Ali's grandparents had immigrated to Trinidad from British-ruled Northern India as indentured laborers.
He was raised in the town of San Juan, which is located east of the capital city of Port of Spain.
Ali, who had studied such poets as Wordsworth, Chaucer and Shakespeare while in Trinidad, originally planned to become a medical doctor.
Ali enrolled at the University of Nebraska, but suffered a broken back as the result of a fall down an elevator shaft while at the school.
Following his recovery, Ali attended four separate universities before earning his bachelor's degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Due to Islamic prohibitions against consuming pork, Ben Ali never consumed some of his restaurant's popular offerings.