Yazid bin Abdul Qadir Jawas (1963 â 11 July 2024) was an Indonesian Salafi scholar and writer. He is also known for writing many religious Islamic books in Indonesian. His lectures which are considered controversial make Yazid often receive criticism from a number of Indonesian Muslims.
Yazid studied at LIPIA, then he continued his education at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. He studied under Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymin and .
Yazid started his career as a lecturer around the 1990s with other LIPIA alumni. He is also one of the caretakers of the al-Irsyad Islamic Boarding School in Salatiga, Central Java. He was also involved in the founding of Radio Rodja, a Salafi radio station in Indonesia. He was also a regular contributor of the Radio platform. He has written Islamic religious books in Indonesian.
Yazid founded the Minhajus Sunnah Islamic boarding school in Bogor Regency.
According to his own admission, Yazid came into dispute with Jafar Umar Thalib, another Indonesian cleric, when Maluku sectarian conflict broke out in 1999. The dispute came out because Yazid has chosen the more moderate approach and appeal to the authority under Abdurrahman Wahid, the president of Government of Indonesia to manage the conflict; whereas Jafar has chosen the radical approach by founding Laskar Jihad paramilitary armed group to intervene the Maluku conflict without permission from the government. Yazid said he took this stance after he consulted with his teacher in Saudi, Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymin, who opposed the stance of Jafar who ignored the government authority.
Since the 2000s, Yazid has become a phenomenal Salafi preacher as a result of his harsh views on heresy and his criticism of Sufism in Indonesia.
Yazid died on July 11, 2024 after falling ill during a pilgrimage to Mecca. He was 61, and was buried in Bogor. Yazid's death caused grief for the Salafi community in Indonesia; Khalid Basalamah, one of Indonesia's leading Salafi preachers then expressed his condolences to Yazid in one of his lectures. Other preachers including Abdul Somad, Muflih Safitra, , Adi Hidayat, and also expressed their condolences and prayers for him.
Yazid was accused of being a follower of Wahhabism, a teaching of Islamism from Saudi Arabia that is considered "puritanical and harsh" by traditional Indonesian Muslims, as a result of Yazid's rejection of the attitude of taqlid which he considered "damaging". Even so, a group of Muslims also praised Yazid and called him someone who was "intelligent" and "highly knowledgeable".
One of his books, Mulia dengan Manhaj Salaf, had sparked controversy in Indonesia. Founder of Islamic Defenders Front and Indonesian Islamic preacher, Rizieq Shihab criticized the book. Rizieq Shihab also stated that Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, as countries whose populations are predominantly Ash'ari, must also have laws prohibiting the spread of Wahhabism.
Yazid wrote many books which mainly focusing on Islamic teachings, among his works were: