Ubaidullah was a direct descendant of the Sufi mystic and saint Shaikh Shahabuddin Suhrawardy, who lived in Baghdad in the 12th Century. Shaikh Shahabuddin, was the author of what came to be regarded as the standard work on mysticism Awriful-Maariffi. He was a disciple and successor of Shaikh Abdul-Qadir Gilani, and the mosques and shrines over their tombs still survive in Baghdad and are places of pilgrimage to this day.