[1][2] Popularly known as "Ainee Apa" among her friends and admirers, she was the daughter of writer and pioneer of Urdu short story writing Syed Sajjad Haider Yaldram (1880–1943).

[citation needed] A prolific writer (she began to write at the young age of 11), her literary works include some 12 novels and novellas and four collections of short stories.

[8] Aag Ka Dariya (River of Fire), her magnum opus, is a landmark novel that explores the vast sweep of time and history.

It tells a story that moves from the fourth century BC to the post-Independence period in India and Pakistan, pausing at the many crucial epochs of history.

Aamer Hussein in The Times Literary Supplement wrote that River of Fire is to Urdu fiction what One Hundred Years of Solitude is to Hispanic literature.

"[9] Kamil Ahsan in The Nation wrote: "River of Fire tells a completist and syncretistic version of 2,500 years of history in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh—beginning with the Nanda Dynasty on the brink of defeat by the founder of the Mauryan Empire (323 to 185 BCE), and ending in post-Partition despair.”[7] Her other published works include: Mere Bhi Sanam Khane, 1949; Safina-e-Gham-e-Dil, 1952; Patjhar ki Awaz (The Voice of Autumn), 1965; Raushni ki Raftar (The Speed of Light), 1982; the short novel Chaye ke Bagh (Tea Plantations), 1965 (one of four novellas including Dilruba, Sita Haran, Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Na Kijo, exploring gender injustice) ; and the family chronicle Kar-e-Jahan Daraz Hai (The Work of the World Goes On),[citation needed] as well as "Gardish-e-Rang-e-Chaman" ( a voluminous documentary novel on the post-1857 tragedy befalling women of respectable families), "Aakhir-e-Shab kay Hamsafar" (a novel on the Naxalite Movement and Bengal unrest), "Chandni Begum" (a novel on the general social condition of Muslims forty years into Partition).

[citation needed] Her first short story, Bi-Chuhiya (Little Miss Mouse), was published in children's magazine Phool and at the age of nineteen she wrote her first novel " Mayray Bhee Sanam khanay ".

Many of the techniques which she introduced in the 1950s have been borrowed by later writers whose ambitious reworkings of history have brought Indian literature so much acclaim [10] She received the Jnanpith Award in 1989 for her novel Aakhir-e-Shab ke Hamsafar (Travellers Unto the Night).

She won Sahitya Akademi Award for her collection of short stories Patjhar ki Awaz (The Sound of Falling Leaves) in 1967.