ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir have been ranked joint No. 1 in the 2027 edition of The Muslim 500, an annual list of the world’s most influential Muslims, alongside Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The editors said the five leaders were placed together at the top because of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, the mutual-defence pact that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye signed on August 7 and activated at an emergency summit in Riyadh. They called it a “historic decision” and said the pact had reshaped regional politics by bringing Saudi wealth, Turkish technology and manufacturing, and Pakistan’s military strength into one collective alliance.
The list puts all five under a single No. 1 ranking and describes them as leaders whose shared approach to collective security has transformed modern Islamic diplomacy.
Neither Shehbaz nor Munir appeared in the top 50 of last year’s edition, which was led by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Sheikh Tamim is sixth this year.
The Muslim 500 is compiled by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, a research body affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan. The 2027 edition was released this week.
Six Pakistanis in the top 50
Four other Pakistanis made the top 50. The scholar Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani is ranked seventh, down from second last year. The preacher Maulana Tariq Jamil is 32nd, Maulana Nazar ur-Rehman, the amir of the Tablighi Jamaat, is 41st, and Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Attar Qadiri is 44th.
That puts six Pakistanis in the top 50, level with Egypt for the most of any country.
The rest of the list
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Mojtaba Khamenei, enters at No. 4, followed by Jordan’s King Abdullah II at No. 5. The UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed is 12th and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim 13th.
The edition named two Persons of the Year: Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the former director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, and Fatemeh Zahra Sheikhabadi of Minab.
The Makkah pact took effect in Türkiye this week after it was published in the country’s official gazette, completing Türkiye’s approval of the pact. The agreement’s text bars any member from leaving for ten years, and Pakistan’s army has said its commitment to Saudi security is “non-negotiable”.
