The 500 Most Influential Muslims

The 100 Most Influential Muslims
Author	John L. Esposito, İbrahim Kalın, Usra Ghazi, Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding, Kenan Stockmore
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	1st Edition (2009); 2nd Edition (2010); 3rd Edition (2011); 4th Edition (2012); 5th Edition (2012/13); 6th Edition (2014/15); 7th Edition (2016); 8th Edition (2017); 9th Edition (2018); 10th Edition (2019); 11th Edition (2020)
Subject	Biographical dictionary
Publisher	Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Createspace
Media type	Online, print
ISBN	978-9957-428-37-2
OCLC	514462119
Website	https://www.themuslim500.com/

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

Current top nine influential muslims in the World

Rank	Change	Name	Citizenship	Age	Occupation	Source of Influence	Influence	School of Thought	Previous rankings:
*01	10+	Umar bin Hafiz	Yemen	27 May 1963 (aged 63)	Founder and Dean of Dar al-Mustafa Islamic seminary	Scholarly, Lineage	Preacher, Spiritual Guide	Traditional Sunni	33 (2009) 37 (2010) 4 37 (2011) 36 (2012) 1 28 (2013/14) 8 28 (2014/15) 28 (2016) 25 (2017) 3 10 (2018) 15 8 (2019) 2 9 (2020) 1 9 (2021) 11 (2022) 2 11 (2023)
*02	1-	King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud	Saudi Arabia	December 31, 1935 (aged 90)	King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques	Political & Administrative.	King with authority over 38.5 million residents of Saudi Arabia and approximately 14 million pilgrims annually.	Hanbali Sunni-Salafi	2 (2013) 2 2 (2014) 1 (2015) 3 (2016) 3 (2017) 2 (2018) 1 2 (2019) 4 (2020) 2 2 (2021) 2 2 (2022) 1 (2023) 1
*03	1-	Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani	Qatar	3 June 1980 (aged 46)	Emir of Qatar	Political	Ruler of Qatar.	Traditional Sunni	19 (2019) 12 (2020) 7 11 (2021) 1 1 (2022) 5+ 3 (2023) 2
*04		King Abdullah II of Jordan	Jordan	January 30, 1962 (aged 64)	King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan	Political, Lineage.::.	King with authority over approximately 7 million Jordanians and outreach to traditional Islam. Custodian of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem.	Traditional Sunni	4 (2009) 4 (2010) 4 (2011) 7 (2012) 3 4 (2013/14) 3 4 (2014/15) 1 (2016) 3 2 (2017) 1 3 (2018) 1 3 (2019) 5 (2020) 3 4 (2021) 1 5 (2022) 1 5 (2023) .:.
*05	1-	Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei	Iran	April 19, 1939 (aged 87)	Supreme Leader of the Republic of Iran	Political, Administrative	Supreme Leader of 82.5 million Iranians. Ayatollah of Twelver Shias worldwide.	Traditional Twelver Shi‘a, Revolutionary Shi'ism, Usuli	2 (2009) 3 (2010) 1 5 (2011) 2 6 (2012) 1 3 (2013/14) 3 3 (2014/15) 4 (2016) 4 (2017) 4 (2018) 4 (2019) 2 (2020) 2 3 (2021) 1 3 (2022) 2 (2023) 1.
*06	2+	Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan	UAE	March 11, 1961 (aged 65)	Ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the UAE	Administration of Religious Affairs, Philanthropy, Charity and Development, Political	Military and political leadership.	Traditional Sunni	22 (2009) 22 (2010) 18 (2011) 4 15 (2012) 3 10 (2013/14) 5 9 (2014/15) 1 7 (2016) 2 12 (2017) 5 15 (2018) 3 15 (2019) 3 (2020) 12 7 (2021) 4 8 (2022) 1 8 (2023)
*08	3-	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	Turkey	February 26, 1954 (aged 72)	President of Turkey	Political	President of over 85 million Turkish citizens	Traditional Sunni, Hanafi	5 (2009) 2 (2010) 3 3 (2011) 1 2 (2012) 1 6 (2013/14) 4 6 (2014/15) 8 (2016) 2 8 (2017) 5 (2018) 3 1 (2019) 4 6 (2020) 5 1 (2021) 5 4 (2022) 3 4 (2023)
*09	2-	Mufti Taqi Usmani	Pakistan	October 5, 1943 (aged 83)	Deobandi leader	Scholar	Leading scholar of Islamic jurisprudence who is considered to be the intellectual leader of the Deobandi movement. Veteran figure of Islamic banking and finance.	Traditional Sunni, Hanafi, Deobandi Movement	27 (2009) 31 (2010) 4 32 (2011) 1 32 (2012) 25 (2013/14) 7 19 (2014/15) 6 22 (2016) 3 6 (2017) 16 7 (2018) 1 6 (2019) 1 1 (2020) 5 5 (2021) 4 6 (2022) 3 6 (2023
*10		Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani	Iraq	August 4, 1930 (aged 96)	Marja' of the Hawza, Najaf, Iraq	Scholarly, Lineage	Highest authority for 21 million Iraqi Shi‘a, and also internationally as religious authority to Usuli Twelver Shi‘a.	Traditional Twelver Shi‘a, Usuli	7 (2009) 8 (2010) 1 10 (2011) 2 13 (2012) 3 8 (2013/14) 5 7 (2014/15) 1 9 (2016) 2 7 (2017) 2 8 (2018) 1 7 (2019) 1 8 (2020) 1 8 (2021) 9 (2022) 1 9 (2023)

