Shaykh Hamid Waqar was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and converted to Islam at the age of sixteen. He started his Islamic studies in the year 2001 in Beirut and, a year later, moved to Qum where he has been studying since. He currently studies at the highest levels of Islamic jurisprudence, translates many books and runs the Muntazar website.

Hamid Mavani is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Bayan Claremont Islamic Graduate School / Claremont School of Theology, in California. His expertise in Islamic Studies stems from both academic training at Universities as well as specialized theological training at the traditional seminaries in the Muslim world. His primary fields of interest include Islamic legal theory, women and Shi‘i law, Islamic theology and political thought, Islam and secularity, intra-Muslim discourse, and environmental ethics.