Both studied the books of hadith under Shah Abdul Ghani Mujaddidi and later became Sufi disciples of Haji Imdadullah.

[9][2] In the introduction to al-Kawkab ad-Durri he is mentioned as "Mawlānā Abī Mas‘ūd Rashīd Aḥmad al-Anṣārī al-Ayyūbī al-Kankawhī al-Ḥanafī al-Jishtī an-Naqshbandī al-Qādirī as-Suhrawardī".

[8] Both his father Maulana Hidayat Ahmad and his mother Karimun Nisa belonged to Ansari Ayyubi families, claiming descent from Abu Ayyub al-Ansari RadiAllahu 'anhu.

[8] Hidayat Ahmad was an Islamic scholar connected to the Waliullahi tradition,[8] and in tasawwuf (Sufism) an authorized khalifah (successor) of Shah Ghulam Ali Mujaddidi Dihlawi.

After the death of Hidayat Ahmad, the responsibility for Rashid's upbringing fell to his grandfather Qazi Pir Bakhsh.

[citation needed] He also had a close friendship with his younger cousin, Abun Nasr, son of Abdul Ghani's.

[citation needed] Rashid Ahmad received his elementary education from a local teacher, Miyanji Qutb Bakhsh Gangohi.

[8] Afterwards he studied the primary books of Arabic grammar (sarf and nahw) with Muhammad Bakhsh Rampuri,[8][9] on whose encouragement he then traveled to Delhi in pursuit of knowledge in 1261 AH (1845), at the age of 17.

[8][9][2] Afterwards he attended the classes of different teachers before becoming a pupil of Mamluk Ali Nanautawi, a scholar of the Shah Waliullah line, and a professor at Delhi College.

It was in this period that Rashid Ahmad met and developed a close companionship with Mamluk Ali's nephew, Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi.

[citation needed] Alongside Muhammad Qasim Nanautvi, Gangohi's efforts were instrumental in fostering a transnational, pan-Islamic consciousness in the subcontinent amongst the educated middle classes; during an era of increasing connectivity and arrival of new technologies of communication.