1. He was born on 26 March 1942.
He was believed to be one of Malaysia’s best-known bilingual poet
He was born in a village called Temerlok, Trong, in British Malaya.
His career began as a teacher in Butterworth Trade School in 1960
He then continued in several service ,his teaching school to become a tutor , lecturer , senior lecturer and
subsequently held various academic positions at local and international universities. He has also made history
as the youngest professor ever appointed to the post in 1979 at the age of 37 years.
Upon his return to Malaysia, he joined the National University of Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia . For
42 years, he had worked at USM , UKM and UM . He was invited to teach in the United States , Brunei ,
Germany and the Netherlands as a visiting professor and received fellowships from several universities in the
United States , Japan and the Netherlands .
He was appointed as Guest Professor under the Fulbright-Hays program (1977) and taught at North Carolina
State University, Raleigh , United States (1977 - 1978); lecturer in Malay Literature Department, Deputy Dean of
the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM ; Director Institute of Language, Malay Culture. Later
became Professor of Literature at the age of 36 years (1978). Muhammad became "Asian Scholar in Residence"
at the University of Michigan. In 1992-1993, he was appointed the Fullbright Visiting Reseacher, at the
University of California, Berkeley ; assumed Chair of Malay Studies at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands
(1993-1994).
