The first King Faisal Prize was awarded to the Pakistani scholar Abul A'la Maududi in 1979 for his service to Islam.

[3] Islamic institutions, universities and previous winners of the King Faisal Prize can nominate a person for the award.

For other Prize categories, pre-selection by peer reviewers is carried out, which is followed by scrutiny of the works of worthy nominees by selected referees of each discipline.

Autonomous, international, specialist selection committees are then convened at the headquarters of King Faisal Foundation in Riyadh each January to make their final decisions.

[3] The five countries with most award-winners included 2025 were:[10][needs update] Sydney Brenner was considered to be the first Jew to win the King Faisal Award, in 1992.