Abdul Basit was born in a village called Armant, in southern Egypt, to a middle-class Upper-Egyptian family. In 1950, he came to Cairo where Muslims in many mosques were touched by his recitations. On one happening, he was reciting verses from Sura al-Ahzab (The Confederates) he was requested to recite for longer than 10 minutes by his audience, and continued to recite for over an hour and a half, his listeners were captured by his mastery of pitch, tone and the rules of tajweed (Qur'anic recitation).