Founder, Chairman & Group CEO · SUFI GROUP
At ten, he promised to feed ten million people. Today he is building the companies to keep that promise — ten million halal jobs, for ten million families.
The story
The moments that made him — from Chandpur to Madina and back, and every company that followed.
Age 10
হাশরের দিন বলিবেন খোদা — হে আদম সন্তান…“On the Day of Judgement, Allah will say — O son of Adam…”
At ten, he read these lines and asked his grandfather — his Dadu Bhai — whether they were true. His grandfather told him it was a Hadith Qudsi. That day he promised to feed ten million hungry people, to treat the sick and to give water to the thirsty — so that he could stand before Allah with an answer.
Read this chapterMadina · 2001–02
He grew up in Madina. Like the other boys he wore a jubba, and every label said Made in China. Bangladesh makes some of the best garments in the world. So why was there not a single Bangladeshi brand on those shelves?
Read this chapterMasjid an-Nabawi · 2002
হুজুর, ওকে বাংলাদেশে যেতে দেন। ও মনে হয় ভালো কিছু করবে।“Let him go to Bangladesh. I think he will do something good.”
That is what three Bangladeshi scholars told his father in Masjid an-Nabawi. His father’s business, like every expatriate business under the kafala system, was in a local sponsor’s name, and the boy could not accept it. Madina was his city too, he told them; one day he would do business there in his own name.
Read this chapter2002
At about twelve or thirteen, he left his father, mother and brothers in Madina and came back to Bangladesh alone. Dakhil, then Alim. Almost everyone advised against applying to the University of Dhaka. He bought a single admission form — and was admitted.
Read this chapter2010–12
In 2010 he founded his first limited company, Xplore Bangladesh, to carry the country’s tourism potential to the world. Until 2012 it went remarkably well. Then came hartals and turmoil: hotels stayed shut for months, the investment burned away, and the company was paused.
Read this chapter2012
বাড়ি থেকে ঢাকায় আসার ভাড়াও হাতে ছিল না। ছোট চাচার কাছ থেকে ১০০০ টাকা ধার নিয়ে ঢাকায় আসি — আর সেখান থেকেই সুফির যাত্রা।“I didn’t even have the fare from home to Dhaka. I borrowed 1,000 taka from my younger uncle and came to Dhaka — and that is where SUFI’s journey began.”
The losses had left him effectively bankrupt. For about a month and a half he slept on a friend’s factory floor — watching, learning. And from there SUFI was born.
Read this chapter2012 onward
SUFI began as SUFI Fashion, with its own factory — today’s SUFIF. Its first franchise opened before it had a single outlet of its own. Then came UNIFORMAKER, with hundreds of thousands of uniforms for the World Bank–supported ROSC project — and, step by step, SUFI GROUP.
Read this chapterNow
“Let him go, he will do something good.” Faisal says he has not yet done a crore-th part of the good that vision asks of him. His prayer: that every remaining second makes an impact — and that crores of families have halal rizq, food, treatment and clean water.
Read this chapter
The arithmetic of a promise
Ten million people cannot be fed from one pocket. Work that large needs institutions — so the vow became a plan: ten million halal jobs.
10M
Halal jobs
১ কোটি — our goal
10M
Families
One job feeds one family
50–60M
People
৫–৬ কোটি — fed, treated and given water
Every light is a family.
The journey
Every brand has its own story and its own purpose. Open a chapter to read it, or visit the brand.
SUFI GROUP
Fashion, leather, uniforms, lifestyle, technology, commerce and real estate — every company a means to the same end.
Master Brand
BuildingOne global master brand for premium, halal living.
Manufacturing
OperatingQuality, on time, at scale — for every institution it dresses.
E-commerce
OperatingWholesale and affordable commerce, online since 2012.
Leather
BuildingGenuine leather, genuine luxury — for the GCC and beyond.
How the empire is built
Build Brands. Not Shops.
Build Systems. Not Dependence.
Build Leaders. Not Employees.
“Business is worship. Profit is important. Trust is more important. Legacy is more important than both.”
— Faisal Mahfuz
Brotherhood
Builders are not made alone. From an open morning brotherhood to a circle of legacy builders.
Writing
The horizon
Partners, investors, talent and community builders — there is a place for you in this work.
