[citation needed] Azmi's father Muhammad Shafi was a deeply religious man.
[citation needed] Azmi matriculated from Shibli National High School in Azamgarh in 1945.
[citation needed] In 1952 he became a Lecturer in Aligarh Muslim University's Department of Urdu.
[citation needed] He started writing during his early school days and composed poems for Payami taleem, a children's literary magazine.
[citation needed] Proficient in both prose and poetry, he was one of the pioneers of Modernism in Urdu and was also aligned with the Progressive Writers Movement.