Hilmo Neimarlija was born on August 2, 1950 in Ričica near Kakanj. He graduated from Gazi Husrev-beg’s Madrasa and studied Sociology at the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo. He received his Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo.

Upon completion of his studies, he was selected as an Assistant Professor at the College of Philosophy at the Faculty of Political Science. With the inauguration of the Islamic Faculty of Theology in 1977, he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in the disciplines Introduction to Sociology and the History of Philosophy. With the beginning of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina he ceased his teaching work and focused on taking on responsibilities in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s defense and political and social opposition to aggression.

He was a member of the Initiative Committee and the Main Committee of the Cultural Society “Preporod” and the Executive Committee of the Party of Democratic Action (“Stranka demokratske akcije”). He was twice elected Speaker of the Assembly of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in that capacity he participated in the drafting of the current Constitution of the Islamic Community as one of the two co-authors. From 1998 to 2010, he served in the House of Representatives and as a delegate in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He was chairman of the Managing Board of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences, the 2013 Census Foundation “Popis 2013” and the Managing Board of the Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals.

He edited “Takvim” and editions of the “Udruženje ilmije u Bosni i Hercegovini” Association in Bosnia and Herzegovina, served as editor-in-chief of the Islamic Community Publishing and was a member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the Islamic Theological Faculty and the Gazette of the Supreme Islamic Eldership of the Islamic Community in the SFRY. He was elected editor and editor-in-chief of “Preporod”. As editor-in-chief of “Preporod” in 1979, he was the actor in the first public debate of one official in the Islamic community with senior political representatives of the socialist government.

He has been retired since December 2015. He is the Chairman of the Managing Board of the Gazi Husrev-beg Library in Sarajevo.