Previous top ten entrants

Rank	Change	Name	Citizenship	Age	Image	Occupation	Source of Influence	Influence	School of Thought	Previous rankings
Top 10* List.:	03*.	Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani	Qatar Emir of Qatar	January 1, 1952 (aged 74)	Moderate Sunni & Salafi.:	Political, Administrative, Lineage, Philanthropy	Political leader of over 1.5 million residents of oil-rich Qatar.:	Moderate Sunni Islam.:	Top 10* List(2009) 21 (2010) 6 (2011) 15 5 (2011) 1 top 10* (2013/14) Top 450 (2014/15) Top 450 (2016)
Top 10* List	19*.	King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz	Saudi Arabia	(1924-08-01)August 1, 1924 – January 23, 2015(2015-01-23) (aged 90)		King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.:	Political,Administrative, & Lineage.:	King of over 35* million in Saudi Arabia, 2.4 million Hajj pilgrims and 11+ million Umrah pilgrims annually.	Moderate Sunni & Salafi.:	1 (2009) 1 (2010) 1 (2011) 1 (2012) 2 (2013/14) 1) 1 (2014/15) 1 top 10* (2016)08*.
11	25*.	Suldan:Qaboos bin Said al Said	Oman	November 18, 1940 (aged 85)		Sultan of Oman	Lineage, Political, & Development.:	Leader of 04 * million citizens and residents of Oman.	Traditional Ibadi.:	6 (2009) 6 (2010) 9 (2011) 3 12 (2011) 3 9 (2013/14) 3 8 (2014/15) 1 6 (2016) 2.
12.	23*.	(Dr.) (Sh.) Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan: (General) (MBZ):	UAE	March 11, 1961 (aged 65)		Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces	Administration of Religious Affairs, Philanthropy, Charity and Development, Political	Military and political leadership.	Traditional Sunni.:	22 (2009) 22 (2010) 18 (2011) 4 15 (2012) 3 10 (2013/14) 5 9 (2014/15) 1 7 (2016) !!.
13.	24*.	Dr. Sh.:Ahmed el-Tayeb Prf.:	Egypt	January 1, 1946 (aged 80)		Grand Sheikh of the Al-Azhar University and Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque	Administrative, Lineage.:	Highest scholarly authority for most Sunni Muslims, runs the largest Sunni Islamic university. 450,000+” students.!!	Traditional Sunni	25 (2009) 7 (2010) 18 7 (2011) 8 (2012) 1 1 (2013/14) 7 2 (2014/15) 1 2 (2016) .::.
Top 25* List.	21*.	(Dr.) Mohamed Morsy E. A. : (Prf.).::.	Egypt	August 8, 1951 (aged 75)		Supreme Guide of the Muslim world of Egyptians.::.	Administrative, Political, International Islamic Networks.:	Leader of a movement in Egypt the:MENA Regions of Middle East;North Africass.::.	Traditional Muslim Sunni, Islamic&Muslims+Brothers.:	Unlisted (2009) 12 (2010) 8 (2011) 4 4 (2012) 4 36 (2013/14) 32 Top 450 (2014/15) 414 Top 450 (2016) .::.
55	25*.	(Dr.) (Sh.)Ali Gomaa: Emm.::.	Egypt	March 3, 1953 (aged 73)		Grand Mufti of The Arab Republic of Egypt	Scholarly, Political.:	Legal authority over 121+* million Egyptians.	Traditional Sunni, Shafi‘i	10 (2009) 10 (2010) 12 (2011) 2 14 (2013/14) 2 15 (2014/15) 1 16 (2016) 2.::.
Top 20* List*.	26*.
48	28*.	(Dr.) (Prf.) (Sh.)Muhammet Fethullah Gülen	Turkey	April 27, 1941 (aged 85)		Turkish Muslim preacher and founder of the Gülen movement	Scholarly, & Lineage.:	Figure of spiritual and social leadership for millions of Turkish Muslims.	Own movement.:	13 (2009) 13 (2011) 15 (2011) 2 10 (2011) 5 11 (2013/14) 1 14 (2014/15) 3 15 (2016) 1.
Top 20* List	29.	Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah (Dr.) (Prf.)	Syria	August 31, 1960 (aged 66)		Supreme Guide of the Muslim Shia group in the Levant Area of Muslim Shia	Administrative, Political, International Islamic Networks	Leader of a movement in the Levant Area; Middle East; and the United Kingdom of Great Britain.“CANZUK”.::. !!	Traditional Muslim Shia.::.	Unlisted (2009) 12 (2010) 8 (2011) 4 4 (2012) 4 36 (2013/14) 32 Top 450 (2014/15) 414 Top 450 (2016) .
Top 20* List	31.	President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	Indonesia	September 9, 1949 (aged 77)		Indonesia : Former President.:	Development, Economical, & Political.:	Leader of 233.3 million citizens and residents of Indonesia.	Traditional Sunni. !!	Unspecified (2009) 9 (2010) 11 (2011) 2 9 (2011) 2 7 (2013/14) 2 Unlisted (2014/15) increase (2016)1. ^[1].: ^[2].: