Syed Ali Zaheer was born into a lower middle-class family of Hyderabad to Syed Mohammad Hussain and Tayyaba Begum. His Father Syed Mohammad Hussain was a Mathematician and made most of his living running a tuition centre named “Idairaa”, He finally retired as the District Education Officer of Hyderabad. Soon after his father’s death, Syed ali zaheer found his entire family slipping into disintegrating poverty.  Syed Ali Zaheer made good of his education and dedicated his young days pulling his brothers and sisters from the brink of poverty by working hard, where ever he found work.  

He eventually married Fouzia Begum in 1972. and they had three children, two daughters and a son (Ainulvara, Zainulvara and Mohammad). He lived with them throughout his life, or as much as he was able to. He did his best to bring up his children with modern and progressive ideas while never denying them of the Islamic spiritual heritage which remained the base for all of his endeavours.

Education: Finished his schooling and matriculation from Alia Public School, Basheerbagh, Hyderabad. Joined Civil Engineering course in Osmania University and passed first division in 1970.

Career: Syed Ali Zaheer worked and lived as an engineer in Iran from 1975 to 1979. From there on he moved to Libya for a year in 1980. He moved back from the Gulf and set up his own small business in Hyderabad and made a living there until he left for Dubai again in 1993 only to return for good in 2001. He finally retired after serving for National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) as the regional head for South India from 2007 to 2009.

Literary Influences: Syed Ali Zaheer had a literary bent of mind from an early age. He began reading Afsanas and ghazals from his matriculation days. When he joined engineering college he got exposed to a plethora of writers, thinkers and philosophers (Western and Eastern). Some of his favourite poets were Mir Taqi Mir, Hafiz e Shirazi, Mirza Ghalib, Mualana Rum, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and Maqdoom Mohiuddin. He was initially part of the Progressive Writers Association and would frequently travel to Bombay attending meetings and have lengthy discussion with Ismat Aapa and others. He along with some of his other poet friends finally fell out with PWA and developed their own style of poetry writing. This came to be the post-modern trend of Urdu poetry in Hyderabad which unwittingly corresponded with the larger all India trend in Urdu poetry.