Dr. Abdul Haq was one of a kind who dedicated all his life in the service of others. A gentleman, who never sought anything in return for himself. He seemed to have left us with this lesson with his sudden and quick parting to the hereafter on the 27th of August in 2016. As in his life and also in death, he only gave to his compatriots, nothing expecting in return. Even in his death he did not put anyone, even the closest ones, through any hardship. This is only fitting for someone like Dr. Abdul Haq.
This was our Haq Bhai, a person who kept on serving without ever expecting to be served in return. A man who did not run after name and fame for the work he undertook, but indeed Allah in all His glory, awarded him the acknowledgement that he so deserved. For the first time ever, a first-generation Bangladeshi migrant to Australia has been acknowledged for his services to his adapted country, by so many quarters, so profusely. He has given us a reason to proudly proclaim ourselves as Bangladeshis among the culturally diverse multicultural nation of Australians.
I feel fortunate that I could become an acquaintance of Haq Bhai, though not for as long as I would have loved to. Most of his acquaintances have known him longer. Most know him for his dedicated service and commitment to so many charitable and worthy causes. Since Haq Bhai left us, I have sat many evenings trying to write about him. I pondered over writing about his life and works that people may not have known. I really could not find any. He was an open book to all. Called or met everyone personally whenever he felt that there was a need. He bore absolutely no ego. How could someone like him bear any ego? A devoted believer, an ardent practitioner of faith, one who helped build Masjids, Muslim graveyards, orphanages, madrasahs, stood up for the needy and so much more. Indeed, he must have had taken to heart the Hadith of our prophet (pbh): “One does not enter Jannah who has in his heart a mustard seed’s weight of Kibr (ego), and Kibr (ego) is rejecting the truth and belittling people.”
As I have mentioned earlier, today we can proudly proclaim ourselves as Bangladeshis because of Haq Bhai’s enormous contribution to the Australian society. What about our next generation? Could they also claim Dr. Haq to be as theirs as we proudly claim him to be ours? I suppose not, because there are not much about him written in a language that our new generation would understand. All of the writings so far are only in Bangla. That is fine for us. But do not we owe it to them to document those in a language that we have imposed upon them, by uprooting them from their ancestral land, for which they had no say? If we do not do that, how would our new generation know about the contributions made by their ancestors, the first-generation Bangladeshi migrants like Dr. Haq and others?
I consider it a historical obligation on our part to write the stories of earlier migrants, in English, so that our descendants would know the history and able to take pride of their past. Hence, in my humble way, I have decided to write this piece in English about Haq Bhai so that our descendants can also claim him to be theirs.
Though I have met and known Dr. Abdul Haq for some times due to my frequent visits to Australia, I really became an associate of him only in the last few years after our return to Sydney to live here permanently. He invited me to work with him on a project that he had been dreaming about for a long time; a residential enclave for the retiring and senior Bangladeshis. Since I do not have any working knowledge of how to go about materializing such an undertaking in Australia, I relied completely on the dedication and experience of Haq Bhai for this. Almost every other week, Haq Bhai, Laila Bhabi, my wife and I would go around looking for a suitable site. In fact, the last block of property that we inspected was on the Wednesday prior to the Saturday morning he passed away. The intended project has not made any headway since then. I am hoping that those who are familiar with similar undertakings would come forward to join hands to take the envisaged project forward.
In the course of this close association, Haq Bhai and Laila Bhabi would visit us almost every week. I believe he may have enjoyed our company and so did we. I took the favour of him and occasionally suggested that he need not jump up on his feet and get into action every time someone approaches him for some kind of help or assistance. I thought, because of this openness and enthusiasm, at times he is misunderstood by some who often talked behind his back. To this, he often smiled and said that he was aware of all that. He believed that those who talk behind the back never come forward to do any of the work themselves. As such he decided to ignore those and continue to do the work that he considered to be the right thing to do. It was interesting to note that he never held any malice against any of them. In fact, he considered most of them to be very capable of achieving good things for the community, only if they made some efforts. He firmly believed that when one has the honest intention or the “Niyat”, Allah lends a hand to make it happen.
