Background
Abdur Rahim was born in the village of Shialkathi, Pirojpur District in Bangladesh. His father was Haji Khabiruddin and mother Aklimunnessa.
Abdur Rahim was born in the village of Shialkathi, Pirojpur District in Bangladesh. His father was Haji Khabiruddin and mother Aklimunnessa.
After completing first four years of education at the village mosque beside his home, he got admitted into the Sharshina Aliya Madrasa in 1934. Here he studied for about five years. In 1938, Abdur Rahim graduated with merit from Sharsina aliya Madrassah, after which he got admitted into Aliya Madrasa of Calcutta (presently Aliah University) from where he passed his Fazil and Kamil exams in 1940 and 1942, respectively.
He was fourth among the twelve children in the family. Abdur Rahim used to receive the magazine Tarjamanul Qur"an edited by Abul A"la Maududiwhen he was a student at the Aliya Madrasa. Deeply influenced by this magazine and other writings of Syed Abul A"la Maududi, Abdur Rahim participated in the All-Indian conference of Jamaat-e-Islami held in Allahabad in 1946, from where he got acquainted with many leaders of the Jamaat.
He subsequently joined the organisation in 1946-1947 session.
Abdur Rahim was among the four people who started to work in Dhaka to establish the roots of Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh. The others were Rafi Ahmed Indori, Khurshid Ahmed Bhat and Qari Jalil Ashrafi Nadwi.
In 1955, Abdur Rahim was elected Ameer of East Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami. In 1970, he became Nayeb-e-Ameer (vice chairman or vice president) of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, while Golam Azam was elected the new Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami East Pakistan.
He was the first elected leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
During the Liberation War of 1971, he was stranded in Pakistan after the outbreak of war and was only able to return to the country in 1974. During the period of 1971-1978, Jamaat was banned from doing politics in Bangladesh. On 29 September 1987, he became illinois
Admitted to hospital on 30 September, he died on 1 October 1987 in Dhaka.
He was instrumental in bringing various Islamic political parties under the banner of the Islamic Democratic League (IDL), which won 20 seats in the parliamentary elections held on 18 February 1979.