the final two verses of the current national anthem of Tunisia, "Ḥumāt al-Ḥimā", which was originally written by the Egyptian poet Mustafa Sadik el-Rafii.
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Fuad Masum
- Occupations
- lawyerphilosopherpolitician
- Biography
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Muhammad Fuad Masum Hurami is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the president of Iraq from 24 July 2014 to 2 October 2018. He was elected as president following the 2014 parliamentary election. Masum is the second non-Arab president of Iraq, succeeding Jalal Talabani, also Kurdish, and was a confidant of Talabani.
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Omar Abdel-Rahman
- Occupations
- politiciantheologian
- Biography
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Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist and Jihadist militant who served a life sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Butner near Butner, North Carolina, United States. Formerly a resident of New York City, Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995. His prosecution grew out of investigations of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
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ʿAbd al-Hamid Kishk
- Occupations
- ulema
- Biography
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Abdal-Hamid Kishk was an Egyptian preacher, scholar of Islam, activist, and author. He was a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Cairo and was known for his humour, popular sermons, religious books and for his outspoken stance against injustice and oppression in the world.
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Saad Zaghloul
- Occupations
- lawyerjournal editorministerconsultantpolitician
- Biography
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Saad Zaghloul Pasha was an Egyptian revolutionary and statesman. He was the leader of Egypt's nationalist Wafd Party.
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Ahmad al-Tayyeb
- Occupations
- imamtheologianphilosopheruniversity teacherwriter
- Biography
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Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb is an Egyptian Islamic scholar and the current Grand Imam of al-Azhar, al-Azhar al-Sharif and former president of al-Azhar University. He was appointed by the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, following the death of Mohamed Sayed Tantawy in 2010. He is from Kurna, Luxor Governorate in Upper Egypt, and he belongs to a Sunni Muslim family.
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Amien Rais
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Muhammad Amien Rais is an Indonesian politician and conspiracy theorist. He was one of the leaders of the reform movement that forced the resignation of President Suharto in 1998. Amien Rais was the leader of Muhammadiyah, one of the two biggest Muslim organizations in Indonesia, from 1995 to 2000. He was the Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) from 1999 to 2004. During his chairmanship, the MPR passed a series of amendments to the Constitution of Indonesia. These amendments, among other things, established direct presidential elections, a presidential term limit (two terms), and the Constitutional Court.
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Abdullah al-Qasemi
- Occupations
- writerphilosopher
- Biography
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Abdullah al-Qasemi was a Saudi Arabian 20th-century writer and intellectual. He was one of the most controversial intellectuals in the Arab world because of his radical change from defending Salafism to defending atheism and rejecting organized religion. He questioned the existence of God and criticized religions, which resulted in the allegations of him becoming an atheist, therefore his books were banned all over the Arab world.
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Ahmed ‘Urabi
- Occupations
- military personnelpolitician
- Biography
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Ahmed Urabi, also known as Ahmed Ourabi or Orabi Pasha, was an Egyptian military officer. He was the first political and military leader in Egypt to rise from the fellahin (peasantry). Urabi participated in an 1879 mutiny that developed into the ʻUrabi revolt against the administration of Khedive Tewfik, which was under the influence of an Anglo-French consortium. He was promoted to Tewfik's cabinet and began reforms of Egypt's military and civil administrations, but the demonstrations in Alexandria of 1882 prompted a British bombardment and invasion which led to the capture of ʻUrabi and his allies and the imposition of British control in Egypt. ʻUrabi and his allies were sentenced by Tewfik into exile far away in British Ceylon, as a form of punishment.
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Mohamed Said Ramadan Al-Bouti
- Occupations
- theologianphilosopherwriter
- Biography
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Muhammad Said Ramadan Al-Bouti was a renowned Syrian Sunni Muslim scholar and author. He was served as professor and vice dean at the Damascus University, also serving as the imam of the Umayyad Mosque.
