Ten years later, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.

AbuSulayman started his career as a lecturer at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he chaired Department of Political Science from 1982 to 1984.

In 1989, he succeeded Tan Sri Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf of Egypt as the second Rector of IIUM and served in the office until 1999.

During his rectory, IIUM grew from a humble Madrasah of high school standard to a world class university with 15,000 student enrolment on a new campus that is considered a landmark in functional modern Islamic architecture.

In recognition of his service to Malaysia and Muslims around the world, in 2016, his name was put in a Centre for Collaborative Research set up by IIUM under Faculty of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences.