The campus wore a festive look as hundreds of graduates attired in convocation dresses joined teachers and guests at the colourful opening ceremony of the two-day convocation at the university playground.

Dr Mahathir in his convocation speech urged Muslims to expand their field of learning, not confining themselves only to the knowledge of religion.

"We, the Muslims must not neglect the study of our religion.......but we must try hard to acquire knowledge in all fields in sciences, technology so that we may serve the Ummah and Islam better," he said in the thought-provoking speech.

Neglect in these fields of study has made the Muslims more easily subject to oppression, observed the great Asian leader of the Muslims.

Delivering the speech the architect of modern Malaysia pointed to the difference between rule of law and the rule of justice in a society.

"We need rule of justice, rule of law may not be just and I feel rule of law is not enough," he said amid huge claps from around 8,000 graduates.

Mahathir told the graduates that this is not the end of acquisition of knowledge. "The processes of knowledge acquisition never ends. It goes on throughout the life," he said urging them to contribute to the improvement of society.

Citing the first divine message received by Mohammad (SM) from Allah, he said Islam gives priority to acquiring knowledge.

Recalling the great days of Muslims during the early centuries of Islam, he said Muslims produced great scholars in many fields and they excelled in all the fields of knowledge of their times.

He mentioned that the Muslims of the early centuries of Islam went to Greece to acquire knowledge. They translated and studied the works of the Greeks, Persians and Indians and spread the teachings of Greek philosophers, scientists and mathematicians.

"With these efforts, the dark age of the Europeans ended and they began to build their present civilisation. Unfortunately, the Muslims themselves decided to reject knowledge other than of their own religion," Mahathir said.

"The consequence is decline of the Muslims and the rise of the Europeans," he observed.

President Iajuddin Ahmed who is the chancellor of the university, ministers, members of parliament, representatives of the foreign missions in Bangladesh also attended the convocation ceremony.

President Iajuddin urged the graduates to enrich themselves with high moral principles of integrity, conscience and love for humanity to render the desired service to the people. "The nation and the world expect a lot from you," he said.

Iajuddin congratulated the ex-premier of Malaysia, one of the economic tigers of Asia, and thanked him for giving them the opportunity to honour him and thus help forge a permanent relationship of goodwill with Dhaka University.

Vice-chancellor Prof SMA Faiz handed over a crest to Dr Mahathir at the ceremony.

A total of 8,069 graduates, including 4,387 female, will receive certificates while 79 students will be awarded gold medals for their outstanding academic performances by the chancellor today, the concluding day of the convocation.

The chancellor will lead a colourful convocation rally that will begin at 2:00pm today from Curzon Hall.