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Ali Gomaa
- Occupations
- muftiwriter
- Biography
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Ali Gomaa is an Egyptian Islamic scholar, jurist, and public figure who has taken a number of controversial political stances. He specializes in Islamic Legal Theory. He follows the Shafi`i school of Islamic jurisprudence and the Ash'ari school of tenets of faith. Gomaa is a Sufi.
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Imran Nazar Hosein
- Occupations
- writerphilosopherschool teacherulema
- Biography
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Imran Nazar Hosein is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian Islamic preacher, author, and philosopher who specialises in Islamic eschatology, world politics, economics, and modern socio-economic/political issues. He is the author of Jerusalem in the Qur'an and other books.
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Muhammad Quraish Shihab
- Occupations
- ulemamufassir
- Biography
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Muhammad Quraish Shihab is an Indonesian Muslim scholar in the sciences of the Qur'an, an author, an Academic Scholar, and former Minister of Religious Affairs in the Seventh Development Cabinet (1998). He is the older brother of the former Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Alwi Shihab.
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Muhammad Zainul Majdi
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Muhammad Zainul Majdi is an Indonesian Islamic politician who served as Governor of West Nusa Tenggara between 2008 and 2018. He is also known as Tuan Guru Bajang. He was sworn in by Minister of Home Affairs Mardiyanto on 17 September 2008.
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Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu
- Occupations
- historiandiplomatuniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Ekmeleddin Mehmet İhsanoğlu is a Turkish chemistry and science history professor, academician, diplomat and politician who was Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) from 2004 to 2014. He is also an author and editor of academic journals and advocate of intercultural dialogue.
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Suleiman al-Halabi
- Biography
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Suleiman al-Halabi was a Syrian theology student best known for assassinating Jean-Baptiste Kléber, then serving as the commander of the French campaign in Egypt and Syria, in 1800. Born in the village of Kukan, Ottoman Syria into a family of Kurdish descent, he was sent by his father to study Islamic theology at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 1797 when the French launched a concurrent invasion of Egypt. Completing his studies three years later, he returned home before travelling back to Egypt
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Timothy Winter
- Occupations
- Islamicist
- Biography
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Timothy John Winter, also known as Abdal Hakim Murad (Arabic: عبد الحكيم مراد), is an English Islamic scholar and theologian who is a proponent of Islamic neo-traditionalism. His work includes publications on Islamic theology, modernity, and Anglo-Muslim relations, and he has translated several Islamic texts.
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Sibghatullah Mojaddedi
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Sibghatullah Mojaddedi was an Afghan politician, who served as Acting President after the fall of Mohammad Najibullah's government in April 1992. He was the first leader to call for armed resistance against the Soviet-backed regime in 1979 and founded the Afghan National Liberation Front (Jeebh-e Nejat-e Melli) at the time; later becoming a respected figure among the various Afghan mujahideen. He served as the chairman of the 2003 loya jirga that approved Afghanistan's new constitution. In 2005, he was appointed chairman of the Meshrano Jirga, upper house of the National Assembly of Afghanistan, and was reappointed as a member in 2011. He also served on the Afghan High Peace Council. Mojaddedi is considered to have been a moderate leader.
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Rifa'a at-Tahtawi
- Occupations
- scholararchaeologistphilosophereconomisttranslator
- Biography
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Rifa'a Rafi' at-Tahtawi was an Egyptian writer, teacher, translator, Egyptologist, and intellectual of the Nahda (the Arab renaissance).
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Abdel Salam Al Nabulsy
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
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Abdel Salam Al Nabulsy was a Lebanese actor of Palestinian origin.
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Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary
- Occupations
- qāriʾ
- Biography
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Sheikh Mahmoud Khalil al-Hussary also known as Al-Hussary, was an Egyptian qāriʾ (reciter) widely acclaimed for his accurate recitation of the Qur'an. Al-Hussary committed the entire Qur'an to memory by age 8 and started reciting at public gatherings by age 12. In 1944, Al-Hussary won Egypt Radio's Qu'ran Recitation competition which had around 200 participants, including veterans like Muhammad Rifat. The quadrumvirate of Al-Minshawy, Abdul Basit, Mustafa Ismail, and Al-Hussary are generally considered the most important and famous reciters of modern times to have had an outsized impact on the Islamic world.
