 In 1917, Alam joined the 49th Bengali Paltan of British Indian Army, He served in the Signal Corps and Mahbub spent about three years at different stations in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) before being finally released in 1920, when the Paltan was broken up.In Bangla prose, Alam is a writer of fiction and historian.His literary works were included in the curriculum of school level, secondary, higher secondary and graduation level Bengali Literature in Bangladesh.