Marmaduke Pickthall was born in London in 1875 to a Christian family affiliated with William the Conqueror. His father died when he was five years old. He became familiar with Islam while he was working as a journalist in the Middle East.

Pickthall learned Arabic and defended the positions of Islamic countries among the English society, a position that he had during World War I. He declared his Islam in 1917 after his talk on “Islam and Progress” in which he showed Islam as a modern religion capable of reigning Europe.

In 1920, he traveled to India and completed the translation of the meanings of the Quran into English in a literary style, which was licensed by Al-Azhar. He returned to England to lead the British Muslim community and correct prevailing concepts about them, until he passed away.