Sheikh Farid was a disciple of Khwaja Bakhtiar Kaki, the disciple & spiritual successor of Hazrat Ali who had received spiritual training from Hasan Basri; a known saint of Chishti traditon. Baba ji was born in 1173AD at Khetwal, now known as Chawli Mashaikh, a village in the Multan district (Pakistan).

Baba Farīd RZ was born in 1188 ( in Kothewal, 10 km from Multan in the Punjab region, to Jamāl-ud-dīn Suleimān and Maryam Bībī (Qarsum Bībī), daughter of Wajīh-ud-dīn Khojendī. Amaresh Datta gives his life span as 1178–1271.He received his early education at Multan, which had become a centre for Muslim education. There he met his teacher Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki RZ, who was passing through Multan Shareef on his way from Baghdad Shareef to Capital Delhi.

Once his education was over, he moved to Delhi, where he learned the Islamic doctrine from his master, Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki RZ. He later moved to Hansi, Haryana. When Khwaja Bakhtiyār Kākī passed away in 1235, Hazrat E Shaykh Farīd left Hansi and became his spiritual successor, and he settled in Ajodhan (the present Pakpattan, Pakistan) instead of Delhi. He was one of the founding fathers of the Chishti Sufi order.