Published: 12:18 AM, 26 February 2026 Last Update: 12:19 AM, 26 February 2026
The Architect of the Universe’s Fate: Reclaiming the Legacy of Jamal Nazrul Islam
The Bengali world scientist Dr. Jamal Nazrul Islam was at once a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and cosmologist. Among those who elevated Bangladesh’s red-and-green flag onto the global stage with distinction, Jamal Nazrul Islam stands as one of the foremost. In international academic circles, it would be difficult to find anyone unfamiliar with him. This year marks the 87th birth anniversary of Jamal Nazrul Islam.
Jamal Nazrul Islam was born on February 24, 1939, in Jhenaidah. Though his birthplace was Jhenaidah, his roots lay in Fatikchhari, Chattogram. His father was posted in Jhenaidah for professional reasons, and that is where he was born. By lineage, he belonged to an aristocratic and culturally refined family. At the time, his family maintained connections not only with the Nawab family of Dhaka but also with the royal family of Jordan. The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam frequently visited their Calcutta residence. In keeping with the poet’s name, his parents named him ‘Jamal Nazrul Islam.’ His father, Muhammad Sirajul Islam, was a Sub-Judge in Jhenaidah district. His mother, Rahat Ara Begum, was a literary enthusiast and writer. She also sang beautifully. She translated Dak Ghar by Rabindranath Tagore into Urdu and earned considerable acclaim for it.
In his childhood, he studied up to the fourth grade at a school in Calcutta. From there he moved to Chattogram. Upon his admission to Chittagong Collegiate School, the headmaster was astonished by his brilliance. Impressed by his merit, he granted him a double promotion to sixth grade. After studying there up to eighth grade, he went to Lawrence College in Pakistan. Completing his O Level and A Level there, he enrolled at St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta. After finishing his BSc under the University of Calcutta, he went to the world-renowned University of Cambridge in London. In 1964, he completed his PhD in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. By the age of twenty, he had completed two BSc degrees (he earned his second BSc at Trinity College, London). Just as he had received a double promotion to sixth grade in childhood, he also received double promotion during his postdoctoral period.
The Doctor of Science (DSc) degree is awarded for exceptionally high competence or significant contribution in science. Such individuals are teachers of teachers, the best among the best. Jamal Nazrul Islam was also awarded the Doctor of Science (DSc) degree by Cambridge University in 1982.
Jamal Nazrul Islam came from a distinguished and accomplished family. His mother, Rahat Ara, was an accomplished Urdu poet. His maternal uncle was the renowned Rabindra scholar Abu Sayeed Ayyub (who, out of deep admiration for Rabindranath Tagore, mastered the Bengali language and wrote several outstanding books in Bengali). His grandfather was Shamsul Ulama Kamaluddin, the first Muslim principal of Chittagong Government College. His sister, Sultana Zaman, was a teacher at the University of Dhaka and a pioneer in working for persons with disabilities. His brother-in-law, Colonel Nuruzzaman, was a Sector Commander in Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971. His cousin was the famous Bengali writer Syed Waliullah.
He was so extraordinarily talented that in global scientific circles J.N. (Jamal Nazrul) Islam was known as “Genius Islam.” Commenting on him, the scientist Stephen Hawking said, “J.N. Islam was my roommate, my friend, and we were teachers to each other. Jamal Nazrul Islam is only the greatest! I am nobody to reach his Highness.”
Among Professor Jamal Nazrul Islam’s notable books in Bangla and English are: Krishnabibor (Black Holes), Mother Tongue and Scientific Practice, Another Essays, and Art, Literature and Society. The Ultimate Fate of the Universe is his greatest book, published in 1983 by Cambridge University Press. Upon publication, it created a stir among cosmologists worldwide. Within a short time, the book was translated into more than one hundred languages across the world. The following year, Cambridge University Press published Classical General Relativity. His research made a profound contribution to post-Einsteinian cosmology. Continuing in this line of research, he later wrote The Far Future of the Universe.
