He used the takhallus (nom de plume) of Zia meaning "Light" on the suggestion of his teacher, Ghulaam Qadir Farkh Amritsari.

He was the eldest son of Munshi Ram Soni (1884–1968), a Civil Engineer by profession, who belonged to the Soni (Khatri) family of Kapila Gotra[2] that at some time during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, had migrated from Rajasthan to Punjab and settled at Fatehabad, Punjab near Tarn Taran[3] Zia Fatehabadi's father was an exponent of Indian Classical vocal and instrumental music, who often invited musicians and singers to his residence, was himself fond of singing and playing musical instruments, and a good player of chess.

[7] Zia Fatehabadi had started composing Urdu sh'ers and ghazals at an early age when he was still attending school in Jaipur.

[11] It is also in evidence that Zia Fatehabadi was infatuated with a Bengali girl named Meera, who was also studying in the same college at the time, and addressed almost all his love-poetry to her.

In an interview, he had once disclosed that she was that very Meera Sen who had actually inspired Meeraji[12] to write superb poems and adopt her name as his takhallus.

It was during his college days that Zia Fatehabadi came into contact with Shabbir Hussain Josh Malihabadi and Samad Yar Khan Saghar Nizami.

In 1933, at the age of 20 and while still a college student, Zia Fatehabadi succeeded in having his very first collection of Urdu poems, Tullu (Dawn), published in Meerut by Saghar Nizami.

He wrote from the heart and, efficaciously, dressed his feelings, emotions, thoughts and experiences with simple, delicate, sweet-sounding, lyrical, meaningful, easily understood words and phrases – the key features in his poetry.

However, he did not succumb to the practice of uninhibited expression of ideas in open forms, which had been adopted by some of his noted contemporaries, who had introduced symbolism in Urdu Poetry.

[21] In his article titled Zia Saheb, Gopichand Narang had said that he (Zia) belonged to the Seemab Akbarabadi's circle of devoted writers; deep knowledge of the etiquette and effective use of language and expression, the immense richness of feelings and emotions meant to be conveyed, and the fine eloquence and methodology adorned his writings and he makes use of Hindi intonation in ghazal quite effectively and also quite meaningfully highlights the contemporary human pain and suffering; to appraise Zia Fatehabadi is to appraise the inherited tradition and refinement of our poetry.

He has dealt with the issues relating to Indian women in the manner that those characters are made to narrate their experiences at first-hand and the engrossed readers continue to read his stories without a break, which is the mark of a successful story-teller[35] Zia Fatehabadi died on 19 August 1986 after a prolonged and painful bout with illness.

But then, he had once said: In a way, this one couplet (verse), taken from his book Gard-e-Raah (Urdu) published in 1963, succinctly sums up the personality and life of Zia Fatehabadi.

The following Qat'aa e taareekh composed by Sahir Hoshiarpuri in August 1986 to commemorate the demise of his old friend, Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi, was published by Khushtar Girami in the October 1986 (Vol.50.No.10.)

issue of the monthly "Biswin Sadi", New Delhi: Zia Fatehabadi embarked on his literary career with Tullu first published in 1933.