Prof Ghulam Azam was born in 7th November’1922 at his maternal gandfather’s Laxmibazar home in Dhaka. He hails from a well-respected family of religious scholars. Laxmibazar is a well-known hub of spiritual practice and his maternal grandfather Shah Sayed Abdul Monaem was the Shah Shaheb (spiritual leader) at that time. His ancestoral home is Maulvi Bari (house of religious scholars), Birgaon village, Nabinagor sub-district, district of Brahminbaria. His great grandfather, Munshi Shahabuddin, was known as the most prominent religious scholar on the east of the Meghna River.
Prof Azam’s father was Maolana Ghulam Kabir and mother was Sayeda Ashrafunnisa. In 1950 his father purchased land in Moghbazar, Dhaka; Prof Azam has been resident there since. His father was an Islamic and modern man. He was the teacher of a high school and also the marriage registrar (Kazi) of Dhaka city.
Prof Azam has 3 brothers and 5 sisters (1 brother & 1 sister remain living), and he is the eldest. He and his siblings displayed exceptional academic excellence. He was consistently among the highest achieving from his academic peers and went on to complete a degree in Arabic, English and Political Science in 1946 from Dhaka University. He then completed his masters in Political Science in 1948 also from Dhaka University. Prof Azam was a student activist, and particularly active in the Bangla Language Movement. He was elected for two consecutive terms as Secretary General to Dhaka University’s Students Union (1947-49/1948-49). He went on to join Rangpur Carmichael College as Lecturer then Professor of Politics.
Of his brothers, the first, Dr. Ghulam Muazzam, passed his M.B.B.S degree from Calcutta Medical College. He was a gold medalist in his batch in which national professor Nurul Islam was also his batchmate. He was the principal of Sylhet and Rangpur Medical colleges and professor of Acra Medical College in Ghana through Commonwealth invitation. He rose to become the leading Pathologist in Bangladesh and wrote several books. Two of the books are Science in the Quran and The Quran and Medical Science (written in Bangla). The second brother was an electrical engineer and chief engineer in a division of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC). His third brother Dr Mahdiuzzaman was also an Electrical Engineer. He was a professor in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and a research fellow at the University of Manchester, UK. Prof Azam’s sisters were educated women for their time; among them, one was a lecturer in Bangla Literature. Husbands of the sisters include Advocate Moshihur Rahman, Maolana Alauddin Al-Azhari (the first Bangladeshi graduate of Al-Azhar University and author of Bangladesh’s key textbook in Arabic Language) and Maolana Kazi Shariatullah (Secretary General of Bangladesh Kazi Association).
Prof Azam is married to Sayeda Afifa Azam, daughter of Maolana Mir Abdus Salam of Bogra. Their marriage was on 28th December’1951. They have six sons and no daughters. His eldest son completed his degree and masters in Economics from the University of Manchestor, UK. He works for a development bank in the Middle East. His second son is a businessman in UK and third son works for a company also in UK. His fourth son is an ex-brigadier general and award winning officer of the Bangladesh Army who was dismissed without explanation by the current Awami League government upon their rise to power. Prof Azam’s fifth son is a management consultant in UK and his youngest son completed his doctorate from Aligarh University and is a lecturer at a British University.