He was son of Muztar Khairabadi and great grandson of Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi his career spanned four decades during which he worked with music composers including C. Ramchandra, O.P. Nayyar, N Dutta and Khayyam and wrote 151 songs. Notable among them were songs from his breakthrough film, AR Kardar's "Yasmin" (1955), "Aankhon hi Aankhon Mein" in Guru Dutt's "CID" (1956), "Yeh dil aur unki nigahon ke saaye" in Prem Parbat (1974) and "Aaja re" in "Noorie" (1979) and his last song, "Ae Dil-e-naadaan", in Kamal Amrohi's "Razia Sultan" (1983).