The speaker, Yair Qadhi, was born in Houston, Texas. After completing a B.S.c in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston, he left to study Islam at the Islamic University of Madinah. There, he finished his second bachelors degree, specialising in the science of Hadeeth, and then went on to complete a Master from the same University, specialising in Islamic Theology ('aqeedah'). Presently he is completing a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Yale University. He has ijaazahs in various recitations of the Quran, and in the books of hadeeth.