 Al-Harariyy was born in 1906 in Harar, Ethiopia.In 1983, he founded Al-Ahbash, a Beirut-based organization also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects (AICP).Al-Ahbash is a Sufi religious movement which claims to run its schools affiliated with Cairo's Al-Azhar University, a claim which has been denied by Al-Azhar.