Amr Khaled Biography

Amr Mohamed Helmi Khaled is an Egyptian preacher, television personality, and social activist who became one of the most widely watched Arabic-speaking religious broadcasters of the 2000s. Born in Alexandria on 5 September 1967 / 1387 AH, he trained as an accountant rather than at al-Azhar, graduating from Cairo University in 1988 and working for KPMG before turning to da'wah full-time in the late 1990s.

Khaled rose to prominence with a series of programs on the Saudi-owned Iqraa channel, addressing a young, middle-class Arab audience in colloquial Egyptian rather than the classical register typical of Azhari preachers. His shows — including Sunna' al-Hayah (Life Makers), Ala Khuta al-Habib, and the Ramadan series Qisas al-Anbiya — combined motivational themes with Qur'anic narratives and emphasized personal ethics, social development, and what he termed 'faith-based development.' In 2007 Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. He later relocated to Birmingham, UK, where he completed a doctorate in Islamic studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter in 2010.

Khaled's lay background and accessible style drew large youth audiences and equally large criticism: traditional scholars including Yusuf al-Qaradawi questioned his formal qualifications, while political commentators have debated his shifting public alignments through the 2011 Egyptian revolution and its aftermath. He has authored numerous books on the lives of the prophets, the Companions, and Qur'anic reflection, and continues to broadcast and write on themes of personal renewal and community service.