He has spent most of his life singing in Sufi shrines, and didn't produce a record until 2006, when he was nominated for the BBC World Music awards based on word of mouth.

[2][3] He emerged as the "best BBC voice of the year 2006",[4] Saieen is not his first name but a Punjabi and Sindhi honorific title and is also spelled as Sain, In the muslim society of Punjab it is often associated with people who have given up the worldly pleasures for a more spiritual lifestyle.

Born in Sulaimanki, a village near Haveli Lakha of Okara district in the province of Punjab, Zahoor Ahmad was the youngest child in a rural peasant family.

Sufi singing is focused on poetry with themes of devotional love, which shares much with Persian mystic poets like Rumi and with other South Asian traditions such as the Bhakti cult.

Some argue that Sufi traditions highlight a softer, multi-cultural aspect of Islam, which counters "the extremism of the mullahs who use the mosques to spread ill-will" against other cultural groups, according to some organizers of Saieen Zahoor's concerts.