A few weeks prior to his passing I called him one evening to tell him that I wished to write a nomination for him for the “Australian of the Year”, for who could be a better candidate than him among the Bangladeshis in Australia. He modestly declined my suggestion saying he was not there for the limelight. On the retrospective, when I come to think of it, if Haq Bhai ever sought any nomination for the Australian of the year, among others, the Blacktown Council, NSW Cancer Council, numbers of federal and state MPs would have been too happy to nominate him.
At his Namaz-e-Janazah at the Quaker Hills Masjid, the Mayor of Blacktown City Council, Councillor Stephen Bali sent a personal emissary to read a very emotional message of condolence. Hon Ed Husic, Member of Federal Parliament informed the House of Representatives of the sad demise of Dr. Abdul Haq and spoke about his contribution towards the Australian society. Federal MPs Hon Tony Burke, Hon Matt Thistle Thwaite, Hon Michelle Rowland and State MPs Hon Jihad Dib and Hon Sophie Cotsis, Chairman NSW
Cancer Council, Chairman Rotary Australia, President Dhaka Ahsania Mission and many more sent personal messages of condolence acknowledging the contribution of Dr. Haq. His Excellency Imtiaz Chowdhury, The High Commissioner for Bangladesh in Australia sent a message in honour of Dr. Haq on his Remembrance Day. Mr. Anthony Khouri, Honorary Consul General of Bangladesh, Hon Matt Thistle Thwaite, Hon Sophie Cotsis, Mr. Jack Elliot AOM, Ex Treasurer of Rotary World Community Service and many more spoke on the occasion of Remembrance Day honouring Dr. Haq for his contribution to the society. Dr. Haq was featured in the cover page of 2010/2011 Annual report of the NSW Cancer Council. His photograph had been on display at the hall of fame of the Cancer Council, Sydney. The Blacktown Council named a reserve in Hassall Grove as “ABDUL HAQ RESERVE”.
Dr. Abdul Haq was born in 1949 in a respectable Muslim family of Manikgonj. His father, Md. Abdul Hamid retired as a Senior Personnel Officer, Bangladesh Railway, Chittagong. Dr. Haq is the second of the nine brothers and sisters. The eldest brother, Md. Abdul Halim is a martyr, killed by the Pakistani army during the war of liberation. There is a street named after him in Chittagong – Abdul Halim Sharak. One of the younger brothers, Md. Abdul Hakim is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Two other brothers; Md. Abdul Hannan and Md. Abdul Jahangir are businessmen in Chittagong.
The youngest, Md. Khurshid Alamgir, lives in Sydney and works for the Sydney Waters. He also owns Sydney’s first Halal Thai restaurant – Thai Waterfront – Bella Vista. Since then, he has expanded his business to multiple sites in the north western suburb of Sydney. When Haq Bhai was diagnosed with terminal kidney ailment, Alamgir donated a kidney to his brother at the age of 17 in 1984. One can only wish to have such brothers, one for the other, in life and hereafter!
Dr. Haq completed his schooling in Chittagong and obtained the degree of BSc Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) in 1971. He did his Masters and PhD at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok. Thereafter, he took up a teaching position at the King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1981. The Haq family moved to Australia in 1991.
Haq Bhai and Laila Bhabi was married in 1973. They are blessed with a daughter and a son. The daughter, Rubaiyat Shahreen Haq (Shathi), mother of two, is a Telecommunication Engineer and works for Optus. Son, Ashfaqul Haq (Rana) is a professional accountant and has his own accounting practice. Rana led the Janazah prayer of his father. I do not know of many fathers and sons who could claim to be so fortunate and blessed. Rana’s wife Farhana Meem is a devoted wife, mother of three kids and a great daughter-in-law. The son-in-law Tanveer Shaheed is a Regional Director at the Macquarie University. It is great to see that Tanveer has taken upon himself to carry on with the mantle of the “Good Morning Bangladesh”, a benevolent communal undertaking that raises funds for New South Wales Cancer Council and Dhaka Ahsania Mission Cancer Hospital.
Laila Bhabi has her handful with five grandchildren in and around the house. Those who know Laila Bhabi, know very well that her hands are always full, be it at the Good Morning Bangladesh or any other social welfare event. She had been a rock-solid support for Haq Bhai all along. Without her, one may be inclined to doubt, if Haq Bhai could have achieved all that he had done. She had been his constant companion, a soul mate, a comrade in arms in whatever Haq Bhai did. The Haqs have been very fortunate to have the complete support of their entire family in all of their endeavours. It is our earnest hope and prayer that the family will endeavour to continue with the activities left behind by Haq Bhai by Allah’s permission and with the community’s support.
