His father, Tahir Yıldırım, who was an imam, died when İzzettin was very young.
After completing his primary school education in his village, he studied at various madrasahs in various provinces.
In 1990, together with his close friends Zekeriya Özbek, Hüseyin Daşkın, Gıyaseddin Bingöl and Yasin Yıldırım, he founded the Zehra Education and Culture Foundation, known as Med-Zehra.
The body of İzzettin Yıldırım was found in a Hezbollah cell house in Ümraniye as part of the 2000 Istanbul raids.
The tens of thousands who attended the funeral demanded justice for his assassination.