His father Sulaiman bin Abd al-Razzaq was a commissioned officer in the Hyderabad State Forces.
[2] He was editor and publisher of Saba (The Breeze), an Urdu literary magazine established in 1955.
It played an important role in popularizing modern literary trends and concepts.
[3][4] Areeb was an active member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and champion of the Progressive Writers Movement.
He strongly supported the Telangana Peasants' Revolt along with other progressive Urdu writers of Hyderabad in order to give equality and civil rights to the native Hindu population and end the discrimination and oppression perpetrated by the Muslims.