Muhibbi was born in Damascus in 1651 to a scholarly family from the Hanafi madhhab, the Islamic school of law favored by the Ottoman state, which conquered the Levant in 1516.
His great-grandfather Muhibb al-Din Muhammad was originally from Hama and served as a qadi (judge) in several northern Syrian towns, Cairo and an instructor in Damascus.
[1][a] Muhibbi moved to Beirut when his father Fadlallah ibn Muhiballah was appointed the qadi (head judge) of the city, a position he held until 1669.
After making the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1690 he was appointed a deputy qadi in Damascus and worked as an instructor in the Aminiyya Madrasa.
[2] Having learned Turkish and Persian during his extensive time in Constantinople and Anatolia, he translated into Arabic numerous poems from the two languages.