Syed Abid Ali Abid M.A., L.L.B. , Urdu and Persian critic, poet, former principal Dyal Singh College, Lahore, Pakistan was born on 17 September 1906 at Dera Ismail Khan, British India and died in Lahore, Pakistan on 20 January 1971.

He was well known for his literary criticism and had hundreds of students, many of them now themselves poets and writers. He wrote many books on literary criticism in Urdu and Persian. He also initiated and edited several literary journals, one of which is Sahifa-Lahore. He also was one of the initial drama writers and feature writers at the newly established Radio Pakistan Lahore in the late 1940s and 1950s. He was one of the story and dialogue writers of the first sound film (talking film) of the Punjab Heer Ranjha (1931). He survived 3 heart attacks but succumbed to the 4th.

Selected work

. Story writing of films like the first Punjabi talkie, Heer Ranjha (1931)
. Writer of more than 200 dramas at Radio Pakistan Lahore from 1948 to 1960
. Editor Sahifa-Lahore, a quarterly literary journal, 1957-1971
. Translated Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy into Urdu

Books/poetry

. Talismaat (The Magic) , Urdu fiction, Hashmi Book Depot Lahore, Pakistan
. Shahbaz Khan, Urdu fiction, , Sang-e-Meel Publications, Pakistan
. Main Kabhi Ghazal na Kahta, Urdu poetry
. , Sang-e-Meel Publications, Pakistan
. Usool-E-Intequade-Adabiyat (Rules of Literary Criticism)
. Shar-i-Iqbal , (A criticism of Iqbal's Poetry),
. , Sang-e-Meel Publications, Pakistan
. Political Theory of the Shi'ties , Part of the history of Muslim philosophy.
. Asloob, an Urdu book on literary criticism
. Albayan, an Urdu book on literary criticism
. Al Badeeh (Mohsinaat e Shairi Ka Intaqadi Jaiza): (Criticism of the Characteristics of Urdu poetry)