About
About Fazlur
Physician, author, and advocate for medical humanities and ethics.
Fazlur Rahman was born and brought up in what is now Bangladesh. After his medical education in Dhaka, New York, and Houston, he practiced cancer medicine for thirty-five years in San Angelo, Texas. He is an adjunct professor of biology (medical humanities and ethics) at Angelo State University, a senior trustee of Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and an advisory council member of the Charles E. Cheever Jr. Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
His writings on medical, ethical, social, and scientific issues have appeared in many national and international publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian Weekly, International Herald Tribune, Haaretz, Indian Express, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, Harvard Review, Short Story International, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Oncologist, and Lancet. His cultural and medical memoir, The Temple Road: A Doctor’s Journey, published in India in 2016, tells about his upbringing and training years, his move to a new country, and his life and practice in West Texas. He and his wife, Jahanara (Ara), have lived there for most of their lives and have raised four children. They love walking in nature and going on wildflower adventures.
The U.S. edition of his cultural and medical memoir, The Temple Road: A Doctor’s Journey, was published by Texas Tech University Press on May 12, 2026, and is available now wherever books are sold. His second book, Our Connected Lives: Caring for Cancer Patients in Rural Texas (Texas Tech University Press, 2024), was named a Choice “Review of the Month” and rated “Essential.”
“Science is absolutely important for medicine, but science cannot feel your anguish.”
“A patient’s healing begins with your reassuring presence and your empathy.”
— Fazlur Rahman, MD
The Journey
Childhood
Born in the village of Pora Bari, in present-day Bangladesh. Loses his mother at age seven; survives kala-azar, a parasitic illness, as a boy.
Medical training
MD, Dhaka Medical College; internship at St. John's (New York); residency at Long Island Jewish–Queens General (New York); senior residency and hematology-oncology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston).
1975
Settles in San Angelo, Texas — effectively the first oncologist in West Texas, serving a vast rural region.
1985
Co-founds Hospice of San Angelo.
2011
Retires from clinical practice after 35 years of cancer medicine.
Today
Adjunct professor of biology (medical humanities and ethics) at Angelo State University; senior trustee of Austin College; advisory council member of the Charles E. Cheever Jr. Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at UT Health San Antonio.
A note on the name
Dr. Fazlur Rahman, MD, the San Angelo, Texas oncologist and author of The Temple Road: A Doctor’s Journey, shares his name with several well-known figures — among them the Islamic scholar Fazlur Rahman Malik (1919–1988) and the structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan (1929–1982). He is not related to either.