Seven other siblings namely Nina, Sida, Nizar, Abdul Muthalib, Salwa and twin sister Ulfa and Latifah, were born in the village of Buton.

In 1967, he earned an LC (Bachelor's degree) from the Department of Tafsir and Hadith, the faculty of Islamic Theology in Al-Azhar University.

He continued his education at the same faculty in 1969 and earned master's degree in Tafseer of the Qur'an with the thesis entitled Al-I'jaz Tashri'i li Al-Qur-an Al-Karim.

[6] Upon returning to Makassar, Quraish served as the Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs at IAIN Alauddin, Ujung Pandang.

In 1982 he earned his doctorate in the sciences of the Qur'an with the dissertation studying the method of al-Biqa'i (al-Biqa'i is a scholar of exegesis from Damascus in the 15th century[7]) entitled The Research and Study of The Pearls System of al-Biqa'i ( Arabic: نظم الدرر للبقاعي – تحقيق ودراسة, romanized: Naẓami Al-Durar li al-Biqā'iy - tahqīq wa Dirāsah),[8] where he graduated summa cum laude with first class honors (Arabic: ممتاز مع مرتبة الشرف العول, romanized: Mumtāz ma'a Martabat al-Sharaf al-'Ula).

[15] Around the year 2006, he wrote a book titled "Jilbab Pakaian Wanita Muslimah" expressing his long held but controversial view that it is not obligatory for women to wear the hijab (veil), which clashed with opinions of many Islamic scholars.

In the book he concludes that the verses in the Quran related to women's clothing have various interpretations, and said the legal provisions on the tolerable limit of female's aurah is zhanniy or a conjecture.

[16] In the program Tafsir Al-Misbah[17] on Metro-TV broadcast on 12 July 2014, Quraish Shihab was accused of saying that Muhammad does not receive a guarantee from God to enter paradise.