Pakistanis in The Muslim 500 2026 number 28 in total, and the country’s best known scholar, Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, stands at No. 2 on the entire list. The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims is published every year by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, Jordan. Its 2026 edition, the 17th in the series, was released in late 2025 and remains the current edition while the next one is awaited. The book ranks a Top 50, then presents the remaining 450 names in unranked categories covering scholarship, politics, preaching, charity, science, the arts and the media. The No. 1 position this year went to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, and the editors named the men and women of Gaza as the Man and Woman of the Year.
Mufti Taqi Usmani at No. 2 in the World
Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani is placed second only to the Emir of Qatar, ahead of leading scholars, kings and heads of government from across the Muslim world. The book describes him as a leading scholar of Hadith, Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic finance, and as the intellectual head of the Deobandi school. He heads Darul Uloom Karachi, served as a judge of the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and is widely regarded as a founding authority of the modern Islamic finance industry. He has written more than 143 books. For a Pakistani scholar to sit at No. 2 on a global list of this kind, in a field of names drawn from more than 50 countries, is a remarkable mark of respect for Pakistani scholarship.
Four Pakistanis in the Top 50
Pakistan places four names in the ranked Top 50, a share few countries can match. Alongside Mufti Taqi Usmani at No. 2, Maulana Tariq Jameel comes in at No. 32 in the preachers and spiritual guides field: he is Pakistan’s best known travelling preacher, whose talks draw audiences in the millions at home and abroad. At No. 41 is Nazar-ur-Rehman, the Amir (head) of the Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan, one of the largest religious movements in the world. At No. 44 is Muhammad Ilyas Attar Qadri, the founder of the Dawat-e-Islami movement, whose organisation runs mosques, schools and media channels in many countries from its base in Karachi.
Honourable Mentions With Full Profiles
Two further Pakistanis receive honourable mentions with full profiles in the book. Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister and former Pakistan cricket captain, is profiled in the political field, where the book also carries him in its political list of 450. Professor Akbar Ahmed, who holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington DC and earlier served as Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, is profiled in the scholarly field. The book lists him under Pakistan even though he is based in the United States.
Pakistanis in The Muslim 500 2026, Category by Category
The remaining Pakistani names appear in the unranked 450, grouped by the field in which the book places them:
Scholarship: Dr Farhat Hashmi, founder of Al-Huda International, who holds a PhD in Hadith Sciences from the University of Glasgow; and Sheikh Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran International.
Politics and religious affairs: Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif; Chief of Army Staff Syed Asim Munir, who was promoted to Field Marshal in May 2025; Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, the Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan; and Ayatollah Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, Patron-in-Chief of the Shia Ulema Council of Pakistan.
Preachers and spiritual guides: Khanum Tayyaba Bukhari, religious scholar and founder of the Bukhari Relief Foundation; and Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Qur’an scholar and founder of the Al-Mawrid Institute.
Charity and social issues: Professor Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi, founder of SIUT in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest free healthcare organisation; Muniba Mazari, artist, motivational speaker and UN Women Pakistan goodwill ambassador; and Malala Yousafzai, the girls’ education activist and co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Science and technology: Professor Atta-ur-Rahman, the distinguished chemist and the first Muslim scientist to win the UNESCO Science Prize; Dr Umar Saif, founding Vice Chancellor of the Information Technology University in Punjab and a former federal minister for IT; and Irfan Siddiqi, the Karachi-born quantum physicist at UC Berkeley. Pakistani technology names keep climbing world lists, as our coverage of Pakistan’s world freelancing ranking also shows.
Arts and culture: Abida Parveen, the legendary Sufi vocalist; Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker; Al-Hajj Siddiq Ismail and Muhammad Owais Raza Qadri, two of the world’s best known naat reciters; and Syed Nadeem Raza Sarwar, Pakistan’s most revered noha reciter, who is marked as a new entry in this edition.
Media: Salman Iqbal, owner of the ARY Digital Network; Hamid Mir, the Geo News journalist and host of Capital Talk; and Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, founder of the Jang Media Group and Geo TV.
Pakistani-Origin Names Listed Under Other Countries
The book also carries several names of Pakistani origin under the countries where they now live, and they are worth a mention for Pakistani readers. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, receives an honourable mention profile under the United Kingdom, and the book notes his Pakistani heritage. Shahid Khan appears in the business list under the United States: he left Pakistan for America in 1967 at the age of 16 and went on to build the Flex-N-Gate group, buy the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham Football Club, and launch All Elite Wrestling. Shabana Mahmood, the British-Pakistani politician who serves as UK Home Secretary, appears in the political list under the United Kingdom, as does journalist Mehdi Hassan in the media field. These four are not counted in the 28 above, because the book itself lists them under other countries.
That is the complete picture of Pakistanis in The Muslim 500 2026: 28 names under Pakistan, four of them in the world’s Top 50, and a scholar from Karachi at No. 2. Pakistan’s showing sits comfortably alongside its other recent world standings, from the Legatum Prosperity Index to student prizes on the world stage. The next edition of the list has not yet been released; when it appears, Good News Pakistan will report the Pakistani names in it, as it will every year.
Sources
- The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims, 2026 edition (official book PDF), Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre
- The Muslim 500, Top 50 of the 2026 edition
- Daily Jasarat: Mufti Taqi Usmani declared the second most influential figure in the Muslim world
- Photo: MuslimEco, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Umar is an engineer by profession and a passionate writer by passion. He has a deep interest in sharing good news related to Pakistan and has been working hard to promote the positive image of his homeland. Umar has written numerous articles on various topics related to Pakistan, such as technology, sports, culture, and economy.