About the Author Abdullah Yusuf Ali was born on 4 April 1872, in Surat, a textile town in Gujarat, Western India, which formed part of the Presidency of Mumbai in the days of Raj. He belonged to a mercantile community known as the Bohras, who trace their Muslim ancestry to the efforts of preachers dispatched by the Fatimid caliphs in Cairo. His father, a merchant, was a very religious man who made sure that his son learned Quran before anything else. Upon the completion of young Yusufs committing the entire Quran to memory, his father celebrated the occasion with a grand banquet, thus showing to his son the importance of his achievement and the importance of the Quran. In addition to studying contemporary knowledge at school, Abdullah continued to receive lessons in Arabic language and never ceased in his studies of the Quran.