Imam John Yahya Ederer was born in Oklahoma City, U.S. and accepted Islam in 1998. In the summer of 2002, he accepted a scholarship offer from the Islamic American University (IAU) where he moved and studied for 3 years. The IAU also sponsored him for a year in Cairo, Egypt studying an intensive curriculum of the Arabic language as well as Qur'anic memorization and recitation. In his last few months in Egypt he was blessed with the opportunity to study in lectures held by various scholars in the grand mosque of al-Azhar.

In 2005 he was recruited by the Islam Presentation Committee in Kuwait to work as the head of the English Da'wa Department. While in Kuwait , he attained a diploma from the institute for Islamic Studies. In 2008, he finished his memorization of the Qur'an and attained an Ijazah that puts his name on a list of 29 other people who are in the chain of narration of the Qur'an based on memorization and recitation of the Qur'an by Hafs according to Asim by way of Tayyibah. Later, Imam Yahya served as an Imam in Florida. He is currently serving as an Imam in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.