Joko Widodo

Joko Widodo is the current President of Indonesia. He is popularly known in Indonesia as Jokowi. He was the mayor of Surakarta before becoming the governor of Jakarta.

Joko Widodo was born on June 21, 1961 is derived from the Indonesian politician who is now (October 2014) served as the President of Indonesia. Jokowi served as mayor of Surakarta (Solo) during the two periods 2005-2009 and 2010-2015, and was nominated to be guberjur Joko Widodo Jakarta in 2012. His success and achievements in leading Surakarta make Jokowi has credibility and quality to lead Jakarta. Jokowi and his deputy Basuki Purnama Cahya (Ahok) outperformed Fauzi Bowo in Jakarta governor election and make it as governor in the period 2012-2017. Not long after that Joko Widodo (Jokowi) nominated by a political party to become the President of Indonesia from 2014 to 2019.

Jokowi  was born in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, from couples and Sujiatmi Notomiharjo Mihardjo Noto. Jokowi Education starts from 111 Tirtoyoso Elementary School. With a simple family conditions, Jokowi must trade, rent an umbrella when it rains and a coolie to finance school supplies. After graduation, Jokowi continued his education to SMP Negeri 1 Surakarta and then proceed to the SMA Negeri 6 Surakarta. Joko Widodo also go on to college is the University of Gajah Mada (UGM) with a major in forestry science. Studies on the structure of the wood, and the use of technology gained from college into Jokowi capital to open a business furniture. Business Furniture is growing rapidly, and make it as a furniture entrepreneur widely known in Europe. From his friendship with the French named Micl Romaknan nickname “Jokowi” embedded in him.


In 2005, Joko Widodo ran for mayor of Surakarta. After years of work, success leads Jokowi Surakarta into a developed city, beautiful, and cultured. The things accomplished since served as mayor of Surakarta is:

• Build a new traditional markets.
• Build a 7-km city walk with a 3m wide pedestrian walkway along the main street of Surakarta.
• Revitalization and garden Balekambang Sriwedari.
• Strict regulations on felling trees along the main streets of the city.
• Rebranding Surakarta as the center of Javanese culture and tourism under the tagline “The Spirit of Java“.
• Promote the city as a center for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE).
• “Blusukan“ culture, the way in which Jokowi impromptu visits to certain areas to hear directly from the people their needs and criticisms.
• Prohibits family members from bidding for city projects.
• Health insurance program for all residents.
• Public transport in the form of double-decker bus.
• Solo Techno Park, which helped support the project Esemka Indonesia.

To solve all existing problems in Jakarta, Jakarta Governor Jokowi as do some new breakthrough that can be said to benefit and make the people prosperous. Some policies issued by Jokowi. For the problem of traffic jam, Jokowi create policies to accelerate the development of mass transportation facilities such as MRT and monorail and multiply TransJakarta fleet. For the problem of flood, Jokowi also moved quickly to relocate the flood catchment areas and renew and increase parks and urban forests. Jokowi also issued Jakarta Health Card (KJS) and Jakarta Smart Card (KJP). As in Surakarta, Jokowi also intends to make Jakarta as a city of festivals. A total of 97 festivals held during the year 2013 in Jakarta, including Jakarta Night Festival, the Feast of the people, Pekan Raya Jakarta (PRJ) and others.

                                                                                            Source: obiography.com

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani education and youth activist. Native to Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Northwest Pakistan, she is known mainly for human rights advocacy for women and for education. She survived a gunshot attack by Taliban militants in October 2012. Attempt  to assassinate her received condemnation across the globe and protests throughout Pakistan. More than 2 million people signed the Right to Education campaign. The petition further helped the ratification of Pakistan’s first right to education bill. In 2014, Malala became the youngest person ever to win Nobel Peace Price. She achieved this feat at the age of 17.

Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 in Swat valley of Pakistan. She received her basic education in a local school owned by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who is a poet and also an education activist. She had been banned from school after Taliban had set an edict that no girls could attend school after 15 January 2009. More than hundred girls' schools in the area were destroyed by pro Taliban activists.  She remained an anonymous BBC blogger for four months or more, writing about her life under the threat of the Taliban taking over her native place. After the BBC blog ended, she was featured in a documentary made Adam B.Ellick, a New York Times reporter . After her appearance in documentary, Malala received greater international coverage and later her identity about writing the BBC blog was revealed.