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Hakim
- Occupations
- singeractor
- Biography
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Abdel Hakim Abdel Samad Kamel, known by the mononym Hakim (Arabic: حكيم), is an Egyptian shaabi singer.
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Maumoon Abdul Gayoom
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is a Maldivian politician, statesman and diplomat who served as the 3rd president of the Maldives from 1978 to 2008. He previously served as the Minister of Transport from 1977 to 1978, and as the Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations from 1976 to 1977. Gayoom is the longest-serving president in Maldivian history.
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Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan
- Occupations
- university teacher
- Biography
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Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad is a Jordanian prince and a professor of philosophy. He is the son of Prince Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan and his first wife, Princess Firyal. He is a grandson of King Talal of Jordan and thus a first cousin of King Abdullah II and sixteenth in the line of succession to the Jordanian throne. He is well known for his religious initiatives, about which a book was published in 2013. He is also the step-father of the heir to the defunct Bulgarian throne, through his second marriage to Míriam Ungría López, Dowager Princess of Tarnovo.
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Louis Massignon
- Occupations
- Islamicist
- Biography
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Louis Massignon was a French Catholic scholar of Islam and a pioneer of Catholic-Muslim mutual understanding. He was an influential figure in the twentieth century with regard to the Catholic Church's relationship with Islam and played a role in Islam being accepted as an Abrahamic faith among Catholics.
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Ahmad Amin
- Occupations
- historianwriter
- Biography
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Ahmad Amin, (1954-1886) was an Egyptian historian and writer. He wrote a series of books on the history of Islamic civilization (1928–1953), a famous autobiography (My Life, 1950), as well as an important dictionary of Egyptian folklore (1953).
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Tälğät Tacetdin
- Occupations
- muftipublic figure
- Biography
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Talgat Safich Tadzetdinov, better known as Tadzhuddin is a Russian Shaykh al-Islām. He is Grand Mufti of Russia and Chairman of the Central Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Russia, from 1980 to the present. Tadzhuddin is a polarizing figure in Russia due to his public statements, which include for example suggesting that participants of a pride parade should be attacked physically, and more recently, that Russian invasion of Ukraine is a "necessary measure". Tadzhuddin supports Eurasianism.
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Amina Wadud
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Studied philosophy
- Occupations
- women's rights activistIslamicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Amina Wadud is an American Muslim theologian. Wadud serves as visiting professor at 4 Consortium for Religious Studies and was also a visiting scholar at Starr King School for the Ministry. Wadud has written extensively on the role of women in Islam.
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Alwi Shihab
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Alwi Abdurrahman Shihab is an Indonesian politician and scholar of the interaction of Christian and Muslim communities who served as Indonesian Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare in 2004 to 2005 and Indonesian Foreign Minister from 1999 to 2001.
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Syed Mujtaba Ali
- Occupations
- journalistwriter
- Biography
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Syed Mujtaba Ali was a Bengali writer, journalist, travel enthusiast, academic, scholar and linguist. He lived in Bangladesh, India, Germany, Afghanistan and Egypt.
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Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat
- Occupations
- ulemawriterpolitician
- Biography
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Nik Abdul Aziz bin Nik Mat was a Malaysian politician and Muslim cleric. He was the Menteri Besar of Kelantan from 1990 to 2013 and the Mursyidul Am or Spiritual Leader of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) from 1991 until his death in 2015. Overall, his career as an elected politician lasted for some 48 years following his election to the Parliament of Malaysia in 1967.
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Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al ash-Sheikh
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al ash-Sheikh is the chairman of the Majlis ash-Shura (Consultative Assembly) of Saudi Arabia since February 2009. He was the minister of Justice from February 1992 to February 2009.
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Ekrima Sa'id Sabri
- Occupations
- mufti
- Biography
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Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri is a religious leader and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine from October 1994 to July 2006. He was appointed by Yasser Arafat.
