[3] Mohamed Yusuf belonged to a Kutchi Memon family which trace his roots to modern Gujarat, and was the only son of Haji Ismail Hasham.
The Bombay Steam Navigation Company was engaged in trade along the Konkan coast, and Mohammed Yusuf helped his father expand these activities.
In 1910, he obtained Nhava island and subsequently estates in Jogeshwari (Mumbai) from the then British Indian government, on a 999-year lease and established a nautical college (Training Ship Rahaman – 1910), girls' school, dispensary and an educational institute (Ismail Yusuf college – 1923).
[5] He supported the swadeshi movement; was a patron of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and was a close friend of its founder Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar.
He also collected many books in English, Persian and Urdu on philosophy, literature and the arts in English, Persian and Urdu — Mohamed Yusuf was married to Khatun Marium and the couple had two sons of whom Abdul Rahaman Yusuf (Sindhi: عبدالرحمان يوسف) was the eldest.