Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī

Abu Jafar Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was a noted mathematician, astronomer and geographer of ancient times. He was native to Persia (Iran). He introduced many new concepts in mathematics and is generally regarded as father of Algebra.

Al-Khwarizmi's discussion was confined to the equations of the first and second degrees. His work mainly focused on time, astronomy, calculating exact positions of the Sun, Moon and the other planets. He also worked on calculating the tables of sines, cosec and tangents,  astrological tables, reason behind eclipse and their calculations, periodic visibility of the moon.

As written by E. F. Robertson and J. J. O'Conner in their book, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive "One of the most significant advances made by Arabic mathematics began with the mathematical  study and research of al-Khwarizmi, namely the beginning of algebra. It is important to understand just how significant this new idea was. It was a revolutionary move in real senseand much differ from the concept of mathematics adopted by Greeks. They (Greeks) mainly worked on geometry.

Al-Khwarizmi research was a unifying theory which allowed geometrical magnitudes, irrational numbers, rational numbers, etc., putting them under a single category of "algebraic objects". His work gave mathematics a new look if compared to that which had existed before, and became a tool for future development of maths." They further wrote "Another important aspect of the introduction of algebraic ideas was that it allowed mathematics to be applied to itself in a way which had not happened before."

Al-Khwarizmi supervised the work of seventy geographers and they successfully created a map of the then “known world”. When his work became popular in Europe through Latin translations, his popularity made a permanent mark on the development of science in the Western world.

Al-Khwarizmi also influenced the proper use of the term "algorithm". His name (al-Khwarizmi) was Latinized as "algorism" and later used to refer to the art of counting and calculating. Al-Khwarizmi also worked on astronomical tables and later wrote a book on the same subject. Some of his books were translated into Latin in the l2th century by Gerard and Adelard. A book on algebra, Al-Maqala fi Hisab-al Jabr wa-al-Muqabalah and a treatises on Arithmetic Kitab al-Jam'a wal-Tafreeq bil Hisab al-Hind are available only from Latin translations. It was this later translation which introduced the new science to the West "unknown till then." These books were used until the sixteenth century as the main mathematical books in European universities. The astronomical tables which he prepared were also translated into Chinese and many other European languages.

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.

Maryam Mirzakhani

Maryam Mirzakhani is a well known mathematician. She is an Iranian professor at Stanford University in California in United States of America. Maryam Mirzakhani is the first female among the 56 winners of Fields Medal since it was established in 1936. The Fields Medal is often described as the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics. She became the first woman to ever win this medal.
Maryam Mirzakhani completed her doctoral thesis in 2004, in her research she  answered the question of developing a formula for 'how the number of simple geodesics of length L grows as L gets larger'. 


Along the way, she also built links to two other major research questions by solving both of them. One was related to a formula for the volume of the so-called “moduli” space — the set of all possible hyperbolic structures on a given surface and the second was a surprising new proof of an old conjecture proposed by famous physicist Edward Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, about certain topological measurements of moduli spaces related to string theory.

Maryam Mirzakhani is married to Jan Vondrák, a Czech theoretical computer scientist who works at IBM Almaden Research Center. They have a daughter named Anahita.

Dr. Ahmed Zewali

Ahmed Zewail is an Egyptian Scientist. He is known as father of Femtochemistry. He won Noble prize for Chemistry in 1999. Ahmed Zewail is the first originally Arab Muslim scientist to win Noble prize in a scientific field. He is presently working at California Institute of Technology.

After having his post doctorate activities and research activities at the University of California, Zewali was granted a position as a faculty at Caltech in the year 1976. Being a faculty member at Caltech he devoted his whole time and efforts as a researcher and by the year 1990, he was chosen and awarded the first ever Linus Pauling Chair Professor in Chemical Physics. It was in 1982 that Ahmed Zewail was vested and became a naturalized resident of the United States of America.

Because of his recognition  and huge achievements in chemical sciences and even in politics, he was rumored to contest for the general elections of Egypt in 2011 but he justified himself by announcing that he had no political agenda or ambitions. And further stated that all he wanted was to serve Egyptian nationals using Science as his armor and frankly voiced out that he prefer to die as a scientist and nothing else.

                             
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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.

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.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan is in the list of Pakistan's top scientists. He is  known as father of  Pakistan's nuclear programme. He is also the founding father of several engineering universities of Pakistan.

Qadeer Khan started his career as an inspector of weight and measures in Karachi just after his graduation. He later resigned from that post and in 1970s he went to work in Netherlands. He gained fame as an accomplished scientist at the nuclear site he worked in. He had special access to the most restricted areas of the URENCO plant.

After returning back to Pakistan, he started his work on building nuclear weapons for Pakistan. After his successful contribution in Pakistan’s nuclear program, he re-organized the Pakistan’s national space agency, SUPARCO. In the late 1990s, the Pakistan’s first Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project was completed under the leadership of Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Because of his uncountable contributions to the Nation of Pakistan, he is considered among the most reputed personalities of Pakistan.