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Abdel-Halim Mahmoud
- Occupations
- imamwriter
- Biography
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Abdel-Halim Mahmoud was an Egyptian Islamic scholar who served as the 40th Grand Imam of al-Azhar from 1973 until his death in 1978.
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Sayyid Muhammad bin ʿAli al-Sanusi
- Years
- 1787-1859 (aged 72)
- Occupations
- ulema
- Biography
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Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi was an Algerian Muslim theologian and leader who founded the Sanusi order in 1837. His militant mystical movement proved very significant and helped Libya to win its freedom from Italy on 10 February 1947. Al-Sanusi's grandson Idrīs I ruled as king of Libya from 1951 to 1969.
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Hasan as-Senussi
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Senussi was the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Libya from 1956 to 1969, when the Libyan coup d'état resulted in the monarchy being abolished.
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Taqiuddin al-Nabhani
- Occupations
- qadipolitician
- Biography
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Muhammad Taqi al-Din bin Ibrahim bin Mustafa bin Isma'il bin Yusuf al-Nabhani was a Palestinian Islamic scholar who founded the pan-Islamist and fundamentalist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir.
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Zainab al-Ghazali
- Occupations
- dawahpolitician
- Biography
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Zaynab al-Ghazali was an Egyptian Muslim activist. She was the founder of the Muslim Women's Association (Jamaa'at al-Sayyidaat al-Muslimaat, also known as the Muslim Ladies' Society).
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Mustafa al-Siba'i
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Mustafa al-Siba'i was a Syrian politician and activist. He was dean of the Faculty of Islamic Jurisprudence and the School of Law at the University of Damascus. From 1945 to 1961 he was the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Al-Jabarti
- Occupations
- historiantheologian
- Biography
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Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan al-Jabarti was an Egyptian-Somali Islamic scholar and historian who spent most of his life in Cairo.
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Larbi Tbessi
- Occupations
- revolutionaryreformist
- Biography
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Larbi Tbessi, whose real name was Larbi Ferhati, born in 1891 in Cheria Tébessa Province, was a revolutionary and reformist Algerian, president of the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema. He disappeared on April 4, 1957, during the war of Algeria, following his arrest at his Algiers home by civilians disguised paratroopers, the French military are still denying arresting or detaining him.
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Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam
- Occupations
- university teacher
- Biography
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Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam is an Egyptian theologian and cleric who served as the 19th Grand Mufti of Egypt through Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah from 2013 to 2024. He was succeeded by Nazeer Ayyad on the 11th of August 2024, following a presidential decree.
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Zakariyya al-Ansari
- Occupations
- linguistIslamic juristqadimuhaddithteacher
- Biography
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Abū Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad b. Zakariyyā, Zayn al-Dīn al-Sunaykī also known as Zakariyyā al-Ansārī was an Egyptian Sunni polymath. He is considered the leading specialist in fiqh, usul al-fiqh, hadith, usul al-hadith, tafsir, ulum al-Qur'an (Qur'anic sciences), Qu'ranic recitation, grammar, linguistic, rhetoric, philology, history, literature, genealogy, kalam (Islamic theology), logic and Sufism. He also excelled in other sciences such as medicine, engineering, astronomy, and mathematics.
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Mahmud Shaltut
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Mahmud Shaltut was an Egyptian Islamic scholar who served as Grand Imam of Al-Azhar from 1958 until his death in 1963. A disciple of Muhammad Abduh, Shaltut is known for his attempts in Islamic reform.
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Ali al-Qaradaghi
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Sheikh Ali al-Qaradaghi is an influential a Kurdish Sunni scholar of Islam, an expert on Sharia and Fiqh combined with Islamic economics. He is a professor of Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Sharia and Islamic Studies of the Qatar University in Doha and he has a Qatari citizenship.
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Mas Mansoer
- Occupations
- ulema
- Biography
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Mas Mansoer was an Indonesian religious leader who served as the 4th chairman of Muhammadiyah from 1937 to 1942. He was declared a national hero by President Sukarno in 1964.
