Dr. Zakir A. Naik

Zakir Naik attended St. Peter’s High School in Mumbai and the Kishinchand Chellaram College before joining Topiwala National Medical College and Nair Hospital and the University of Mumbai, attaining his bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery (MBBS). He is a renowned non-Arabic Islamic scholar, public orator, and an acclaimed authority on comparative religion. Dr. Zakir Naik is the President of the Islamic Research Foundation in India.

Dr. Naik’s dedicated efforts in the field of Islamic Dawah (Call) date back to 1991, when he established and led the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) of India. He then founded the Islamic International School in Mumbai and the United Islamic Aid, which provides scholarship to poor and destitute Muslim youth. Another significant achievement of Dr. Naik was establishing Al-Salam television channel (Peace TV), the only channel in the world specialized in comparative religion. Naik’s vast religious knowledge is not limited to one faith but to several other religions. He has even established a specialized organization for comparative religious studies and organized several training courses for scholars of this field worldwide.

Many of Dr. Naik’s lectures and debates are recorded and widely distributed in video and DVD media, booklets, and online. His talks are also broadcast on cable networks in Mumbai’s Muslim areas, and on the Peace TV channel. Topics he speaks on include: “Islam and Modern Science”, “Islam and Christianity”, and “Islam and secularism”. Many of his speeches and debates have also focused on correcting misconceptions about Islam in the minds of some Muslim youth. He exerted strenuous efforts to counter anti-Islamic sentiment in the Western media following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Not only did he emphasize that Islam is a religion of reason and logic, but also that the Holy Quran contains hundreds of verses relating to science. His passionate defense of Islam has contributed to the conversion of about 34,000 Americans to Islam from September 2001 to July 2002.

Dr. Naik’s remarkable accomplishments have been recognized by prestigious awards and honors. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree (Doctor of Humane Letters) by the University of the Gambia. In 2013, the Malaysian Head of State presented him with the Distinguished International Personality Award. In the same year, he received the Al-Sharjah Award for Voluntary Work from the Ruler of Al-Sharjah, and the 2013 Islamic Personality Award for World Peace from the Ruler of Dubai. In 2014, the President of Gambia awarded him the Insignia of the Commander of the National Order of the Republic of Gambia.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.