[6] Outside his militant activities he was also an author of what Praveen Swami calls "several best-selling dystopic jihadist fantasies that give fascinating glimpses into the inner world of Islamists", centered on a global conspiracy involving the Dajjal and Jews as well Islamic eschatology.

[7] He was born Sana-ul-Haq into an influential peasant family (his grandfather was a village pradhan, his grand uncle a freedom fighter and great-grandfather a district magistrate under the British rule),[8] between 1974-76 in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, India.

[10] Umar is said to have traveled to Afghanistan where he met Osama bin Laden, and later joined Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI), a Jihadist group with branches across the Indian Subcontinent.

[6] Umar's affiliation with Al-Qaeda was reportedly solidified after the Pakistani government's 2007 storming of the radical Lal Masjid seminary, resulting in the deaths of many militants.

[14][15] He wrote "a number of conspiracy theory books", centered around Islamic eschatology and the Dajjal, that he himself translated from Urdu into Arabic, Pashto and Uzbek languages, including:[16]