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Ivan Aguéli
- Occupations
- writerpainterphilosopherpolitician
- Biography
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Ivan Aguéli, also named Shaykh ʿAbd al-Hādī al-ʿAqīlī (Arabic: شيخ عبد الهادی عقیلی) upon his conversion to Islam, was a Swedish wandering Sufi, painter and author. As a devotee of Ibn Arabi, his metaphysics applied to the study of Islamic esotericism and its similarities with other esoteric traditions of the world. He was one of the initiators of René Guénon into Sufism and founder of the Parisian Al Akbariyya society. His art was a unique form of miniature Post-Impressionism where he used the blend of colours to create a sense of depth and distance. His unique style of art made him one of the founders of the Swedish contemporary art movement.
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Essam el-Erian
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- In 1999 graduated with Ijazah in sharia
- Occupations
- physicianhuman rights defenderpoliticiantrade unionist
- Biography
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Essam al-Din Muhammad Hussein el-Erian was an Egyptian physician and politician. He was the vice chairman of the Freedom And Justice Party. Formerly he was a member of the Guidance Bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was elected as a parliament member in the 2011–12 Egyptian parliamentary election. After the 2013 Egyptian coup, prosecutors ordered his arrest on 10 July 2013. On 14 July 2013, Egypt's new prosecutor general Hisham Barakat ordered his assets to be frozen. el-Erian was arrested by the government on 30 October 2013. He was also the paternal cousin of Sami Amin Al-Arian.
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Dalil Boubakeur
- Occupations
- clericphysician
- Biography
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Dalil Boubakeur is a physician, mufti, and former rector of the Great Mosque of Paris. He is also the president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith. He was born on 2 November 1940 in the Algerian city of Skikda, to Hamza Boubakeur and Zoubida Kiouane. He studied at Lycée Bugeaud in Algiers, before moving to France and studying at Lycée Louis-le-Grand. He graduated from the Faculty of Sciences and Medicine of Paris and holds degrees in Quranic studies, theology and Muslim civilization. Boubakeur was succeeded in his role as rector of the Great Mosque of Paris by Chems-Eddine Hafiz in 2020.
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Abdullah al-Hamid
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in literary criticism
- Occupations
- human rights defenderpoetwriter
- Biography
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Abdullah Hamid Ali al-Hamid or Abu Bilal was a Saudi poet, Arabic professor, human rights activist and a co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA). He was imprisoned several times for calling for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Saudi Arabia.
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Suhaib Webb
- Occupations
- imam
- Biography
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Suhaib Webb is an American imam. He previously served as the imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.
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Mustafa al-Maraghi
- Years
- 1881-1944 (aged 63)
- Occupations
- ulema
- Biography
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Muhammad Mustafa al-Maraghi OBE was an Egyptian reformer and rector of Al-Azhar from El Maragha, Sohag Governorate.
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Umar Makram
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Umar Makram bin Husein al-Sayouti was an Egyptian political leader at the time of the 1798 French invasion and in the subsequent political disorders.
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Gad al-Haq
- Occupations
- imam
- Biography
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Gad al-Haq Ali Gad al-Haq also spelled Jadd al-Haqq was Grand Imam of Al-Azhar from 1982 to 1996.
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Ali Abdel Raziq
- Occupations
- theologianjuristuniversity teacherlawyerjudge
- Biography
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Ali Abdel Raziq was an Egyptian scholar of Islam, judge and government minister. His writings, some controversial, debated the role of religion and Islamic history in 20th-century politics and government.
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Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
- Occupations
- partisanmujahidpolitician
- Biography
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Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf is an Afghan politician and former military commander. He took part in the war against the Marxist–Leninist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government in the 1980s, leading the Afghan mujahideen faction Ittehad-al-Islami (Islamic Union).
