100 Notable alumni of
Al-Azhar University
Updated:
Al-Azhar University is 219th 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
- chief executive officerindustrialistbusiness magnatebusinesspersonentrepreneur
- Biography
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Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist. Born in Kano to a wealthy Hausa family, he was educated in Kano, and was the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata, the richest person in West Africa at the time of his death in 1955. Dangote is the founder of the Dangote Group.
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Ahmad Yasin
- Years
- 1929-2004 (aged 75)
- Occupations
- activistteacherclericpoliticianpreacher
- Biography
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Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas in 1987. 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 (listen), 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. The name Abdurrahman Wahid means "Servant of Mercy the First."
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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. Al-Husseini 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
- novelistpoliticianuniversity teacherwriterhistorian
- 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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Houari Boumediene
- Occupations
- military personnelpolitician
- Biography
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Houari Boumédiène was an Algerian military officer 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
- writermuhaddithpreacherIslamic juristjurist
- 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 is also 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. He is a member of the UK Foreign Office Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He was listed by Time magazine in 2000 as one of the seven religious innovators of the 21st century and in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and was voted by Foreign Policy readers (2005, 2006, 2008–2010, 2012–2015) as one of the top 100 most influential thinkers in the world and Global Thinkers. Ramadan describes himself as a "Salafi reformist".
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Muḥammad Mutawallī al-Shaʻrāwī
- Occupations
- writertheologianʿālim
- 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
- politicianuniversity teacherpedagogue
- Biography
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Burhānuddīn Rabbānī 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
- resistance fightermujahidimamteacher
- 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
- theologianopinion journalistpoliticianlawyerwriter
- 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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Fuad Masum
- Occupations
- philosopherpoliticianlawyer
- Biography
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Muhammad Fuad Masum is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the seventh 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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Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi
- Occupations
- poet
- Biography
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Aboul-Qacem Echebbi (Arabic: أبو القاسم الشابي, ALA-LC: Abū al-Qāsim al-Shābbī; (24 February 1909 – 9 October 1934) was a Tunisian poet. He is probably best known for writing the final two verses of the current National Anthem of Tunisia, Humat al-Hima (Defenders of the Homeland), which was originally written by the Egyptian poet Mustafa Sadik el-Rafii.
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Abdul Somad Batubara
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Graduated with licentiate
- Occupations
- ʿālimtelevision producerda'iuniversity teacher
- 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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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 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
- ʿālim
- 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
- politicianjournalistlawyerjournal editorminister
- Biography
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Saad Zaghloul Pasha was an Egyptian revolutionary and statesman. He was the leader of Egypt's nationalist Wafd Party, and served as the first Honorary President of Al Ahly SC.
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Ahmad al-Tayyeb
- Occupations
- politicianIslamic juristimamtheologianphilosopher
- 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. 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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Mohamed Said Ramadan Al-Bouti
- Occupations
- writertheologianphilosopher
- Biography
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Muhammad Said Ramadan Al-Bouti was a renowned Syrian Sunni Muslim scholar, writer and professor, where he was vice dean in the Damascus University and served as the imam of the Umayyad Mosque.
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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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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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Fazal-ur-Rehman
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Fazal-ur-Rehman is a Pakistani politician who is the president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F). He is also the president of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a coalition of political parties which ousted then prime minister Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion in 2022. He has been a member of the National Assembly since February 2024 and previously served in that position between 1988 and 2018. He was also the Leader of the Opposition from 2004 to 2007. He is a supporter of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and has demanded for its international recognition. In the 1980s, he was part of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), which was formed to end the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq.
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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 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 El Minshawy, Abdul Basit, Mustafa Ismail, and Al-Hussary are generally considered the most important and famous qurrāʾ of modern times to have had an outsized impact on the Islamic world.
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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
- ʿālimwriterphilosopherschool teacher
- 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
- ʿālimmufassir
- 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
- university teacherpoliticianhistoriandiplomat
- 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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Abdul Hadi Awang
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianʿālim
- Biography
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Abdul Hadi bin Awang is a Malaysian politician and religious teacher who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Marang since October 1990, 7th President of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), an Islamist political party since July 2002 and a component party of Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition and formerly Gagasan Sejahtera (GS), Pakatan Rakyat (PR), Barisan Alternatif (BA) and Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU) coalitions. He served as the Leader of the Opposition from September 2002 to March 2004, 11th Menteri Besar of Terengganu from December 1999 to March 2004 and Member of the Terengganu State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Ru Rendang from 1986 until 2018. At the international level, he formerly served as Vice-President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.
