[7][8] Abdul Somad was born on 18 May 1977 in Silo Lama, a village in Asahan Regency, North Sumatra, as the son of Bakhtiar and Rohana.

[9][10] From the mother's side, he is descended from Sheikh Abdurrahman, nicknamed Tuan Syekh Silau Laut I, a Sufi scholar of the Shattari Order who was born in Rao, Batu Bara.

[13] Abdul Somad rose to prominence primarily due to YouTube and social media in a time of rapid growing internet users in Indonesia.

The video went viral in March 2018 with many online mocking the preacher for being hypocritical, noting that many of the platforms that Somad uses to spread his message such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have similar pro-LGBT policies like Starbucks.

[23] After the pandemic entered Indonesia, and some of the Muslims living there caught the disease and died because of it, including Tengku Zulkarnain, an Indonesian Islamic scholar who Somad considered as his teacher,[24] Somad changed his stance, claiming that every Muslim who dies due to the pandemic are considered Shahid,[25] and asserted that his previous claim that said the virus is the "soldier of Allah" is just of one of the many interpretations, and it would be wrong if people think that it is just the only interpretation.

Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cited his past "extremist and segregationist" preachings as the reason for the government's refusal to let him enter the country.

He added, "In the future, God willing, the time will come, perhaps in the era of our grandchildren, the ones who will be in power are the Malays and that country shall be conquered back, so they will feel the pain, impudent!