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Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid
- Occupations
- politicianwriterjournalistintellectualjournal editor
- Biography
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Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed or Aḥmad Luṭfī Sayyid Pasha was a prominent Egyptian nationalist, intellectual, anti-colonial activist and the first president of Cairo University. He was an influential person in the Egyptian nationalist movement and used his position in the media to strive and gain an independent Egypt from British rule. He was also one of the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism as well as the architect of Egyptian secularism and liberalism. He was fondly known as the "Professor of the Generation". Lutfi was one of the fiercest opponents of pan-Arabism, insisting that Egyptians are Egyptians and not Arabs. He is considered one of the most influential scholars and intellectuals in the history of Egypt.
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Ahmed Subhy Mansour
- Occupations
- human rights defenderwriterjournalist
- Biography
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Ahmed Subhy Mansour is an Egyptian American activist and Quranist scholar dealing with Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics. He founded a small Egyptian Quranist group that is neither Sunni nor Shia. In 1987, he was fired from Al-Azhar University after expressing his liberal views. One of his fellow Islamic scholars at Al-Azhar University, Sheikh Jamal Tahir, took up the same Quran alone stance. Mansour was exiled from Egypt, and lives in the United States as a political refugee. In the United States, he established the Ahl-Alquran website.
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Ismail al-Faruqi
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- 1954-1958 studied Islamic studies
- Occupations
- university teacherphilosopher
- Biography
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Ismaʿil Raji al-Faruqi was a Palestinian-American Muslim philosopher and scholar of religion. He contributed significantly to Islamic studies, ethics, and interfaith dialogue, and is best known for pioneering the Islamization of knowledge and articulating tawhid (monotheism) as a comprehensive worldview. He proposed a model of meta-religion based on shared ethical values and the universal concept of divine unity.
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Mustafa Cerić
- Occupations
- muftipolitician
- Biography
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Mustafa ef. Cerić is a Bosnian cleric who served as the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1993 to 2012, and is currently president of the World Bosniak Congress. In the 2014 general election, he ran for a seat in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Bosniak member, but was not elected.
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Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- In 1980 graduated with doctorate
- Graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar was a Salafi scholar associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He authored several books about matters on Islamic creed.
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Husein Kavazović
- Occupations
- ulemaimammufti
- Biography
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Husein ef. Kavazović is a Bosnian cleric serving as Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina since November 2012.
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Abdullah el-Tell
- Occupations
- writerpolitician
- Biography
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Abdullah El Tell was a Jordanian military officer. He served as the commander of the 6th regiment of Jordan's Arab Legion during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and was one of the main Jordanian military leaders in the Battle for Jerusalem as well as the West Bank front of the war.
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Fazal-ur-Rehman
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Faazl-ur-Rehman is a Pakistani Islamic scholar and politician, who serves as the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F). He is also a member of the National Assembly since February 2024 and had previously served in that position between 1988 and 2018. He was also the Leader of the Opposition from 2004 to 2007. In the 1980s, he was part of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, which was formed to end the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq.
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Ibrahim al-Bājūrī
- Occupations
- theologianphilologistIslamic jurist
- Biography
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Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Šāfiʿī al-Bājūrī was an Egyptian-Ottoman scholar, theologian and a rector of the al-Azhar University. A follower of Imam Al-Shafiʽi, he authored over 20 works and commentaries in sacred law, tenets of faith, Islamic estate division, scholastic theology, logic and Arabic.
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Faris eş-Şidyak
- Occupations
- playwrightjournalisttravelerwritertranslator
- Biography
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Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq was an Ottoman scholar, writer and journalist who grew up in what is now present-day Lebanon. A Maronite Christian by birth, he later lived in major cities of the Arabic-speaking world, where he had his career. He converted to Protestantism during the nearly two decades that he lived and worked in Cairo, present-day Egypt, from 1825 to 1848. He also spent time on the island of Malta. In 1857, with Evangelist American missionaries, he participated in the publishing of a novel Protestant Arabic translation of the Bible in Great Britain where Faris lived and worked for 7 years, becoming a British citizen. He next moved to Paris, France, for two years in the early 1850s, where he wrote and published some of his most important work.
