Born in Karsal, Chakwal District, he is one of the most prominent Sufis of the Qadiriyya order of the Islamic mysticism[3] Today, he is widely visited by Sunni Muslims who venerate saints, especially those in Pakistan and South Asia.

[4][5][1] The life of Bari Imam is known essentially through oral tradition and hagiographical booklets and celebrated in Qawwali songs of Indian and Pakistani Sufism.

[4] After their deaths, Bari Imam began wandering the forests of the Hazara district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where he spent twenty-four years as an ascetic.

[9] Bari Imam was renowned in his own life for being an ascetic who subjected himself to great self-humiliation in the public sphere, "living among the pariahs and consciously exposing himself to the disdain of the people.

"[4][10] A celebrated miracle worker, Bari Imam is also described in regional lore as one through whom God performed many marvels to convince the local people of the truth of Islam; thus, some of the most popular miracles ascribed to him are his having caused water to gush forth from rocks and his having brought back to life the dead water buffaloes of a peasant who had earlier provided the saint with milk during his ten years of spiritual seclusion.