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Timothy Winter
- Occupations
- Islamicist
- Biography
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Timothy John Winter, also known as Abdal Hakim Murad, is an English academic, theologian and Islamic scholar 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 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
- writerhistorianscholararchaeologistphilosopher
- 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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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, diplomat and scholar 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. The longest-serving Maldivian president, Gayoom was the longest-serving leader in Asia.
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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.
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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 the Islamic civilization (1928–1953), a famous autobiography (My Life, 1950), as well as an important dictionary of Egyptian folklore (1953).
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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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Amina Wadud
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Studied philosophy
- Occupations
- university teacherwomen's rights activistIslamicist
- 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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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 1992 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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Alwi Shihab
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Alwi Abdurrahman Shihab is a scholar of the interaction of Christian and Muslim communities. Currently he is the Indonesian President's special envoy to the Middle East and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. He held the office of Indonesian Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare in 2004–2005 and the Foreign Minister of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001.
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Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat
- Occupations
- writerpoliticianʿālim
- 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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Abdel-Halim Mahmoud
- Occupations
- imam
- Biography
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Abdel-Halim Mahmoud served as Grand Imam of al-Azhar from 1973 until his death in 1978. Called “avuncular and beloved” by some, he was known for his modernizing approach to teaching at Al-Azhar University, preaching moderation and embracing modern science as a religious duty.
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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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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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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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Sayyid Muhammad bin ʿAli al-Sanusi
- Years
- 1787-1859 (aged 72)
- Occupations
- ʿālim
- Biography
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Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi was an Algerian Muslim theologian and leader who founded the Senussi mystical order in 1837. His militant mystical movement proved very significant and helped Libya to win its freedom from Italy on 10 February 1947. Omar Mukhtar was one of the most significant leaders of the Senussi military campaign launched by Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. Al-Sanūsī's grandson Idrīs I ruled as king of Libya from 1951 to 1969.
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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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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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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 26 October 1956 to 1 September 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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Larbi Tbessi
- 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
- Grand Mufti of Egyptuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam is the 19th Grand Mufti of Egypt through Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, succeeding Ali Gomaa. He is succeeded by Nazeer Ayyad on the 11th of August 2024, following a presidential decree.
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Mahmud Shaltut
- Occupations
- university teacher
- Biography
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Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltut was an Egyptian figure best known for his attempts in Islamic reform. A disciple of Mohammad Abduh's school of thought, Shaltut rose to prominence as Grand Imam of Al-Azhar during the Nasser years from 1958 until his death in 1963.
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Zakariyya al-Ansari
- Occupations
- historianlinguistIslamic juristqadimuhaddith
- Biography
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Sheikhul Islam 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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Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali
- Occupations
- scholartranslator
- Biography
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Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din bin Abdil-Qadir Al-Hilali was a 20th-century Moroccan Salafi, most notable for his English translations of Sahih Bukhari and, along with Muhammad Muhsin Khan, the Qur'an, entitled The Noble Qur'an.
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Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun
- Occupations
- theologian
- Biography
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Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun was the Grand Mufti of Syria from 2005 to 2021, after which the post was handed over to Osama al-Rifai.
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Mas Mansoer
- Occupations
- ʿālim
- 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
- philosopherpoliticianwriterpainter
- 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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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 Hafza Leshtoilette. 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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Suhaib Webb
- Occupations
- imam
- Biography
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Suhaib Webb is an American Muslim imam who converted from Christianity to Islam in 1992. He has previously been the imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.
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Abdullah al-Hamid
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in literary criticism
- Occupations
- writerhuman rights activistpoet
- 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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Essam el-Erian
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- In 1999 graduated with Ijazah in sharia
- Occupations
- politiciantrade unionistphysicianhuman rights activist
- 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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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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Umar Makram
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Umar Makram bin Hussien 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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Panakkad Muhammad Ali Shihab Thangal
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Muhammad Ali Shihab Tangal, known with the honorific prefix Sayed, was an Indian community leader, Islamic scholar and politician from Kerala. He is sometimes regarded as "the most important Mappila leader" of modern Kerala.
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Mustafa al-Maraghi
- Years
- 1881-1944 (aged 63)
- Occupations
- ʿālim
- 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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Ali Abdel Raziq
- Occupations
- judgepoliticianjuristlawyeruniversity teacher
- 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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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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Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid
- Occupations
- intellectualpoliticianwriterjournalist
- 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".