As reported by New York Times, Malala was attending her chemistry class at the Edgbaston High School for Girls near Birmingham, England when she was informed about her winning of Nobel Prize. She was called out of her class to hear the news. She was declared a Nobel prize winner along with Indian Kailash Satyarthi, a notable children's rights advocate and an activist against child labour.

In 2011, Malala Yousafzai was awarded with Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize, but later the prize been since renamed in her honour;  now the same prize is called as National Malala Peace Prize. In 2012, Malala was short-listed for TIME magazine's Person of the Year , and a year after in 2013, she was featured as one of the TIME 100. She has also been awarded with Simone de Beauvoir Prize for international human rights work  and Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice.

AKON

AKON is a big name in the world of entertainment today. Native to United States, he is a well known singer, composer, song writer, recording artist. He was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the number one selling artist for master ringtones in the world. Beyond singer, he is the owner of two clothing lines Aliaune and Konvict and has also invested in real estate.


Born as Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam in St. Louis, Missouri , Akon started singing and performing as a teenager. After growing up in New Jersey, United States, he turned his attention to the music business. Akon attended Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, for a short time and later dropped out. He started his musician by making home recordings.

Akon is best known for his reggae music. One of his most popular song is Ghetto. He remained controversial and has been jailed many a times after facing different allegations. During his time in jail, he wrote many songs mainly on prison life and also on living in a ghetto setting. He realized his musical talent after leaving those freeman surroundings. The time when he was released from jail, he immediately began recording his music and sending out demo tapes. In 2006, he produced a single named Smack That, featuring a very popular rapper, Eminem. Later,after realese , the same song topped the Billboard singles chart.

He collaborated with Hindi music director duo Vishal-Shekhar and produced a hit track Chammak Challo for Shah Rukh Khan's Bollywood film Ra.One. He also appeared on WWE Raw, on its November, 2008 edition, with Santino Marella citing him in his speech. He also runs a charity  in Africa called Konfidence Foundation for the welfare of  for underprivileged children.

Abida Parveen

Abida Parveen is a Pakistani Sufi singer native to Sindh. She is considered as one of the finest Sufi singers of present era with a career spanning over forty years. Many National and International awards have been bestowed upon her including President of Pakistan's Award for Pride of Performance, the Sitara-e-Imtiaz and  Hilal-e-Imtiaz- Pakistan's second highest civilian award.

Abida Parveen was born in 1954 in Larkana region of Sindh, in southern Pakistan in a society where the Muslim Sufi culture was very popular. She is known for her blinding quality of voice. Her two most popular Sufi songs are Tere Ishq Nachaya which is based upon Baba Bulleh Shah's poetry and Yaar ko Humne from Raqs-e-Bismil album.

Abida Parveen has performed on every popular  stage all over the world. Recently, she created a mystical environment with her sizzling voice in Morocco's Fez Festival where she performed to an audience of over 10,000. Abida has also performed at renowned Royal Festival Hall in London on September 15, 2001 where she captured the hearts of listeners.


Abida's has an enormous fan following in Indian subcontinent. Her fans call her Undisputed Queen of Sufi Music. She says Sufi music will always be a source in unifying the two countries sharing so much common cultural and traditional legacy, peace will prevail one day and Sufi music will be the source.

Abida Parveen married Ghulam Hussain Sheikh in 1975. He was working at Radio Pakistan as a senior producer. Hussain later retired from his job in 1980s to look after  Parveen's career.

Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tayyeb

Sheikh Al-Tayyeb is the leader of Al-Azhar University, which is the second-oldest university in the world, and was established in 975 AD. Al-Azhar represents the center of Sunni Islamic society. Jamia Al-Azhar is providing extensive Islamic education to Egyptian and international students since its establishment over a millennium ago. This history makes it a stronghold of Sunni traditionalism. The university is considered the most prominent Islamic educational institution worldwide.


