According to Idris he graduated from high school in 1996, and then attended Sanaa University for two years.[4] After he dropped out he worked for Yemen's Ministry of Agriculture. Idris says an imam at the al-Khayr Mosque in Sanaa convinced him to travel to Afghanistan to teach the Quran in 1999. Idris says he did travel to Afghanistan, and spent eight months teaching the Quran at the al Raham Mosque in Kandahar.