(English)
Bangladesh is a Muslim majority nation and Islam is the state religion of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.[4][5] The Muslim population was approximately 152 million, constituting 90% of the total population as of 2011[6][7] and making Bangladesh the third-largest Muslim majority nation in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan.
The majority of Bangladeshis are Sunni. They follow the Hanafi Islamic jurisprudence, but there is also an increasing numbers of the Ahle Hadith. Religion has always been a strong part of Bangladeshi identity, but the specific identity has varied at different times. Bangladesh although a developing country is one of the few secular Muslim majority countries in the world.[8]
Islam was introduced to Bengal in at least 7th-8th century by the Arab and Persian missionaries and merchants.[9][10] Following the conquests of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji and the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, Indian Islamic missionaries achieved their greatest success in terms of successful dawah and number of converts to Islam in Bengal.[11][12][13] Shah Jalal is thought to have spread Islam in the north-eastern Bengal and Assam during the beginning of the 14th century.
The Islamic Bengal Sultanate, a major trading nation in the world, was founded by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah after its independence from the Tughlaq dynasty. Subsequently, Bengal was conquered by Babur, the founder of one of the gunpowder empires, but was also briefly occupied by the Suri Empire. Akbar the Great's preaching of the syncretic Din-i Ilahi, was described as a blasphemy by the Qadi of Bengal, which caused huge controversies in South Asia.
In the 17th century, under Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's Islamic sharia-based rule,[14] the Bengal Subah, also known as The Paradise of the Nations,[15] was worth over 12% of global GDP and one of the world's leading manufacturing power, from which the Dutch East India Company hugely benefited.[16][17][18] Concepts of the Islamic economics's found in the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri delivered a significant direct contribution to the economy of Bengal, and the Proto-industrialization was signaled.[19]
(বাংলা)
ইসলাম বাংলাদেশের প্রধান ধর্ম। এ দেশের সর্বাধিক জনগণ ইসলাম ধর্মে দৃঢ় বিশ্বসী। বাংলাদেশে মুসলমান জনসংখ্যা প্রায় ১৪৮.৬ মিলিয়ন (১৪.৮৬ কোটি), যা বিশ্বের চতুর্থ বৃহত্তম মুসলমান জন-অধ্যুষিত দেশ (ইন্দোনেশিয়া, পাকিস্তান এবং ভারতের পরে)। ২০১০ সালের আদমশুমারী অনুসারে, বাংলাদেশের মোট জনসংখ্যার প্রায় ৯০.৪% মুসলমান।[১][২][৩]