Sheikh Al Tayyeb remained the president of the Al Azhar for seven years and prior to that, he served for two years as the most prominent cleric in Egypt as the Grand Mufti.  He served as the head of the theology faculty of the International Islamic University in Pakistan and also the dean of the teaching faculty of Islamic Studies in Aswan. His scholarly influence as a renowned intellectual is known throughout the world. He worked as professor in leading institutions of  Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Jamia Al Azhar is the second oldest, and currently, one of the the largest universities in the world. This prominent institute has risen from a group of three schools in the 1950s to its current position with almost 75 affiliated schools, and a pupil strength of 400,000 studying there at one time, including those institutes that are part of Jamia's Waqf initiatives where there are about 19 lakhs students. This enormous size and respect makes the head of Al Azhar an immensely powerful and a person with a great influence.

Omar Sharif

Omar Sharif is a well known Muslim Actor of Hollywood. He became international star for his role in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) and  Funny Girl (1968). He has been nominated for Academy Awards many times. He has also won Golden Globe award thrice. Before starting his career as a Hollywood actor, Sharif appeared in over twenty Egyptians films.


In 2005, Omar Sharif was awarded the with the Sergei Eisenstein Medal by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in recognition of his significant contributions to world film and cultural diversity.

As an actor, Sharif returned to cinema in 2003 playing the title role of an elderly Muslim shopkeeper in the French film Monsieur Ibrahim. For this performance, he was given the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Actor César, France's, which is considered as an equivalent of the Oscar, from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.

Mehar Zain

Mehar Zain is a well known Islamic singer. Native to Lebanon, Zain's family moved to Sweden when he was eight years old. After gaining the Bachelors  degree in Aeronautical Engineering, he later entered the music industry and linked up with RedOne, a renowned Swedish song writer and music producer. He mastered keyboard at the age of 10 and started admiring music. His daughter is also a prominent musicians. She has a great fan following in Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Mehar Zain moved to United States in 2006 along with RedOne. On returning home to Sweden, he started producing Islamic music which gained him recognition. In 2009, Maher Zain signed and began work on an album with Awakening Records. 

His first album with this label peaked at number 2 on the Amazon album charts world. Through this album, he gained 8X platinum in Malaysia with sales of 120,000 units. After the release of this album, he released several other versions of the album including the percussion version in 2009 and the Platinum Edition in 2011. 
Zain's debut album Thank You Allah was an international hit and became the biggest selling album of the year in many countries including Malaysia. .


Maher Zain was chosen as Muslim Star of the year for 2011 in a voting which was organized by renowned Islamic website Onislam.net. He has been featured on the cover page of the United Kingdom based Muslim lifestyle magazine, Emel. He is also one of the most followed Muslim artists on social media.

Lubna Agha

Lubna Agha was an American-Pakistani painter. She was one of the leading woman artist of South Asia, particularly of Pakistan. Her paintings have been displayed in art museums and galleries all over the world, including Pakistan, United Kingdom, Jordan, Switzerland, and the United States of America.

Belonging to a family which moved from Delhi, Lubna Agha was born in Quetta in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan in 1949. She completed her schooling in Pakistan's southern most city of Karachi. She inherited the flair of art from her mother who was skilled in embroidery. Lubna joined the Mina School of Art, which was later renamed as 'Karachi School of Art. She graduated in 1967 and taught at the Imam Ali Central Institute of Art. She got married to art writer Yusuf Agha. 

Lubna was a successful graphic designer. Her paintings were mostly made on wood and canvas, depict ordinary objects using the patterns and narratives in the Islamic art. She was a senior art director for a major business communication agency in Boston. She died at Brookline in Massachusetts at the age of 63.

Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan is one of the leading actors of Indian film industry (Bollywood). Often called as King of Bollywood, he is recipient of many national as well as international awards including Padma Shiri, 4th highest civilian honour from the Government of India and Filmfare best actor award many times.

Shah Rukh Khan obtained Graduation degree from Hansraj College of Delhi University and further took admission in Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi for Masters Degree in Mass Communications (Film making). But later after a year, he opted out as he decided to make his acting career in Bollywood.

