Head of Cairo's al-Azhar , the thousand-year seat of Sunni learning and the nearest thing Sunni Islam has to a first voice. Signed the 2019 Document on Human Fraternity with the Pope. Verified 07-24
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Highest religious office in the guardian of Mecca & Medina; a senior Salafi scholar who became the kingdom's fourth Grand Mufti in October 2025 when Al ash-Sheikh died. New since Oct 2025
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsSaudi Arabia's global face of "moderate Islam" — a former justice minister who now takes the kingdom's religious diplomacy to Davos and the Vatican . Chairs the Organization of Muslim Scholars.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsHead of Egypt's Dar al-Ifta , the fatwa house whose rulings echo across the Sunni world; appointed in 2024 and known for a moderate, anti-extremism line.
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Mauritanian Maliki jurist regarded as one of the most learned living scholars; chairs the UAE Fatwa Council and the Forum for Promoting Peace , the Emirates' counter-Islamist project.
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Leads Indonesia's Nahdlatul Ulama , the largest independent Islamic organization on earth (tens of millions), and its campaign for a "humanitarian Islam" fit for the modern nation-state. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: The 35th NU Muktamar (Tambakberas, Jombang) chose KH Abdul Hakim Mahfudz (Gus Kikin) as general chairman for 2026–2031 on 31 August 2026; Staquf placed fourth in the plenary vote. Staquf no longer leads Nahdlatul Ulama.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · CHANGEDRuns Turkey's Diyanet — a state ministry with 100,000+ mosques and imams at home and abroad. Took the post in September 2025 when Erbaş's term ended. New since Sep 2025
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Egypt's Grand Mufti 2003–2013 and a leading Sufi-oriented Shafi'i authority whose fatwas and teaching still carry enormous weight across the traditional Sunni world.
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Qatar-based Kurdish jurist who leads the IUMS , the transnational scholarly bloc long tied to the Muslim Brotherhood current and a loud voice on Palestine.
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Timothy Winter — the foremost British Muslim intellectual, founder-dean of the Cambridge Muslim College and a leading voice of Western neo-traditional Islam.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsAzhari hadith scholar and long a religious adviser to President Sisi; since 2024 he runs Egypt's Awqaf ministry — the mosques, imams and the state's "renewal of religious discourse."
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The senior Muslim cleric of Jerusalem and preacher of al-Aqsa — a religious office standing on the most contested sacred ground on earth.
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Chairman of the Russia Muftis Council since 1996 and the chief religious broker between the Kremlin and Russia's ~20 million Muslims.
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The pre-eminent marja of the Shia world, followed by tens of millions from his house in Najaf . His quietist authority — a word from him can move Iraq — is the counterweight to Iran's clerical state. Verified 07-24
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Among the most senior and most politically vocal maraji of Qom; issued fatwas against Netanyahu and Trump in 2025, and against the US and Israel after Khamenei's killing.
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Not a marja but the single most powerful Shia street force in Iraq — a cleric-populist who can fill squares or empty parliament at a word, and commands the Peace Companies militia.
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Took over the region's most powerful Shia armed movement in October 2024 after Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah — leading a battered Hezbollah through Lebanon's hardest hour. Since Oct 2024
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Called by some the most learned Shia authority alive; long chancellor of the Qom seminary and a revered, independent voice within the Iranian clerical establishment.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsOne of the senior maraji of Najaf, of Pakistani origin — now, with Sistani, among the last of the "four grand ayatollahs" after two of that circle died in 2021 and 2026.
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Marja and philosopher, one of the great living interpreters of the Qur'an in the Iranian tradition. He led the funeral prayer for Ali Khamenei in 2026.
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Heir of the al-Hakim clerical dynasty and leader of Iraq's National Wisdom Movement — a turbaned power-broker who bridges the marja'iyya and the ballot box.
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A centenarian marja of Qom, conservative and closely aligned with the Islamic Republic's establishment — one of the pillars of the clerical old guard.
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Marja and prodigious theologian — author of hundreds of works on law, creed and Qur'anic exegesis, a reference point for Shia scholarship worldwide.
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Secretary-general of an Iran-aligned militia-turned-party, and one of the most powerful openly anti-American figures in Iraqi politics.
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Leader of the transnational Shirazi current and its satellite channels — a marja who, from inside Qom, sharply criticizes Iran's rule of the jurist.
