Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr., Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a well known basket ball player. Native to United States, he converted from Catholicism to Islam and took the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which means "noble, powerful servant.". Abdul-Jabbar was a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). He is also a best selling author. He wrote many books including his autobiography Giant Steps, 'On the Shoulders of Giants etc.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar started playing basket ball at a very early age. He guided his team to an astonishing 71 wins consecutively and three straight city titles also. His team was ranked at first spot by the National Sports Writers in 2001 and stated that Abdul Jabbar's team is number 1 High School Team of the Century. In 1974. He suffered a scratch on the cornea of his eye during a mid-game collision. Later he wore protective glasses during games to prevent further damage to his eye. He could be recognized easily in the court because of his protective goggles.

Jabbar was very popular as a college sports star, He was also an independent thinker, threading his way through the complex political and moral issues of the 1960s. Getting inspirations from the Autobiography of Malcolm X, he started studying Islam and later he eventually embraced it.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's retirement marked the end of an era for the NBA. Kareem left the game as the game's all-time high scorer, which no one ever be able to surpass, with 17,440 rebounds (11.2 rpg), .559 field-goal percentage, 3,189 blocks, and 38,387 points (24.6 ppg) from a career that lasted 20 years and 1,560 games. He scored in double figures in 787 straight games.

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.