[2][3] After his father's death circa 1921, when he was two, his family was advised by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to move to Haifa, Israel, where he grew up.
[2][3] In 1939 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction from the American University of Beirut, and then in the early 1940s he returned to Iran, residing first in Tehran, then Tabriz and finally in Shiraz.
[2] In 1951, Ali Nakhjavání and his family moved to Uganda to assist with the development of the Baháʼí community in that country;[4] while he was there he worked as a teacher and lecturer.
[2] In 1963 he was elected to the Universal House of Justice during its inaugural convention, and served as a member of that body until 2003.
[2] Nakhjavání wrote many works that were published in Baháʼí periodicals, as well as authoring three books: