Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood was born in London in 1942.She graduated from the University of Hull in 1963 with an honor's degree in Christian Theology and gained a DipEd in 1964. Maqsood was a convert to Islam from Christianity in 1986. She taught religious studies in the United Kingdom for more than thirty years. Prior to her retirement in 1996, she had been head of religious education at a Hull secondary school.