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Muhammad Ma Jian
- Occupations
- translatorlinguistphilosopherpolitician
- Biography
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Muhammad Ma Jian was a Hui-Chinese Islamic scholar and translator, known for translating the Qur'an into Chinese and stressing compatibility between Marxism and Islam.
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Muhammad al-Kharashi
- Occupations
- imamtheologian
- Biography
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Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Ali al-Kharashi was an Egyptian cleric, author and Islamic scholar who was reportedly the first Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo.
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Ahmad Yakob
- Occupations
- ulemapolitician
- Biography
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Ahmad bin Yakob is a Malaysian politician and teacher who has served as Member of the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Pasir Pekan since April 1995. He served as the Menteri Besar of Kelantan from May 2013 to August 2023. He is a member, Deputy Spiritual Leader and State Commissioner of Kelantan of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), a component party of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.
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Mustafa 'Abd al-Raziq
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Studied in 1908
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianwriterjournalistphilosopher
- Biography
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Shaykh Mustafa Abd ar-Raziq was an Egyptian Islamic philosopher.
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Kareem Amer
- Occupations
- writerjournalistbloggerhuman rights defenderwomen's rights activist
- Biography
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Kareem Nabil Suleiman Amer is an Egyptian Norwegian blogger and former law student. He was arrested by Egyptian authorities for posts on his blog that were considered to be anti-religious and insulting to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. On 22 February 2007, in his native city Alexandria, Amer was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and one year for insulting the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He was the first blogger in Egypt explicitly arrested for the content of his writing, and was released on 17 November 2010, but not before he was beaten and detained by Egyptian security forces. He thereafter moved to Bergen, Norway where he obtained political asylum and gained Norwegian citizenship.
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Issa Al-Ghaith
- Occupations
- judge
- Biography
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Issa Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Al-Ghaith is a judge, Islamic scholar, author, and activist. He is a member of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia and King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue. He received a doctor's degree in Sharia and Law College in Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.
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Musa Bigiev
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Studied in 1896
- Occupations
- ulemaphilosophertranslator
- Biography
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Musa Jarullah Bigiev was a Tatar Muslim scholar, theologian, philosopher, and publicist. He was one of the leaders of the Jadid movement, an Islamic modernist movement in the Russian Empire.
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Taj El-Din Hilaly
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Graduated with Shahadat ul Almia in sharia
- Occupations
- mufti
- Biography
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Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly was an Egyptian Australian imam of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney and a Sunni Muslim leader in Australia. The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils appointed him Mufti of Australia in 1988. He referred to himself as the Grand Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, although this title was not unanimously endorsed, and was also described by some Muslims as honorary, rather than substantial.
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Soheib Bencheikh
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Soheib Bencheikh is an Islamic religious leader and author and would-be French politician.
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Ahmed El-Zend
- Occupations
- judgepolitician
- Biography
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Ahmed El-Zend is a Judge at the Egyptian Ministry of Justice and was appointed to be the Minister of Justice in Egypt on 20 May 2015. He was dismissed from the post on 13 March 2016.
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Amany Lubis
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- In 1988 graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- civil servantdocentuniversity teacherulema
- Biography
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Amany Burhanuddin Umar Lubis is an Indonesian Muslim, female scholar of Mandailing-Egyptian descent. As an Islamic scholar, Amany was appointed as chairperson of the Indonesian Ulema Council for Women, Youth and Families for the 2015–2020 period. On January 7, 2019, she was appointed as rector of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta by the minister of religion affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin. Her new position made her as the first woman who served as chancellor of the largest Islamic university in Indonesia, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.
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Said Ali bin Said Omar of Grande Comore
- Years
- 1852-1916 (aged 64)
- Occupations
- sultan
- Biography
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Said Ali bin Said Omar was the Sultan of Grande Comore. He was the first and last sultan tibe or paramount king of the whole island of Ngazidja.
