Barkatullah was born on 2 March 1898 in the village of Ghorsal under
Shahjadpur thana, which was part of Pabna district at the time. His father, Ali Azam, was a physician; his mother was Tosiron Bibi. He matriculated from Shahjadpur High School in 1914 and completed an Intermediate of Arts at
Rajshahi College in 1916. Starting in 1916 and continuing through his student days, articles he wrote began to be published in various magazines and literary journals, including
The Moslem Bharat. Barkatullah was a deputy secretary of the education department of
East Pakistan, later Bangladesh. ==Writing career==