Muhammed Said Abdulla was born in historic Makunduchi, Zanzibar to a Muslim family in modern day Kusini District of Unguja South Region.

He received his secondary education at a missionary school, and after graduating in 1938, began working for the state Civil Health Department as an inspector.

In 1958, his fiction work Mzimu wa Watu wa Kale (Shrine of the Ancestors) won top honors at the Swahili Story-Writing Competition held by the East African Literature Bureau; in 1960, the work was published as a novel.

The novel was noted for breaking away from folktale traditions that were popular in Swahili literature at the time.

These plots usually involved a protagonist who must battle ignorance and superstition in order to resolve the conflict.