Ali was born in
Murar,
Kapurthala State (now in
Ludhiana district,
Punjab, India) in 1874. He obtained a
Master of Arts in English and a
Bachelor of Laws in 1899. He joined the
Ahmadiyya Movement in 1897 and dedicated his life to the service of the movement as part of what he saw as a restored and pristine
Islam. He died in
Karachi on October 13, 1951, and is buried in
Lahore.
Marmaduke Pickthall, British Muslim and translator of the Quran into English, wrote a review of Muhammad Ali's book
The Religion of Islam when this book was published in 1936. The review was published in the journal
Islamic Culture of Hyderabad Deccan (India), whose editor was Pickthall. In this review Pickthall wrote: ==Works==