M Harunur Rashid

Rashid was born on 28 December 1939, to a Bengali Muslim family in Tinsukia district, Assam Province in British Raj on 28 December 1939.[5] On the eve of the Second World War, his father Rahimuddin Ahmed, an employee of the Assam Bengal Railway, was transferred to Chittagong. He spent his early childhood in the idyllic environment of the Pahartali and Chittagong hills. When the Japanese bombed Chittagong, his father sent them to his village home in Nabinagar, Brahmanbaria.

His family moved to Pahartali and he read in the Pahartali Railway High School in 1947. Next year the family moved to Chittagong and he got himself admitted to Chittagong Collegiate School.[6] Here he read up to class nine and on his father's retirement moved to Brahmanbaria town. He passed his matriculation examination from Annada Model High School in 1955. He got himself admitted to Brahmanbaria College, and passed his Intermediate in Arts examination (1957) under Dhaka University standing 5th in the merit list.

He did his BA honours (1960) and MA (1961) from Dhaka University. He later went to University of Cambridge (Fitzwilliam College), UK and obtained his B A honours (1966) and M A (1970).

During the interregnum of Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed he was appointed Director General of Bangla Academy[7] on 7 February 1991.[8] His appointment as the director general of the Bangla Academy[9] is a landmark in his career as an educational administrator. He insisted on its research activities – chiefly the dictionaries which needed editing and branding.[10] He published the Bangla Academy English–Bengali Dictionary (ed Z R Siddiqui)[11] and devised such marketing policies as made it an instant best seller. The cover design was made by artist and painter Qayyum Chowdhury and all the dictionaries had the same design with change of colour. He commissioned three dictionaries during his tenure and published them. He himself edited one pocket dictionary. The other thing he emphasized was the publication of complete works of literary celebrities including Dr Muhammad Shahidullah, Kaykobad, Farrukh Ahmed and most importantly the complete works of Kazi Nazrul Islam.[12][13]

After a stint of four years he went back to Jahangirnagar University. He went on voluntary retirement in 1998. He took a break from teaching and became the chief editor of Dhaka Courier, a national English-language newsweekly. But his journalistic career was short-lived and he joined North South University[14] as an adjunct professor of English. He taught there for 8 years and terminated his contract in December 2008. He then joined Darul Ihsan University as an adviser and professor of English. He taught at International Islamic University Chittagong at its Dhaka branch until 28 February 2015.

He was elected president of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh in 1998 for two years. In February 2007, he was made the president of Bangla Academy for two years.[15][16] He was unanimously elected Chairman of Wild Team (Wild Life Trust of Bangladesh) on 5 August 2015.[17]

Rashid married his cousin Murshida Begum when he was 24. He had two sons and a daughter by her. Murshida died of cancer in 1985. He married Shireen Yasmin Khan in the following year. He has no children by her.

A significant event in his life was his meeting a Sufi saint, Syed Rashid Ahmed Jaunpuri, the maternal grandson of Karamat Ali Jaunpuri,[18] who preached Islam in Bengal and Assam in the 19th century.[19] He accepted him as his murshid.[20] and followed him taking notes of his lectures. He learnt the principles of Sufism sitting at his feet[21] and practiced the basics of Ma'refat without which, the Guru emphasized, Islam could not be seen its wholeness, beauty and excellence. Later the notes came in handy in writing about his teachings. He wrote a total of five books on his lectures which were published during his lifetime. He was with him for 13 years until his passing away in 2001. He published his collected lectures under the title Sanglap Samagra (2003).[22] Nearly 12 years after his Shaykh's death he published a magnum opus Syed Rashid Ahmed Jaunpuri (RA) Smarak Grantha (2013)[23]