With a net worth of more than $600 million, Shah Rukh Khan is the highest earning actor of Bollywood and also the world's second highest earning actor. He owns the motion pictures production company Red Chillies Entertainment and Kolkata Knight Riders cricket team of Indian Premier League.

Shah Rukh Khan pays huge amounts to charities but he always keeps his humanitarian work low-profile. He has recorded a series of public service announcements championing good health, child immunization and proper food and also joined India's Health Ministry and UNICEF in a nationwide child immunisation campaign as part of National Rural Health Mission of Government of India. 

Even with all the success and a statue among the elite in Madame Tussaud's, Khan is quoted as being one of the down to earth  and most humble personalities although his wit is unmatched by even the best in Bollywood. He has hosted many television programmes, game shows and award functions including India's version of British show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

In 2011 Shah Rukh Khan teamed up with Amitabh Bachchan to promote Resul Pookutty's foundation that works to improve the living conditions of poor masses of India. He also owns a villa on  man made island in the United Arab Emirates on the coast of magnificent city of Dubai.

Shah Rukh Khan's family includes his wife, Gauri Khan, two sons Aryan and AbRam and a daughter, Suhana. Describing his own words "I have a beautiful family and a few friends with whom I spend lot of time. I don't want to be unknown. I would like to be just successful. Believe me it is lonely at the top."

Dave Chappelle

Dave Chappelle  is a popular comedian. He is native to United States of America. He is also a well known screenwriter,TV and film producer. Dave Chappelle started his film career in early 90s. He also appeared in many films including The Nutty Professor in 1996. 

Shortly after completing his graduation, he moved to New York where he quickly established himself as a major talent. At the age of 19, He made his film debut in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

Chappelle's mother has been a professor at Howard University, Wilberforce University, Central State University and University of Maryland. She is also a Unitarian Universalist minister. He also made it to the Forbes top 100 celebrities many times.
He has been declared at 43rd position on Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Standups of All Time. He is the youngest person ever to make it to this prestigious list.

Dave Chappelle converted to Islam in 1998. Chappelle and his wife, Elaine, have two sons, Sulayman and Ibrahim, and a daughter named Sonal.

Shahid Afridi

Native to Pakistan, Shahid Afridi is one of the most popular cricketers. Nick named as Boom Boom Afridi, he is known for his aggressive style both in batting and bowling. Shahid Afridi holds many International records including most sixes in ODI career. Out of seven fastest hundreds in One Day International Cricket of all time, Shahid Afridi has produced three of them. 


He is only third player in ODI history to achieve the combination of 5000 runs and 200 wickets. The other players are Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya and South African Legend Jacques Kallis. He is the only player in cricket to score 12 runs off one ball, he did it by hitting the roof of the Millennium Stadium. This took place in a game of Power Cricket.

Besides cricket he is involved in many other activities like, humanitarian work, he has been assigned by UNICEF to be in the board of anti polio campaign for tribal areas. Afridi is also involved in many TV advertisements for different brands. He also plays county cricket in which he represents different cities of UK and Australia.

                             
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Ibn Sina

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was one of the frontmost philosophers of the Medieval times. He was the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopaedist, mathematician and astronomer of his time. He wrote about 450 works on different subjects, unluckily only 240 of them have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving works concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. Ibn Sina also contributed to mathematics, physics, music and other fields.

Ibn Sina was a very religious man. During his childhood, he was highly baffled by Aristotle's work on Metaphysics and he used to leave all the work and used to spend his whole time in worship of God to guide him. Finally after reading a manual by a famous philosopher Al-Farabi, he found the solutions to his difficulties.

Ibn Sina was very self-conscious boy prodigy, professionally successful in his childhood; also at an early age he became a permanent exile from a home that ceased to exist; he was forced to serve hard-liners most of whom never appreciated his intellectuality and even did not esteem him as an intellectual; and yet he managed to stay with these rulers for whatever reasons.

Besides Ibn Sina's monumental writings, he also contributed to mathematics, physics, music and other science related fields. He long-winded the concept and applications of the “casting out of nines”. He also attempted  several successful astronomical observations, and devised a means similar to the venire, to enhance the accuracy of instrumental readings. In physics, his main contribution were different forms of energy, light, heat, mechanical studies, and other concepts like force, vacuum and infinity.

