Born: 
16/02/1936
Died: 
25/01/2018
Specialty: 
General Internal Medicine
Designatory Letters: 
MB Dhaka 1959, DTM&H Eng 1964, MRCS Eng, LRCP Lond 1975, LMCC Canada 1977

 

Dr Mohammad Mujibur Rahman, beautiful and affectionate husband to Firdaus, and courageous and compassionate father to Abdullah (Abbey), Jennifer, Saira and Nilufer Rahman, made his last great journey, from this world into the next. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by loving family and friends. He will be greatly missed by relatives and friends across the globe. Born in undivided India, he came from extremely humble beginnings, and was met with early challenges of hunger and poverty. Just as a rocket needs explosive energy to reach the moon, he had to face incredible odds and seemingly impenetrable barriers to reach his goal of becoming a physician. He achieved the highest level of training in the UK as a specialist in Internal Medicine and a consultant in Geriatrics: Member of the Royal College of Physicians and later was made Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

His illustrious career spanned over three continents and six decades. He worked as a Family Physician in Manitoba for 40 years - in Winnipeg and throughout the province including Flin Flon, Steinbach, Stonewall, Vita, Eriksdale, Sprague and Cross Lake. Indeed, being a doctor was an intrinsic part of his identity. He loved medicine with a passion and deeply respected and appreciated the doctors, nurses and all those he worked with. He thrived on helping patients with complex medical problems. Using his keen intellect and astute clinical knowledge and skills he often was able to make diagnoses that evaded others. His patients knew him as a caring and compassionate doctor. He was always very generous with his time and would do everything possible to get to the bottom of his patients’ issues and endeavour to heal them.

Throughout his career, by the grace of God, he saved many people’s lives and earned his patients' lifelong love and respect. He never forgot his humble beginnings and consistently supported his relatives, friends and the most vulnerable and needy people. He recognised ‘diamonds in the rough’, as he was one himself, and he supported them to the best of his capacity. Although he may not have described himself as such, he was a staunch feminist. He would contribute regularly to causes that supported the education and empowerment of women and girls. Our father had a strong love for animals and creatures great and small. He was always greatly disturbed by examples of animal cruelty or negligence and gave many donations to animal welfare groups. He also loved nature, the outdoors and the family cats. One of his favourite pastimes was canoeing on the Seine river. He was very humorous and a wonderful story teller who could captivate any audience with riveting tales of his own amazing life and those of the many inspiring adventure stories that he had read as a child and recalled with particular detail.

He was a lifelong learner and regularly collected and studied his many books on medicine, history, religion, philosophy, nature and personal development. He never stopped attending medical conferences and talks on general topics of interest. He deeply respected and admired those who valued knowledge, no matter their age or station in life. He was a true visionary who loved people and whose ideas were often ahead of their time. He cared greatly about community welfare, present and future, and always endeavoured to build and strengthen local institutions. He played a founding role in Al-Hijra Islamic School, the Grand Mosque and Winnipeg Central Mosque. Throughout his life, he gave openheartedly and unselfishly of his time, money and energy to all who knew him. If he was able to help someone, he would do so immediately and without hesitation. He made helping others a priority ahead of himself and did not procrastinate when it came to doing good work. A dear and loving husband and father, a talented and skilful healer, an inspirational visionary, a generous benefactor, a staunch protector, a patient teacher, a devout worshipper, Our hero, our friend, our wonderful, beautiful father: may he achieve the highest level of paradise and rest in everlasting peace.

Republished with permission from the Winnipeg Free Press https://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/passage-details/id-252750/RAHMAN_MOHAMMAD