When he was around 3 or 4, in 1327 Hijri, his father Syed Abul Hasan Naqvi (Mumtaz al-ulama) took him and their family to Iraq.
In Iraq, at 7, Ali Naqvi's formal education began with Arabic and Persian grammar and basic learning of the Qur'an.
Those books were Rooh Aladab Sharah Alamiyatal Arab, Albait Al Mamoor Fi Emaratal Qubur, Faryaad e Musalmanane Aalam, and Altawae Haj Per Sharaee Nuqtae Nazar Se Bahas.
In 1932 Naqvi returned to India and in 1933 he was appointed a professor in the Oriental College Department of Lucknow University, where he taught Arabic and Persian for over two decades.
From 1972 to 1975 Naqvi was given a research professorship through the University Grants Commission (UGC) and he stayed permanently in Aligarh.
Naqvi's many works include: He was opposed by some members of the Shia community for sections in the book Shaheed-e-insaniyat which mentioned the presence of water in the tents of Husayn ibn Ali during the Battle of Karbala and also threw doubt the martyrdom of Ali Asghar by the arrow of Hurmula.
Their purpose was to review, compile, edit and finally present a book on Karbala which could be acceptable to an international inter-sect readers group.
Contributions from many of these men were then compiled in a book form by Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Naqi Naqvi.
His son, Professor Syed Ali Mohammad Naqavi was the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Aligarh Muslim University, a position previously held by his uncle.