Diarist 43, married with two sons, is the Imam of a mosque across the river from the Hrishipara settlement. Now in his 40s, and from another District, he came here and took the job in 2000. He was educated at a Muslim equivalent of a secondary school and is a Hafez - someone who has memorized the Koran. He is paid by the mosque Committee, not always on time, and also gets income from running a library in the mosque and acting as a tutor to Muslim children. His mosque is modern and is often quite full on Fridays, the main day of prayer, when he delivers a sermon. He is 'modern' in his beliefs, too, meaning he is quite liberal on some matters that worry more conservative Imams. He doesn't complain about MFIs working with women and thinks that on the whole they help poor women. He talks about such social matters in his sermons, but steers clear of politics. His two sons are having a religious education and attend madrassas in Gazipur, the District Town, as boarders.
In his home village he owned a homestead plot and about a quarter of an acre of farmland, and in 2021 he inherited more land, bought some that his sister inherited, then sold some to finance some building work on the village home. Recently (late 2024) he sold more land, got remittance from a brother overseas, and bought land near the mosque, where he plans to build a home. Until that he will continue to live as a tenant.
Chart 01 vividly illustrates two sides of his financial life: quiet, low-value transaction periods where he gets his wages and has to pay out for moderately-expensive things like madrassa fees and medical bills, and then the land deals and building costs which are much bigger.
