Shamil Rifatovich Alyautdinov was born in January 1974 in Moscow. A descendant of the Chembiley village located in the Krasnooktyabrsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Shamil is an ethnic Tatar. He graduated from the International Islamic Academy and Islamic Law faculty of "Al-Azhar" (Egypt) University.

Since 1991 Shamil Alyautdinov has been officially working in the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of European Russia (SDMER).

Since 1997 he has also been the preacher (Imam-Khatib) of the Moscow Memorial mosque located on Worshipful Submission Hill (Poklonnaya Gora). In 2002 he was appointed as a deputy mufti of SDMER responsible for religious matters and in 2005 as the head of the scientific and theological council of SDMER.

Shamil Alyautdinov is the author of numerous articles and books regarding Islam, some of which have become bestsellers. He is the author and leader of the "umma.ru" project, a popular site on the Russian internet.

Russian and foreign media often refer to Shamil Alyautdinov for his expert opinion on modern Islam and related subjects - he has been interviewed more than 200 times.