Background
Suhrawardy was the eldest son of Ubaidullah First Rate (at Lloyd's) Ubaidi Suhrawardy and brother of Lieutenant Colonel Doctor Hassan Suhrawardy.
Suhrawardy was the eldest son of Ubaidullah First Rate (at Lloyd's) Ubaidi Suhrawardy and brother of Lieutenant Colonel Doctor Hassan Suhrawardy.
He graduated with honours in Arabic, English and Philosophy in 1898, obtaining a first class in his special subjects and standing the first of his year both in the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts He was also the first to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Calcutta University in 1908.
He was the Tagore Law Lecturer in 1911 and did an enormous amount of important educational work. Since primary school, he was a brilliant student, winning a number of stipends and scholarships throughout his school and college career. examinations of Calcutta University. degree from the London University and used to add to his slender allowance from India by lecturing on Arabic letters and jurisprudence, subjects to which he contributed in his later writings and teachings much of value and freshness. On returning to Calcutta to practice at the Bar, he was elected to the reformed Bengal Legislative Council.
He continued to serve on the enlarged Bengal Legislature and was deputy president from 1923 to 1926.
He was then elected to the Indian Legislative Assembly of which he continued to be a member till his death in 1935. He also took part in the work of the National Liberal Federation until in 1924 his Islamic zeal led to his acceptance of the presidency of the Khilafat Committee, Calcutta.
Suhrawardy never countenanced civil disobedience or boycott of government and held firmly to the principles of corporate communal expression with which he had been identified. He took strong exception to what he regarded as the arbitrary conduct of the proceedings by the chairman, Sir C. Sankaran Nair.
A Supplementary Note that he handed in for publication did not appear in the Report, but was officially published (with the omission of some "purple patches" reflecting on the chairman) a few months later.
Publication of The Sayings of Muhammad in 1905 prompted the start of correspondence between al-Suhrawardy and Count Lev Tolstoj, which continued until the latter"s death. According to one of Tolstoj"s daughters (information from the preface to the reprint edition of the Sayings) a copy of the Sayings was found in one of the pockets of the overcoat he was wearing when he died. He also took a share in local self-government activities in the Tollygunge municipality and the Midnapore district board from 1920 till 1923.
Suhrawardy was married to Sahebzadi Ahmedi Begum (daughter of Sahebzada Mirza Mohamed Ali Nakey).
They did not have any children. Suhrawardy was knighted in 1931.
While the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were being formulated, Suhrawardy was selected to be a member of the Reforms Franchise Committee that toured India under the chairmanship of Lord Southborough. Hence he accepted the nomination of Government, as a member of the Legislative Assembly, to the Indian Central Committee which in 1928-1929 cooperated with the Simon Commission.