Sheikh Jehad Muhammad Wassef Ismail was born in a Sunni household in Kuwait in 1964. He moved to Australia at the age of 14 where he completed his BA in Interpreting and Translation. He then decided to pursue his religious education at Al-Azhar University in Egypt. But then he met Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Kashif Al-Ghita’ and became Shi’a and subsequently went to Qom to pursue his Islamic Studies.

Syed Abul A'la Mawdudi Chishti (Urdu: ابو الاعلی مودودی‬‎ – alternative spellings of last name Maududi, Maudoodi, also known as Abul Ala Maududi; 25 September 1903 – 22 September 1979) was a Pakistani Muslim philosopher, jurist, journalist and imam.