The school of Al-Azhar Seni Bela Diri (ASBD) was founded in 1970 by the late Kak Yon. He was a native of East Java who moved to the capital city of Jakarta hoping to open a martial arts school. The opportunity was given at a well-known mosque called "Al-Azhar." However, when he was given permission to start classes he was told he could not use the name of his previous school, "Tapak-Suci", and thus adopted the name "Al-Azhar".

Al-Azhar consists of many systems of pencak silat and other various martial arts. The main systems of Al-Azhar come from East Javanese pencak silat. Yon's first pupils were from other systems of martial arts, but simply wanted to learn something new. From this point, Yon and his students began incorporating various forms and techniques. By mixing techniques and fighting styles, they had developed a more modernized form of pencak silat. They individualized Al-Azhar into its own unique style of pencak silat, thus losing any claim to the name Tapak-Suci.

The Al-Azhar branch in Washington, D.C. was unofficially opened in 1980, by Sentosa (Ocenk) Basri and Tony Makmum with assistance from Ocenk's brother, Sudiaman Basri. The Washington, D.C. branch was officially opened at the Indonesian Embassy in 1982. The head instructor of the Washington, D.C. branch has changed over time. Yet through contributions of their time and the benefactors of their tutelage, the branch is always maintained. To date, the Washington, D.C. branch of Al-Azhar has produced instructors whose accomplishments have ranged from National rankings in forms, fighting and weapons to leading as captain of the U.S. Naval martial arts team, in Annapolis, Maryland. The Washington, D.C. branch of Al-Azhar has been a non-profit organization since it was opened, lending itself to the pursuit of tutelage rather than monetary gain. Presently (2007) the school continues to hold weekly classes under Abdul-Malik Ahmad, Terra Kurnia and Wona Sumantri as Head instructor.