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Ahmed Subhy Mansour
- Occupations
- writerjournalisthuman rights activist
- 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 Quranist 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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Abdul Rasul Sayyaf
- Occupations
- politicianpartisanmujahid
- Biography
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Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf is an exiled Afghan politician and former mujahideen 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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Mustafa Cerić
- Occupations
- muftipolitician
- Biography
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Mustafa ef. Cerić is a Bosnian imam 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 Muslim Brotherhood scholar who served as a professor in the Faculty of Islamic Law at the University of Jordan and was also the Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Law at Zarqa University, also in Jordan. He authored a number of books on Islam, including the Islamic Creed Series.
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Husein Kavazović
- Occupations
- muftiʿālimimam
- Biography
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Husein ef. Kavazović is a Bosnian Islamic cleric serving as Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina since November 2012. He was previously the Mufti of Tuzla.
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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 who worked extensively in Islamic studies and interfaith dialogue. He spent several years at Al-Azhar University in Cairo and taught at universities in North America, including McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Al-Faruqi was a professor of religion at Temple University, where he founded and chaired the Islamic Studies program. He also co-founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). Al-Faruqi authored more than 100 articles and 25 books, including Christian Ethics: A Historical and Systematic Analysis of Its Dominant Ideas (1967) and Al-Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and Life (1982), examining Islamic thought, ethics, the concept of monotheism, and interfaith relations.
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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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Ibrahim al-Bājūrī
- Occupations
- Islamic juristtheologianphilologist
- Biography
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Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Šāfiʿī al-Bājūrī was an Egyptian-Ottoman scholar, theologian and a dean 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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Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq
- 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
- philosopherpoliticiantranslatorlinguist
- 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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Kareem Amer
- Occupations
- human rights activistwomen's rights activistwriterjournalistblogger
- 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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Ahmad Yakob
- Occupations
- ʿālimpolitician
- 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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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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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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Mustafa 'Abd al-Raziq
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Studied in 1908
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianjournalistphilosopher
- Biography
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Shaykh Mustafa Abd ar-Raziq was an Egyptian Islamic philosopher.
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Ibrahim Abu Mohamed
- Born in
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Egypt - Occupations
- ʿālim
- Biography
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Ibrahim Abu Mohamed is an Egyptian-born and educated Sunni Islamic scholar and Grand Mufti of Australia from September 2011 to March 2018. He became Grand Mufti again after Afifi's death.
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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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Musa Bigiev
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- Studied in 1896
- Occupations
- translatorʿālimphilosopher
- Biography
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Musa Jarullah Bigiev was a Tatar Hanafi Maturidi scholar, theologian philosopher, publicist and one of the leaders of the Jadid movement. After receiving his education in Kazan, Bukhara, Istanbul and Cairo, he became a political activist for the Ittifaq, the political organisation of the Muslims of Russia. He also taught in Orenburg, wrote journalistic texts and translated classic works into Tatar. After emigrating from the Soviet Union, he travelled Europe and the Middle and Far East while writing and publishing.
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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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Hany El Banna
- Years
- 1950-.. (age 75)
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Hany Abdel Gawad El-Banna OBE is the co-founder of Islamic Relief, the largest Western-based international Muslim relief and development NGO, established in 1984 in Birmingham, UK.
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Amany Lubis
- Enrolled in Al-Azhar University
- In 1988 graduated with bachelor's degree
- Occupations
- ʿālimcivil servantdocentuniversity teacher
- 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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Zuhairi Misrawi
- Occupations
- writerpoliticiandiplomat
- 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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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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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. An October 2011 claim had al-Banna 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
-
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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Muhammad Jameel Didi
- Years
- 1915-1989 (aged 74)
- Occupations
- poetpolitician
- Biography
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Al Sheikh Muhammed Jameel Didi, popularly known as Jameel Didi, was a Maldivian political figure and poet who was famous for his writings and speeches. He was born on 1 May 1915 to Abdullah Kamaaludhin the Attorney General and Fenfoa'gan'duvaru Aminaa Didi. At first, he studied at the Majeedhiyya School and later went abroad to Egypt and studied at Al-Azhar University. After returning, he became a member of the sentence committee (niyaa kanda alhaa komety). He later served as Minister of Justice from 10 September 1953 and as Attorney General from 30 May 1956 to 11 September 1956.
