[7] He was the recipient of the honorary title "Dato" by the Sultan of Pahang in 1994 and "Datuk" by the King of Malaysia in 2000, and was Included in the list of 500 most influential Muslims in the world several times.

[8][9][10] Born in 1946 in a small village close to the town of Temerloh in Malaysia's east coast state of Pahang, Osman Bakar attended his high school at Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

In September 1967, he left Malaysia on a scholarship to study mathematics at the University of London, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in June 1970.

Osman went to Temple University, Philadelphia in October 1981 to pursue his doctoral studies in Islamic philosophy of science under the tutelage of Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

From July to December 1992, he served as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Department of History of Science of Harvard University where he conducted research on Mathematics in Muslim Culture.