Yasir al-Dawsari
Yasir ibn Rashid al-Dawsari is a Saudi Islamic scholar who has served as one of the imams of Masjid al-Haram since 2019. A khatib and qāriʾ, he led Taraweeh and Tahajjud prayers at Masjid al-Haram from 2015 and also served as the imam of several mosques in Riyadh since 1995.
Al-Dawsari was born in the Saudi governorate of al-Kharj, southeast of the capital, Riyadh. Al-Dawsari was a student of a group of 'ulama and sheikhs, including Abd al-Aziz Al al-Shaykh, Salih al-Fawzan, and Ibn Jibrin. He also learned qira'at with several shuyukh and qaris, including Bakri Al-Tarabichi and Ibrahim Al-Akhdar. Near the end of 2023, his four-year contract as imam expired, and he did not lead prayers at Masjid al-Haram for about five-and-a-half months. He has since been reappointed as an imam of Masjid al-Haram in Makkah.
Career
Imam of Masjid Al-Haram
On 29 Sha'ban 1436 H, King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued an order for Al-Dawsari to become one of the Imams of Taraweeh and Tahajjud at Masjid Al-Haram during Ramadan. He carried out that order for five years. On 13 Safar 1441 H, King Salman appointed Sheikh Yasser as a permanent imam at Masjid Al-Haram. Believed to be the youngest imam appointed at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, he led his first prayer in Masjid Al-Haram during the Maghrib and Isha prayers on Saturday, 13 October 2019.Apart from being an imam, Al-Dawsari has also been an adviser to General Presidency of Haramain since 2020. He was appointed for that position after Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais, Head of the General Presidency of Haramain, decided to reorganize the ranks of the advisory body of that government agency.