Syed Manzoorul Islam: A gentle light in our lives

It is hard to write these words, Manzoor Bhai is no more. The news feels unreal. With his passing, Bangladesh has lost one of its most luminous literary and humanistic souls.

Our connection goes back decades. At Sylhet Pilot School, M C College, and the University of Dhaka, he was my senior by just a year. But beyond that, he was my guide, my elder brother, and a lifelong source of affection and wisdom.

Everyone who knew him saw a different shade of his warmth. Poet and journalist Sajjad Sharif called him "a man filled with love." Educationist Rasheda Choudhury wrote that "Manzoor Bhai will remain an undying light in society and literature." Those words could not be truer. His presence always radiated kindness and grace.

One memory from 2004 remains vivid. My friend Masroor Chowdhury organised a small reception in Banani to celebrate my appointment as a professor at Columbia University. The chief guest was Manzoor Bhai. In his speech, he announced, with characteristic pride and generosity, that I was the first Bangladeshi to be appointed as a professor in an Ivy League university. I remember blushing, yet I was deeply moved by his affection. That was the kind of person he was; always quick to celebrate others' success, never his own.

He never turned down a request for help. From launching my brother's book to writing a foreword for a relative's poems, he always said yes with warmth and grace. His kindness, sincerity, and humility were qualities seldom found today.

In 2020, when my book Amar BRAC Jibon (My BRAC Life) was published, I called him and asked, "Manzoor Bhai, would you give me an endorsement?" Within a few days, he sent a beautifully written note; warm, generous, and full of insight. I still treasure it as a gift from an elder who truly understood the spirit of our work.

In 2022, several of our classmates from M C College produced a memoir volume titled Romonthon ("Reflections"). We requested him to write the foreword. He agreed immediately and even travelled to Sylhet to attend the launch as our special guest. His three-page introduction, written in his graceful, thoughtful style, captured not only the soul of the college but the spirit of an entire generation. 

Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam was far more than a teacher or a writer. He was a cultural conscience, a voice of sensitivity, courage, and imagination. Through his fiction and essays, he opened new horizons for Bangla literature, linking the personal with the political, the local with the universal.

To his students, he was never merely an academic. He was a mentor of life. In his classes he used to say, "Literature is not only to be read; it is a way of learning how to love and understand people."

That was Manzoor Bhai. Compassionate, reflective, profoundly humane. People like him do not truly leave us. They remain alive in our values, in our language, in our memories.

Manzoor Bhai, you may have left this world, but your light will keep glowing within us — guiding, inspiring, and reminding us of the power of kindness and intellect combined.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.