Al-Sālimī was born near Rustaq, in al-Ḥawqayn, and was at first educated mainly by his father, followed by tuition by various Omani scholars, gaining particular expertise in Ibāḍī Islam.
[1][2] Al-Sālimī's life was characterised by his work to re-establish the Imamate of Oman, which had been replaced under British imperial influence by the Albusaidi Sultans of Muscat.
Al-Sālimī's teachers included men who had secured the election of Oman's only Imām of the nineteenth century, ʿAzzān ibn Qays (reigned 1868–71).
The two had fallen into a dispute because al-Sālimī had tried to appropriate charitable endowments intended for visiting graves and reading the Qurʾān for the dead to fund the campaign to re-establish the imamate.
[2]: xxxix Al-Sālimī composed at least twenty-two works, including Talqīn al-ṣibyān, a book of instruction for children in Ibāḍī religion.