Abul Fazl was born in 1865 to a Bengali Shi'ite family of Mirzas in eastern Bengal (now Bangladesh) whose ancestors had migrated from Shiraz, Persia.
On the basis of distinctions received during the course of his education, he secured a scholarship to study in Berlin, Germany in c. 1893 where he completed his MA and PhD degrees in Sanskrit.
As in the case of studying other sacred scriptures he tried to delve deep into the true spirit of the Qur'an directly from original text.
He would be in touch with members of both high and middle class society, in connection with treatment and remedy of ailments.
He started making an Arabic-Urdu dictionary of Qur'anic words which is very comprehensive under the title of Gharib ul Quran, with explanatory notes.
Hashim Amir Ali, dean of agriculture at Osmania University, Hyderabad, was his disciple of prodigious caliber.