KH. Abdullah Gymnastiar

      Abdullah Gymnastiar, more commonly known as Aa Gym (Elder Brother Gym), was for a long time Indonesia’s most popular preacher. With his style of modern, youthful, enjoyable preaching, he built a substantial following and a large media empire. His regular audience boasted over 80 million Indonesians and had an approval rating that peaked at 91%, leading to Gymnastiar being courted by several political parties as a potential vice president nominee. In 2006, Gym announced a polygamous marriage and immediately saw a huge backlash from his mainly female audience: his ratings dropped and his commercial enterprises took a huge hit. Over the past several years, Gymnastiar has been slowly regaining his popularity using his unique preacher/performer style: he is an attractive, funny, and charismatic man who tells engaging stories and sings nasheeds (religious songs). He has over 14 million fans on social media.

      Kyai Haji Abdullah Gymnastiar, the charismatic television preacher known affectionately as Aa Gym, captured the hearts of millions of Indonesians with his humorous sermons, trademark sorban (turban) and self-help message of ‘Manajemen Qolbu’ (Managing the Heart). He transformed himself into a religious celebrity, Indonesian icon, and Islamic name brand. Millions of viewers watched his weekly television shows; hundreds of thousands made pilgrimages to his Islamic school; and politicians of all leanings lined up for photo-ops during campaign season.
In 2006, several political parties quietly courted Gymnastiar to run as their vice presidential candidate in 2009. According to their polling data, Gymnastiar was the most adored Indonesian, with a 91 per cent national approval rating that traversed political, economic and religious divides. These ratings trumped current president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and far exceeded other pop culture icons of Islam. Then, at the pinnacle of his public adoration, Gymnastiar took the path of polygamy. Everything changed. Heartbroken and betrayed, his followers staged a backlash and the event became a national scandal. Infotainment shows and gossip magazines circulated stories of female followers who shredded his pictures, boycotted his television shows, and cancelled weekend pilgrimages to his Islamic school and ‘spiritual tourism’ complex, Daarut Tauhiid (DT). Pressured by hundreds of protest text messages, SBY ordered a review of the national marriage law. Gymnastiar lost his pending television contracts; his business empire started to crumble, and DT became a ghost town.

Early life

Gymnastiar was born as one of four children, and he had worked from the ground up such as selling newspapers and driving public transportation to self-finance while attending the after schooling in electrical engineering before turning into an entrepreneur.His ability to appear in public was also honed as a debater at his university.

During the 80s, under the guidance of Jujun Junaedi in Garut, West Java, he deepened the spiritual understanding of laduni (science without learning process). In 1982, he became the Commander of the Student Regiment at the General Achmad Yani Academy of Engineering. In 1987, he and his friends joined the Family of Muslim Student Entrepreneurs (KMIW), an institution pioneered in the entrepreneurial business in small business fields such as sticker making, shirts, key chains, and stationery with religious slogans.

Career

In 1990, he founded Pondok Pesantren Da’arut Tauhiid (DT) through KMIW at Gymnastiar’s parents’ house which then moved to Gegerkalong Girang street, equipped with a 20-unit cabin and financed directly by its owner at Rp 100 million. The establishment of DT was inspired by the success of the Al-Arqam movement in Malaysia which became influential by meeting the needs of daily lives in an Islamic way. The difference between Al-Arqam and DT is the lesser exclusivity of DT and its availability to the public. In 1993, Pondok Pesantren Da’arut Tauhiid Foundation was built with a three-story building, which is used for the business activity. In 1994, Gymnastiar established Cooperative Pondok Pesantren (Kopontren) DT to prop up his dawah. In 1995, about 50 meters from the mosque, a pilgrim bought a plot of land along with its building which was then used as the foundation’s office, the residence of the cottage leader, kindergartens, meeting room, convention center, warehouse, and the dormitory for santris (student of pesantren). At the end of 1997, the four-story Kopontren Building across the mosque was built and used for Baitul Mal wat-Tamwil (BMT) offices for staff training and printing, supermarkets and mini markets, telecommunication stalls, and others.

In 2000, after the incorporation of radio broadcasting among DT in 1999, Gymnastiar began performing preaching on National TV. He became one of the permanent performers in the program Hikmah Fajar on RCTI. In 2001, Gymnastiar owned an independent program under a series of programs entitled Manajemen Qolbu (lit: Heart Management). In 2004, Gymnastiar presented a political theme titled Ada Aa Gym on RCTI in relations with the 2004 presidential election. During this time, Gymnastiar had 15 publishing businesses that have published 32 titles of books and dozens of tapes and CDs as a medium for dawah. He was also recorded receiving 1,200 invitations to be a speaker every month. Other businesses that he owned are radio broadcasting, mini-television studios, and other media businesses including offices of websites, supermarket co-operatives, mosques and boarding schools with a capacity of 500 students, two orphanages, a stopover house for visiting pockets and the holding of seminars, management training seminars.

In 2006, during the anti-pornography protests in Indonesia over publication of the inaugural Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine, he called for an anti-pornography legislation and embarked on a mission to shroud the state with a sense of shame saying, “the more shameful, the more faithful.” Eventually in December 2008, Indonesian lawmakers signed an anti-pornography bill into law.

At the peak, he had a substantial number of followers, with several political parties nominating him as vice-president nominee and this scored approval rating of 91%. His media enterprise had regular audience of more than 80 million people. Ulil Abshar Abdalla of the Liberal Islam Network once called him a “Britney Spears in Islam”. Time magazine once questioned whether he was merely a businessman who used religion as a means of profit. However, Solahuddin Wahid of Nahdlatul Ulama argued that Gymnastiar’s strength lies in its sincerity. In 2017, he was listed on the 500 Most Influential Muslims list.

Controversy
Polygamy

In December 2006, Gymnastiar held a press conference announcing his polygamous marriage to a widow with three children who was a former model, Alfarini Eridani as his second wife. He stated that this polygamy was done as an emergency exit, yet it was mocked and faced the extensive protest by the public and his fans, among them quoting Gymnastiar’s past statement of not advocating for polygamy. In the same month, the study program by Gymnastiar began to be deserted by visitors, and the two-story mosque was only partially filled. In May 2007, due to decreasing visitors at Pondok Pesantren Da’arut Tauhiid, the pesantren began to reduce its employees. Visits shrunk to 70 percent which affected operational costs, thus as many as 300 employees with casual employment and a total of about 40 percent of employees were laid off.

In December 2010, Gymnastiar’s first wife sued for divorce in the religious court. The divorce request was then officially granted in June 2011. In March 2012, the media reported that Gymnastiar reconciled with a reception at the home of his former first wife in the Sariwangi area of Bandung. In this event, Muhsin, the parents of Teh Nini who became his guardian after asking for permission from the religious court, also submitted the mandatory payment (mahr) of Rp. 5 million.

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