Soon he was doing many portraits of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He quit his job to and became a freelance painter. Syful was in all processions and public meetings of Awami League during that period in the 1970s. In 1975, opposing education ministry and foreign ministry's approvals- Bangobandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as President of Bangladesh sent him to Russia with a special fellowship for portrait painting training. The same year he was assassinated. Islam returned to Bangladesh the following year.