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Zuhairi Misrawi
- Occupations
- diplomatwriterpolitician
- Biography
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Zuhairi Misrawi is an Indonesian writer. Misrawi first gained public notice as a young intellectual at Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and a traditionalist member of the Sunni Islam group in Indonesia. Misrawi completed his undergraduate education with the Creed-Philosophy Department, Faculty of Usul al-Din, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt (1995–2000). Returning from Cairo, Misrawi was an active participant in the Institute for Study and Human Resource of Nahdlatul Ulama (Lakpesdam NU) and was the Coordinator of Study and Research in 2000–2002. Misrawi is close to the world of contemporary Islamic thought and has served as director of the "Moderate Muslim Society".
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Ibrahim al-Banna
- Occupations
- jihadist
- Biography
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Ibrahim Muhammad Salih al-Banna, known as Ibrahim al-Banna (Arabic: إبراهيم البنا) (nom de guerre Abu Ayman al-Masri) is a citizen of Egypt who, security officials suspect, is a leader in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Security officials have repeatedly claimed to have killed him with missiles launched from unmanned aerial vehicles. It was claimed in October 2011 that al-Banna had been killed along with six other individuals, including some who were alleged to have been associated with AQAP and at least one (Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son and American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki) who was not. Ibrahim al-Banna was added to the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice wanted list on October 14, 2014.
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Syam'un
- Years
- 1894-1949 (aged 55)
- Biography
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Brigadier General Kyai Hajji Syam'un better known as Ki Syam'un was an Islamic scholar and fighter for Indonesian Independence. In 1916, Syam'un founded the Pesantren Al-Khairiyah, which in subsequent development became Al-Khairiyah Islamic College as an educational institution and organization. Syam'un received military education during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies and was later appointed Battalion Commander (Daidancho) in the Pembela Tanah Air volunteer army. In 1945, he was appointed regent of Serang until his death in 1949.He was awarded the title National Hero of Indonesia in 2018.
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Emad Effat
- Years
- 1959-2011 (aged 52)
- Biography
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Sheikh Emad Effat was a senior Egyptian Sunni Islamic cleric at al-Azhar Mosque who was shot and killed during protest demonstrations on 16 December 2011. Effat had participated in the Arab Spring demonstrations in Egypt since the January uprising.
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Mar'i al-Karmi
- Occupations
- Islamic juristhistorianulemaliterary scholarpoet
- Biography
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Marʻī ibn Yūsuf ibn Abī Bakr Aḥmad al-Karmī, often referred as Marʻī ibn Yūsuf al-Karmī, was a Muslim scholar and one of the most famous Hanbali scholars in the Arab world. He was born in Tulkarm, and died in Cairo. He authored several books and most of them are related to Islam.
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Mohamed Salamah
- Occupations
- qāriʾ
- Biography
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Shaykh Mohamed Salamah, born in 1899 in Musturud, Qalyubia, Egypt, and died in 1982, was a student at Al-Azhar University who memorized the Qur'an and became a Qur'anic reciter at a young age. He fought in the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 against the British. He moved to Palestine after the World War I, before returning to Egypt in the 1930s.
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As'ad al-Shuqayri
- Occupations
- ulemapolitician
- Biography
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Sheikh As'ad Shukeiri was a Palestinian religious scholar, political leader, and mayor of Acre, and the Ottoman-appointed qadi from 1914 to 1918. Kamil al-Husayni was the Hanafi mufti at the time and considered to be pro-British. Shukeiri was pro-Ottoman, favoring that Palestine continue to be part of the Ottoman Empire, and in 1908 and 1912 he was elected to the Ottoman parliament.
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Osama Abdel Azim
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- In 1983 graduated with doctorate in Usul al-fiqh
- Occupations
- university teacherulemaIslamic jurist
- Biography
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Osama Muhammad Abd al-Azim Hamza was an Egyptian Islamic scholar and former head of the Sharia Department and Professor of Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Islamic Studies for Boys in Al-Azhar University, Cairo.
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Panakkad Muhammad Ali Shihab Thangal
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Sayed Muhammad Ali Shihab Thangal was an Indian Islamic scholar, community leader, and politician from Kerala. He is sometimes regarded as "the most important Mappila leader" of modern Kerala.