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The foremost Shia cleric of Bahrain's majority, stripped of citizenship in 2016 and now leading his community's cause from exile in Iran.
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Bearer of Islam's weightiest sovereign title — guardian of Mecca and Medina — and king of the state that funds mosques and scholars across the Sunni world. Ailing; his son rules in his name.
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The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia — remaking the guardian state and, with it, the tone of global Sunni Islam, from clerical austerity toward a controlled, nationalist modernity.
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Named third Supreme Leader in March 2026 after his father Ali was assassinated — but wounded in the same strike and rarely seen , his grip disputed. The most uncertain throne in Islam. Since Mar 2026 · contested
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The most powerful elected leader in the Sunni world, commanding the Diyanet and a neo-Ottoman vision — patron of a political Islam that reaches from the Balkans to Central Asia. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: Still President of Turkey (since 2014). But the card gives his age as 62; he was born 26 February 1954 and is 72.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · CHANGEDKing of Morocco and Amir al-Mu'minin — "Commander of the Faithful" — a rare living monarch who claims direct religious authority over his people, and descent from the Prophet.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsHashemite king, of the Prophet's line, and custodian of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem — a role that makes Amman a quiet capital of Islamic diplomacy.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsReclusive supreme leader of the Taliban's Afghanistan, ruling the one state governed as a total emirate under his personal, hardline reading of sharia. Rarely seen or heard.
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Ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the Emirates — the chief patron of state-managed "moderate Islam" and the region's most aggressive foe of political Islamism.
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Emir of the small, rich Gulf state that hosts Al Jazeera and the transnational scholars — the counter-pole to the Saudi–Emirati axis, and long friendly to the Brotherhood current.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsSultan of the one Ibadi -majority state — neither Sunni nor Shia — and the Gulf's quiet mediator, whose Muscat channel keeps talking to everyone.
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Prince Rahim al-Hussaini, who in February 2025 became the 50th hereditary Imam of the world's Ismaili Muslims and head of their vast development network. Since Feb 2025
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The world's longest-reigning monarch, sultan since 1967 and head of Brunei's religion — who in the 2010s made his small realm the first in East Asia to impose a full sharia penal code .
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsTraditional spiritual leader of Nigeria's ~100 million Muslims and head of its supreme Islamic council — heir to a caliphate throne two centuries old in West Africa.
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Sufi master of Tarim whose seminary trains preachers for the whole world; ranked the single most influential Muslim of 2024 . The living heart of traditional, devotional Islam. Verified 07-24
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsThe voice of Mecca — leading imam and reciter of the Masjid al-Haram since 1984, heard by hundreds of millions, and head of the affairs of the Two Holy Mosques.
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The largest social-media pulpit in Islam — millions of followers worldwide for his short, accessible sermons. A generation's most-heard preacher, in English, on a phone.
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The foremost Western convert-scholar; co-founder of America's first accredited Muslim college and the leading English-speaking voice of traditional Islam — close to the UAE's peace project.
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Secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation — the 57-state bloc that is the closest thing to a collective voice for the Muslim world's governments. ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: His term ended in August 2026. The Council of Foreign Ministers elected Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania on 27 August 2026; Taha handed over in Jeddah on 28 August 2026.
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One of America's most-followed Sunni scholars — a Salafi-trained preacher turned mainstream educator whose lectures reach a mass online audience across the English-speaking world.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsFounder of the Yaqeen Institute and a leading Muslim voice in American public life — a preacher-activist bridging the mosque and the civil-rights march.
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Fifth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya community, leading millions worldwide from London — a rare living "caliph," though the movement is rejected as heterodox by mainstream Islam.
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The most popular Qur'anic-Arabic teacher of the internet age; his Bayyinah lectures have made the language of the Qur'an accessible to millions of English-speaking Muslims.
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One of the most-watched Islamic televangelists on earth via Peace TV — and a fugitive from India , where he faces charges; his network is banned in several countries, though Interpol declined India's red-notice requests.
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A leading traditional Sunni authority and among the earliest, boldest scholars to condemn ISIS , co-signing the 2014 open letter that dismantled its claims point by point.
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The first woman to lead the Islamic Society of North America , and the most noticed female scholar in Western Islam — a bridge-builder in interfaith and Islamic thought.
Re-checked 2026-10-11 · holdsLibyan theologian and statesman, founder of a think-tank for Islamic theology and philosophy — a voice for a scholarly, anti-extremist Islam engaged with the modern world.
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