[1][2] Mohamed Bachir El Ibrahimi was born on June 13, 1889 (14 Shawwal 1306 AH) in Ouled Brahem within the Arab tribe of Awlād Ibrāhīm, in a family descended from Muhammad, where he began his religious education by memorizing the Quran and studying some texts (moutoun) of Maliki jurisprudence (fiqh) with his father and uncle.

In the second holiest city in Islam, he studied Imam Malik's Muwatta and Maliki jurisprudence under the patronage of Sheikh Abdelaziz al-Tounissi, and Sahih Muslim under Hussain Ahmed Madani, a prominent figure in Deobandism and Indian nationalist activism.

In 1916, due to political unrest in the Hejaz (Arab revolt, siege of Medina), he moved to Damascus, where he continued his religious education at the Umayyad Mosque alongside scholars (ulema) Mohammed Al-Khidr Hussein, Djamal ad-Dine al-Qassimi, and Badreddine al-Hassani.

Upon his return to Algeria in 1920 (1338 AH), he worked on spreading reform (al-islah) and religious education in the city of Sétif, where he ran a mosque not affiliated with the French colonial authorities.

In 1924, his friend Abdelhamid Ben Badis, whom he met in Medina, proposed the idea of creating the Algerian reform movement (al-harakat al-islah al-djaza'iriyyah), which he enthusiastically accepted.