[1][2] Hakim Ahmad Shuja was born in an old and prominent family of mystics and Islamic religious scholars, who had migrated from Arabia,[dubious – discuss] Afghanistan and Turkey to India during the 10th-12th centuries AD.
[6] Ahmad Shuja's father, Hakim Shuja-ed-din, was a Sufi mystic of the Chishtiya order and one of the early pioneers of the Urdu literary press in Lahore, bringing out the famous Shor-i-Mahshar journal and participating actively in the work of the Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam and Anjuman i Punjab associations.
[1][3] For some time, Ahmad Shuja then worked as a lecturer at the Osmania University in Hyderabad state (Deccan) but was not happy and returned to Lahore to seek employment there.
Hakim Ahmad Shuja was a very prolific and versatile writer indeed, producing several collections of Urdu and Persian poetry, countless essays and belles-lettres published in newspapers and journals throughout India (and later Pakistan), one of the earliest translations of the Quran in Punjabi language, several dramatic works in collaboration with Imtiaz Ali Taj, Agha Hashar Kashmiri and other theatrical producers, and, later on, screenplays and lyrics for the early Indo-Pakistan cinema.
However, his fame today rests chiefly on these noted works: "Lahore ka Chelsea" (1967; 1989 reprint), a collection of memoirs of Old Lahore;[9] "Khoon-Baha" (1962), some of his other personal memoirs; "Gard-i-Karvan" (1950s; reprint 1960), a collection of poems and essays in praise of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the 'Ahl i Bayt' (members of the Prophet's family) as exemplars of the 'Ideal' Muslim character; and his lovely, lyrical poems, some of which were later successfully adapted for film songs.