Al-Qazwini was born in the city of Hofuf in 1949. In the late 1960's he moved to Iran where he studied at the University of Tehran where he was exposed to several prominent Iranian Islamists including Ruhollah Khomeini. Returning to Qatif in the early 1970's Al-Qazwini became a critic of Qatifi leader Mustafa al-Karim criticising his secular policies. The outbreak of the Qatifi Civil War saw Al-Qazwini help create the Union of Islamic Revolutionary Mujahideen, a Shia nationalist militia group that allied itself with the Qatifi government against the Islamic Liberation Army.