Soon after Dr. Haq arrived in Australia, he realized the importance of engaging with the local community. Towards this goal, he participated in various activities of the Blacktown City Council. And it facilitated the linkage between the Bangladeshi communities with the various arms of the local governments. His activities slowly moved into other parts of Sydney too. Among other activities, he organized a concert at the McArthur Girls School to raise funds for the Westmead Children’s Hospital. He even organized a concert of Kumar Bishwajit in a church at Blacktown to raise money for such other causes.
From early on Dr. Haq felt the need for his community to assimilate with the main stream Australia in order to be an active and accepted partner of this multicultural society. He thought this was essential for our future generation to be able to claim their rightful stake in the affairs of their adapted country. From year 2000 to 2008, Dr. Haq and his able wife Laila Haq took upon themselves as their family endeavour to institute the Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea to raise money for the NSW Cancer Council. Since 2009 the event is being held under the auspices of Bangladesh Forum for Community Engagement as “Good Morning Bangladesh”. Good Morning Bangladesh is now a well-known annual community event for all walks of life. Local Councillors, State and Federal MPs and many others participate in this event on a regular basis. Number of state and federal MPs spoke highly of this event and of Dr. Haq on the floors of the Federal and State Parliament. The 2011 Good Morning Bangladesh at the “Martin Place” was one of its high points where Australia’s acclaimed Master Chefs participated along with other dignitaries. The event was aired throughout Australia by the major TV channels.
In addition to Blacktown where it all started, Good Morning Bangladesh is now also held annually at Lakemba and Mascot. These events up until 2021 have raised and donated $291,000 to the NSW Cancer Council.
Since 1994 the Haq family has been holding an event called “Talent Day”, another of Haq Bhai’s dream to see our future generation excel in this country. Once a year, students who had completed their SSC and HSC are honoured for their achievements. What could be a befitting dream for the one, who had been an educator himself all his life?
Haq Bhai and others moved from door to door to raise money to establish a Masjid in Western Sydney. Laila Bhabi and others cooked meals in their kitchens to organize events to raise funds. With the Blessings of Allah, Quakers Hill Masjid is probably the only Masjid that has been purchased completely debt free! Haq Bhai worked tirelessly until his last day towards his dream for the Quakers Hill Masjid. He dreamt of this Masjid as a multipurpose centre of excellence for his community. He dreamt of a library, community centre, a place for learning and training, community engagements and much more to be integral parts of this Masjid. I believe, Allah permitting, he would have achieved it.
He worked tirelessly with others to establish the Riverstone Muslim Graveyard. He regularly engaged himself in the maintenance and cleaning of the graveyard. Since this graveyard was filling up fast, he embarked on a mission to seek permission for new graveyards for the Muslims, another unfinished goal of his.
Dr. Haq undertook a commitment of raising $250,000 for the Ahsania Mission Cancer Hospital, Dhaka under the banner of the Bangladesh Forum for Community Engagement. The Forum was able to raise $120,000 in a spate of only few years. The annual Friendship Day was yet another of his efforts to build cohesion and camaraderie between the members of his community across all age groups. In addition, Haq Bhai and Laila Bhabi had been involved in numerous other charitable activities in Bangladesh.
I would like to conclude here, with hopes and prayers that as the future Bangladeshi-Australians replace us soon, they are able to declare with pride that their forbearers had commendable roles in building their nation too. I pray that they are inspired to follow on with the legacy of their predecessors and stand up for each other at all times. Let us resolve to remember Dr. Haq in his deeds. Let us engage and mobilize ourselves as he attempted to do to bring a positive impact to the community. May he live forever with us and may his legacy continue on. I pray that Allah has mercy on him and grants him a place in Jannah among the successful ones. Aameen.
Mostafa Abdullah migrated to Australia in the 1970s. He is one of first-generation IT professionals of Bangladesh and retired as the Chief of Party (COP) of USAID Project for establishment of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission. He remains active within the diaspora community in his retirement, collecting stories of the early settlers and their children growing up in the cross-roads of Bangladeshi and Australian culture.
