Murray Hogben was born in Toronto of Scottish parents in 1935 and grew up in Ottawa. In 1957 he earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature at Carleton College (later University), where he met Alia Rauf, whom he married in 1959. Murray became a Muslim in 1956 after meeting Alia Rauf. After serving as a second lieutenant with the First Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in summer of 1957, he returned to Carleton to pursue a degree in journalism. He joined the CBC in Toronto in 1958, and in 1960 he became the secretary of the new Muslim Society of Toronto. He had meanwhile returned to school and earned a doctorate in history from the University of Toronto. In 1973, he joined the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston teaching history for three years, followed by three more years at le College militaire royal de Saint-Jean, in Quebec. Murray then reverted to journalism, joining the Kingston Whig-Standard in 1979 where he worked until retirement in 2000. He and Alia live on their hobby farm near Gananoque. They have three children and four grandchildren.