Mawlana Samir Syed Ali was born in New York, USA. Since the tender age of five, he has been a native of the Bay Area, Northern California (minus the years spent studying overseas). Mawlana Samir attained his high school diploma and finished a year of college, after which he went on to pursue the higher calling of sacred Islamic knowledge. Over the greater part of the next decade, Mawlana Samir engaged in a rigorous study of religious knowledge, studying under many esteemed scholars in South Africa. During this time, Mawlana Samir was granted numerous Ijāzāt (formal authorizations) in the Islamic sciences such as: Fiqh, Ḥadīth, ʿAqīdah, Tafsīr, Uṣūl, Arabic Grammar, Rhetoric, and Etymology, Spirituality, and more. In addition he was granted ijāzāt (certification) with isnād (a linked chain of the prophetic traditions from himself to the Prophet) in numerous books of hadith. He is currently involved in post-graduate specialization (iftā) work in Ḥanafi law. During a year of research in Islamic law, he also procured a Bachelors Honors degree from the University of South Africa in Islamic studies. Mawlana Samir is currently teaching at Darul Qasim while also doing research under the supervision of Shaykh Amin Kholwadia, amongst other responsibilities he fulfills on behalf of the Muslims in his community and at large. He currently resides in Fremont, California.