Sayeed was born on 12 January 1936, in Bijbehara, Anantnag district, then part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, British India, into a Kashmiri Shia Muslim clerical family.

He completed his basic studies in Srinagar and earned his law and postgraduate degree in Arabic from Aligarh Muslim University before entering politics.

[13] In 1987, he quit the Congress party to join V. P. Singh's Jan Morcha, which led to him becoming the first Muslim minister for Home Affairs in the Union Cabinet of India for one year, from 1989 to 1990.

He went on to form a coalition government with the Indian National Congress, and was sworn in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir for a term of three years.

[17] It was under his tenure which coincided with the peace process led by Indian prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh and Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, with LOC opened for trade and bus service.

[18] In the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, the PDP emerged as the single largest party, though it fell short of a majority.

Following a coalition agreement between the BJP and the PDP, Sayeed started his second tenure as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir in 2015.

He died on 7 January 2016 due to multi-organ failure[24][25] at about 7:30, according to provincial Education Minister and PDP Spokesman Nayeem Akhter.