This paper deals with the effect of heat generation (absorption) of MHD forced convection flow of incompressible, electrically conducting viscous fluid over a moving cylindrical rod with thermal radiation. The system of coupled partial differential equations governing the flow and heat transfer is solved using an efficient implicit finite - difference scheme along with quasilinearization technique. Numerical computations are performed for air (Pr = 0.7) and displayed graphically to illustrate the influence of relevant physical parameters on local skin friction and heat transfer coefficients and, also on, velocity and temperature fields. It is observed that the heat generation decreases the heat transfer whereas heat absorption does the opposite. Further, heat generation reduces the thickness of thermal boundary layer, whereas it increases due to heat absorption. It is also observed that the heat transfer coefficient and temperature fields are strongly affected due to thermal radiation.