বাংলা 
English 
Golam Mostofa (born 1897 – died 13 October 1964) was a Bengali writer and poet. He is known in Bengali literature as the poet of the Muslim Renaissance.
Golam Mostofa was born in 1897 in the village of Monoharpur under Shailkupa thana of the Jhenaidah subdivision of Jashore district. His father was Kazi Golam Rabbani and his grandfather Kazi Golam Sarwar; they were lovers of literature and deeply learned in Persian and Arabic. Among his three sons is the famous puppet-maker and painter Mostofa Monowar, and the recently Oscar-winning Bangladeshi Nafis Bin Jafar is his grandson.
Golam Mostofa's education began at the age of four at home and at the village school of the neighbouring Damukdia village. Some time later he enrolled in the village school of Fazilpur. After two years of learning at this school, he was admitted to Shailkupa High English School. In 1914 he passed the entrance, or matriculation, examination from that school with outstanding distinction. In 1916 he passed the I.A. from Daulatpur B. L. College, and in 1918 the B.A. from Ripon College, Calcutta. Later he also earned a B.T. degree from David Hare Training College.
In January 1920, Golam Mostofa's teaching career began as an assistant teacher at Barrackpore Government High School. In 1924 he was transferred from Barrackpore High School to Calcutta Hare School. After teaching there for a long time, he was transferred to Calcutta Madrasa. From there he moved in 1935 to Baliganj Government Demonstration High School, where he was promoted to the post of assistant head teacher and a few years later attained the rank of head teacher of that school. He was its first Muslim head teacher. In 1940 he was transferred to Bankura District School. After teaching at various schools during his teaching career, in 1946 he took charge as head teacher of Faridpur District School. After a long thirty years of teaching, he retired from service in 1950.
The contribution of Golam Mostofa, a vanguard of the Muslim awakening, to Bengali literature is a rare example. This poet's literary talent blossomed while he was still at school. At that time his poem 'Arddhianopol Uddhar' (The Rescue of Adrianople) was published in the monthly Mohammadi. When his first book of poems, Rokto Rag, was published, the world poet Rabindranath Tagore welcomed the poet with the following two lines of verse —
"May that crimson glow of your new dawn kindle in the noon the radiant word."
Among his later works, the books of poems Hasnahena, Khosroz and Sahara, the poetry anthology Bulbulistan, and the novels Ruper Nesha, Bhangabuk and Ekmon Ekpran created a special stir.
Poet Golam Mostofa earned special renown as a translator as well. By rendering the following books from Arabic and Urdu literature, he enriched Bengali literature: Ikhwanus Safa, Musaddas-e-Hali, Kalam-e-Iqbal, Shikwa and Al-Quran are among his translated works. In addition, he wrote several more books on thought and rationalism; Islam O Communism, Islam-e Jehad and Amar Chintadhara are the fruits of his profound thinking and learning.
Poet Golam Mostofa's Bishwanabi is a remarkably successful creation. Though this immortal work is written in prose, that prose is as rhythmic and mellifluous as poetry. The book Bishwanabi is a worthy biography of Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh). The way the heart's emotion and sincere feeling are depicted in the book is utterly rare in our Bengali literature. In the following period he wrote an epic named Bani Adam in amitrokkhor metre on Quranic themes, an immortal and imperishable achievement in Bengali literature.
His notable talent is also evident in the field of music. As a singer and lyricist he won special fame. Above all, in composing the famous 'Kiam Bani' (the call to the Messenger) of Islamic songs, ghazals and milad mahfils, he was unrivalled. Many of his songs were also recorded in Abbasuddin's voice; besides, he himself recorded quite a few songs in his own voice. The first lines of his recorded songs are as follows:
O God, the Merciful, Rahmanur Rahim
You are the King, the eternal fair creation of all of religion and the world
My Muhammad is the Messenger
Poems
- Roktorag
- Hasnahena
- Khosroz
- Sahara
- Gulistan
- Bani Adam
- Kabbo Kahini
- Sahara
- Tarana-e Pakistan
- Bulbulistan
- Kishor
- Kobor (a childhood poem)
Biographies
- Bishwanabi
- Marudulal
Novels
- Ruper Nesha
- Bhangabuk
- Ek Mon Ek Pran
Others
- Islam O Communism
- Maru Dulal
- Islam O Jihad
- Amar Chintadhara
Translations
- Musaddas-e Hali
- Kalam-e Iqbal
- Shikwa O Jawab-e Shikwa
- Al Quran
- Joy Porajoy (Ikhwanus Safa)
Golam Mostofa, a devotee of Bengali literature, spent the last few years of his life at his own home (Mostofa Manzil) in Shantinagar, Dhaka. After suffering from illness for quite some days, the poet breathed his last at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on 13 October 1964.