J.N. Islam’s The Ultimate Fate of the Universe was written in 1983, while Hawking’s A Brief History of Time was written in 1988. Comparing the two works, J.N. Islam’s book would undoubtedly be considered superior. Unfortunately, however, Hawking’s book received far greater publicity, whereas J.N. Islam’s book did not receive similar attention—even though Hawking himself acknowledged J.N. Islam’s greatness.
In 2001, when rumors spread that the world would be destroyed, Jamal Nazrul Islam calculated mathematically that there was no possibility of the Earth being thrown out of its orbit. He had studied whether planetary alignments in a straight line would have any effect on Earth. In that research, J.N. Islam stated that the likelihood of such an event was virtually nonexistent.
Jamal Nazrul Islam was a shining example of patriotism. From his own earnings, he saved money to support the education of poor and underprivileged students. During Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971, he wrote to the British Prime Minister urging action to stop the atrocities committed by the Pakistani occupation forces in Bangladesh. In 1981, he left a high-paying job in England along with advanced facilities and accepted a salary of only 2,800 taka to return to his motherland, Bangladesh. He joined the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chittagong. After teaching there for one year, he needed to return to London for research work and family reasons.
When university teachers go abroad for research, authorities usually grant leave and keep their position valid until their return. He applied for leave to the university authorities, but they were not granting him leave. Having no other option, he resigned and left. He completed his research there within two years. In 1984, he sold his house in London and permanently returned to Bangladesh with his family. Later, the university authorities increased his salary to three thousand taka and accepted the intervening period as study leave.
Regarding his decision to stay in his country, J.N. Islam once wrote: “I never had any intention of staying abroad permanently. The thought of returning home was within me from the very beginning, and it never changed. Another aspect is that no matter how well you live abroad, the acceptance and standing you have among your own people in your own country can never be achieved in a foreign land.”
On his own country, a man like Jamal Nazrul Islam had to endure suffering and neglect. A glimpse of how negative and embarrassing the situation was can be found in a writing by Dhaka University physicist Professor A. M. Harun-or-Rashid. After Jamal Nazrul Islam’s death on March 16, 2013, he wrote in the literary magazine Kali O Kolom: “My closest association with Jamal began in 1984, when he made the final decision to move from Cambridge to Chittagong. One day he telephoned me from London and informed me that he wanted to come to Bangladesh. I told him it was certainly a very good decision. However, if he sent his application to me immediately, I could discuss it with the Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University and advise on necessary arrangements. What he said next, I was not at all prepared to hear. He said he would not go to Dhaka; he would go to Chittagong, because his ancestral home was there. I tried to explain that perhaps he would not find very good students in Chittagong and that his research work might be hampered. But he would not listen. He insisted that I take his application and immediately meet the Vice-Chancellor of Chittagong University. I did so. One morning I bought a train ticket to Chittagong and met the Vice-Chancellor, telling him that Jamal Nazrul Islam was an asset of this country and that bringing him to their university would be their good fortune. Vice-Chancellor Professor Karim fully agreed and promised that a professorship would be created in the Physics Department immediately for Jamal Nazrul Islam.”
Professor A. M. Harun-or-Rashid further wrote: “Unfortunately, after returning to Dhaka, I learned a few days later that complications had arisen. It would not be possible to create a position in the Physics Department. Therefore, after some time, a position was created in the Mathematics Department—and that too only after I went to Chittagong University a second time and specially requested everyone. In the end, through sincere efforts and wholehearted cooperation, Professor Jamal Nazrul Islam was able to join Chittagong University.”
The Bengali world scientist Jamal Nazrul Islam—who, out of love for his country and strengthened by patriotism, left behind a luxurious life and honor abroad to return home—has that country and its people remembered him? Does the present generation know J.N. Islam? There are no arrangements in the country’s media to honor him; there is no discussion in the country’s universities about his world-renowned research; his world-famous books are not available in the libraries of this country. Even the very university where he taught—has it remembered him, has it commemorated him?
One by one, everything in our country has fallen into the hands of the corrupt and the unworthy. In this country, there is little respect for the meritorious; the incompetent and the corrupt dominate—and they are the ones who are valued. That is why Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah once lamented, “In a country where the talented are not valued, talent cannot be born.”
Emran Emon is an eminent
journalist, columnist and a global
affairs analyst. He can be reached
