Hossain Mohammad Salim (in Bengali: হোসাইন মোহম্মদ সেলিম) is currently serving as the supreme leader, Imam of Hezbut Tawheed. Under his dynamic leadership, the non-political movement Hezbut Tawheed is continuing to create public awareness and ideological struggle against terrorism, misuse of religion in politics, religion business, religious fanaticism, minority oppression, women oppression and communalism all over Bangladesh. His lectures and writings published in newspapers, books, magazines and online platforms have gained wide recognition and popularity in Bangladesh.
Early Life:
He was born in 1972 in one of the most prominent and aristocratic Muslim families of Porkara village situated in Sonaimuri, Noakhali, Bangladesh. His father, Nurul Haque, was a successful and reputed ‘member’ (an administrative post) for more than two decades of the Sonaimuri sub-district. His mother, Hosne Ara Begum, was also known as a pious woman.
Education:
He started studying in the local Makhtob (Primary Arabic learning school) and learned about Quran alongside other etiquettes at a very young age. After receiving his primary education from Porkara Government Primary School, he completed his SSC in Science division from Ahmad Ullah High School in 1989. Then, he completed his HSC in the same division from Laksam Nawab Faizunnesa Government College. Later, he graduated from the National University in 1994 with a B.S.S 1st Class 1st Degree. After that, he obtained a Master’s Degree in political science from Jagannath University.
Searching for Truth:
When he was leading his student life, he thought about the plight of the Muslim nation. In his college hostel, he used to keep two newspapers, which were Daily Ittefaq and Daily Inqilab. The situation of the Bosnian Muslims written in Inqilab, and the story of their persecution in different places, made him think more and more about the Muslim nation. He was saddened to see the plight of the Muslim nation around the world.
He started wondering what led to this catastrophe and thinking about the way of salvation. To find a way out of this adversity of the Muslim nation, he rushed to different religious organizations, individuals, and different organizations. He spent a lot of time there. In order to find a way out, he continued to study and spent days after days trying to do extensive research in various libraries in the capital, which included The Islamic Foundation Library, Dhaka University Library, Public Library, and Bangladesh National Library located in Agargaon. He read plenty of Biography books, history books, research books, jurisprudence books, and so on. He attended many meetings and seminars held by religious thinkers, writers, and scholars. However, no one had the answer to what he was looking for.
He used to be disappointed to see the activities of religious or political parties when he saw various inconsistencies in words and irrational activities. He realized that even though many things were going on in the name of religion, actually was for the sake of selfishness.
Joining Hezbut Tawheed:
While studying at the university, he heard the name of the Leader of the time Mohammad Bayazeed Khan Panni from his friends in Dhaka. There was a lot of commotion going on about the book “E Islam Islam E Noy”, which means ‘The Present Islam is not the Pure Islam’, written by Mohammad Bayazeed Khan Panni. A class of Islamic scholars started a procession just to ban his book. He used to hear many things about Emamuzzaman, who was a man with no beard, did not have any definite attire, did not go for higher study at Madrasa, but he wrote a book that caused a great stir that the religious scholars started protesting against him. Nevertheless, he did not listen to the people and rather continued to read the book and decided to meet Emamuzzaman to observe him directly.
In 1998, he attended a conference of Hezbut Tawheed at Daud Mahal in Korotia, Tangail. He was the only one allowed to attend the conference without being a member of Hezbut Tawheed. Emamuzzaman’s extraordinary personality, simplicity, sweetness of speech, and logical approach overwhelmed him. Emamuzzaman did not take any higher study in any madrasa but had a profound knowledge of religion. Emamuzzaman was a child of the aristocrat zamindar family, but he never showed the slightest projection of arrogance. Hossain Mohammad Salim saw that those who were sitting in front of Emamuzzaman and listening to him were either farmers, laborers; In a word, they were ordinary working people. This class of people once used to serve their families and did not even dare to step in front of Daud Mahal. However, Emamuzzaman had tea and food with them. He later explained to them about Islam and answered their questions. He also inquired about their health as if they were his family members.
Honourable Emam was shocked after seeing these as they moved his mind a lot. Again, it was hard for him to believe all of his words because he could not match his words with the practiced form of Islam that he has been watching for so long. For example, women were there besides men on one side of the meeting of Emmamuzzan to learn Islam from him. Man and women were praying Salah (Prayer) in the same congregation and so on.
However, overall, he was fascinated and overwhelmed by Emmamuzzan’s words. He realized that if there was the truth, it was there. The next day he listened to Emmamuzzan again. The more he heard, the more he could understand. He could see exactly where this so-called Muslim nation was doing wrong and where they had lost their way. He realized that their plight today was due to their departure from Allah’s sovereignty.
The proclamation of this Tawheed (sovereignty of Allah) is the only door to enter Islam. They will only find peace in this world and in the hereafter if they return to Tawheed. He tried to understand the meaning of Tawheed from Emmamuzzan. Then he came to Dhaka and read more books. Later on, he joined Hezbut Tawheed on February 28, 1998. From that time, his struggle against the so-called Islam begins.
He knew that there would be danger in revealing the truth, and knew very well that Allah (SWT) would test him with many obstacles and humiliation. Nevertheless, this test was not easy for him. When he started preaching the truth in his village, a class of religion mongers, who used religion as a means of business, started propaganda against him. His house was repeatedly attacked and vandalized under the guise of Christianity. People who became members of Hezbut Tawheed were beaten and tortured. In 2009, his house, along with eight houses of the other members of Hezbut Tawheed, was set on fire by the religious extremists.
Honorable Emamuzzaman passed away on January 16, 2012. After Emamuzzaman’s death, he took responsibility for Hezbut Tawheed. Under his dynamic leadership, the members of Hezbut Tawheed started working harder to preach the ideology explained by Honourable Emamuzzaman throughout the country. Hossain Mohammad Salim gave a huge number of speeches in hundreds of auditoriums, cities, ports, and towns of Bangladesh. Hezbut Tawheed organized more than two lakhs of meetings, seminars, street meetings, and documentary exhibitions to unite the whole nation based on Tawheed (sovereignty) against all injustices.
The efforts of the religious extremists to stop this progress of Hezbut Tawheed also continued in unison. The most heinous and barbaric attack took place on the house of Honourable Imam on March 14, 2016. At that time, Hezbut Tawheed’s members were building a mosque near Honourable Emam’s house. Claiming the mosque as a church, the extremists defamed Hezbut Tawheed’s members as Christians and triggered the local people to attack them. Students and teachers from local madrasas and different religious extremist groups attacked his house on this day and killed two members of Hezbut Tawheed in broad daylight by cutting their limbs. They poured petrol on their bodies and set them on fire. Homes were also looted and set on fire. However, in spite of so many obstacles, he never gave up on establishing the truth. After all, of this, he was still able to build the ‘Shahidi Jame Mosque’ along with different developmental organizations. Under his fearless leadership, the dedicated members of Hezbut Tawheed will keep on working hard to establish the truth in the world.