Despite being born in an ordinary peasant family of Rasullahbad, an interior village of Brahmanbaria district, on 15th May 1909, he marked excellent position of merit in every sphere of his educational career. In 1931 and 1932 he passed BA (Hons) and MA with first class in philosophy from Dhaka University.

In his vibrant professional life he served as a professor in Dhaka College, Eden College, Sylhet MC College, Chittagong College and Jagannath College. He was also professor of Philosophy Department, Dhaka University. As an educationist and social worker he closely observed the 2nd World War, the Famine, the brutal communal riot of Kolkata, creation of Pakistan, 52's Language movement, and founding of independent Bangladesh following a great liberation war. These historical events strongly influenced his psychology and thinking. Which finally had driven him towards secularism and socialism. But he recited the holy Quran from his childhood and even did job as an Imam of a mosque in Dhaka for few days. Nevertheless he had been criticised as an 'atheist' and 'communist' by some critics for nurturing progressive ideas.

At present 'secularism' has vanished from our constitution. But as an activist for building secular Bangladesh he had been harassed by the Pakistani government. Even he was forced to resign from the chair of principal of Jagannath College due to political differences with the despotic East Pakistan governor Monaem Khan. Recently in Bangladesh, religious extremism and fundamentalism has emerged as an immense danger for the nation. The serial bomb blast of 17th August and other sabotages over the recent period has shown the cruel face of religious extremism. At such time we feel more the need of people like Prof Sydur Rahaman who continued his struggle against the dark forces.

Professor Sydur Rahaman was a prominent scholar from Muslim community who explained religions with their secular and humanitarian facades. His writings always included the concept of modern science and logic. His famous book 'An Introduction of Islamic Philosophy' has widely known to the society. Being thoroughly a modern man, he felt pain for the backwardness of our society and especially for the Muslim community. He wrote, "In many cases Muslims have not changed their 'old value' following, have not adopted with modern science and the inherent query of philosophy, have not awaken their question sleeping in deep-heart. So they become blind, irrational and reactionary. In many countries of the world they are under spell of superstitions, poverty, idleness, anti-development and undemocratic conditions. For this reason they often create themselves a hopeless nation." He also wrote in this regard "We should not push our society 1000 years back." Without a few exception, his remarks had been justified. And when religious extremism is hitting at the existence of our civilisation in renewed way, his writings could be more relevant to combat this danger.

Professor Sydur Rahaman was in constant touch with many of our national leaders. They are Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Mowlana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Comrade Moni Singh and Professor Muzaffar Ahmed. They all esteemed him with his intelligence.

On the occasion of his 18th death anniversary we deeply felt his absence, specially at this point of time. We believe his memory will be our brawny inspiration.

Hasan Tarique Chowdhury is a peace and solidarity activist.