Islami Chhatra Shibir played a big part in giving him a clean circle of friends that kept him from going astray as a teenager and young man, and in introducing him to the whole philosophy of Islam and the works of major scholars beyond religious rituals, says Barrister Asaduzzaman Fuad, general secretary of the Amar Bangladesh Party (AB Party).
He said this in a recent podcast interview while recalling his past political life and the stages of his upbringing. Describing his family background, Barrister Fuad said he grew up in a left-leaning family. His father was active in Chhatra Union and JSD politics, and an uncle was involved with the Workers Party. Having known left-wing literature since childhood, he was himself briefly part of the Samajtantrik Chhatra Front. Later he was also involved with Islami Chhatra Shibir for a while.
Asked what he gained personally from Chhatra Shibir, he expressed gratitude for the organisation’s contribution in two areas.
“First, at the age when young people could be ruined by the company they keep, could fall in with bad company and go astray into drugs or smoking, we found good company,” he said. “A wonderful circle of friends formed that helped us keep ourselves in check. Shibir must certainly get the credit for creating that positive circle.”
On the second contribution, he said: “It is not that Shibir taught me a great deal of Islam, but they introduced me to the vast scope of Islam. That Islam is not limited to prayer and fasting, that beyond them there is a complete philosophy, and that there are timeless books on it by great world-class clerics and scholars: they connected me with those.”
Barrister Fuad added that after moving to the United Kingdom for higher studies, he stepped away from both left and right politics and took up his own research. Still, at that stage of life, both the Chhatra Front’s study circles and Shibir’s reading habit helped shape his thinking and his sense of discipline. He made clear that politics should not be ideological blindness but the main means of solving people’s everyday problems and providing practical civic services.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report