Moez Mousad

Moez Masoud is native to Egypt. He is a noted spiritual leader, TV and radio presenter and a well known activist. He was described by "The Economist" as one of the world’s five most prominent Muslim preachers. Moez Masoud is also a well known social media personality, where he has millions of followers.

Masoud’s profession also includes writing, singing, directing, composing as well as producing various songs, drama and documentaries shows highlighting the need for global mutual understanding between disparate ideologies.

Masoud's efforts have attracted much critical acclaim and have contributed to an expansion of dialogue between activists in the Arab world regarding the need for formal Islamic religious discourse to encompass and attend the common issues faced by Muslims in the contemporary world.

Moez Masoud was named Most influential religious figure of the year fo Egypt in 2008. His name was also featured in 2009 edition of The 500 Most Influential Muslims, a publication of Georgetown University.

Zakir Abdul Karim Naik is a well known public speaker whose mission is to teach the world about Islam. He hosts huge public events where he speaks on the Islam, highlighting misconceptions and promoting understanding about the Islam. He founded the  Peace TV network and is also the founder of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), which runs United Islamic Aid. He has been ranked among 100 Most Powerful Indians many a times. He also founded the Islamic International School in Mumbai. In July 2013, he was named as the Islamic Personality of the Year, announced by the 17th Dubai International Holy Quran Award (DIHQA).


Naik has held many debates and lectures around the world. Renowned anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen said  that Zakir Naik's way of memorizing the holy Quran and Hadith literature in different languages, and other missionary activities, has made him extremely popular. Almost all of his debates and lectures are recorded and widely distributed online. Common topics he speaks on include: Islam and secularism, Christianity and Islam, and  Modern Science and Islam.

Dr Zakir Naik's debate with William Campbell is among the most known debates of him. This debate held in Chicago in 2000, on the topic of "The Bible and the Qur'an : In the Light of Science".  Later in 2006 Dr Zakir held an inter-religious dialogue with a well known Hindu scholar Sri Sri Ravi Shankar about the concept of God in Hinduism and Islam. In 2011 Zakir Naik addressed the Britain's Oxford Union via video link from India.

A.R.Rahman

A.R.Rahman is a popular composer and musician for the Indian film industry (Bollywood). He was described by Time as  the world’s most noted film music composer. He is the first from Bollywood to receive a Golden Globe Award and two awards for his soundtrack "Jai Ho". In 2011, Rahman was nominated one more time for his work in '127 Hours' at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes finished winning one for Best Song at the Critics Choice Awards. He also received two Grammy awards for the same song. He was named “CNN-IBN Indian of the Year” for 2009.

A. R. Rahman preferred a career in music at a very young age. Rehman completed a degree in western classical music from the iconic Trinity College of Music, London and after working with leading musicians of India, he went on to compose jingles and scores for popular Indian television features. He therefore set up his own recording studio at his house called Panchathan Record-Inn at Chennai.

Rahman undertook several live concert tours. He performed on over 50  venues worldwide, including one in 2006 at the prestigious Hollywood Bowl and the Royal Festival Hall in 2010. He also collaborated with the international renowned musician Andrew Lloyd Webber on the highly successful Bombay Dreams in 2002. Rehman is composing fine music since a decade and has been regarded as 'one of the world's great living music composers'.

Yusuf Islam

Yusuf Islam was formally known as Cat Stevens. He is a globally known English musician.  He converted to islam in 1977.

Yusuf was raised a Greek Orthodox. His parents opted to send him to a Roman Catholic school. The combination of the two religious influences helped him develop a strong moral conscience, and provided an anti-Muslim slant to his upbringing. 

His 1964's debut performance at a local bar made him immensely popular and thus it was the start of his career. It took him just a year to become a well established songwriter and musician. he then adopted his stage name 'Cat Stevens'.

Yusuf was awarded many times for promoting peace in the world. In 2003 he was awarded with World Award and in 2004 with Man For Peace Award.

Zayn Malik

Zayn Javadd Malik born 12 January 1993, is a British-Pakistani Pop singer. He is one of the members of noted music band 'One Direction'.