When he was nine years old, he learned the whole book of Qur'an by heart, for which he has been awarded a Royal prize. Gely joined Al Azhar school in Cairo, where he completed his primary and secondary education. His life in Al-Azahar constituted Gely ideas about the oppression and the social inequity, when most of Al-Azahar students at that time (1940s) came from different African countries and resided in unhealthy accommodation conditions which led in many cases to students being afflicted by tuberculosis and dying because of that.