Daily Times

Yesterday, November 21, was the death anniversary of Dr Abdus Salam, the first Nobel Laureate of Pakistan and a man who lived a purposeful life to explore, theorise and predict the laws of nature. Though belonging to a select group of top scientists — a category of people for whom belief in God is not in fashion — Salam believed that the laws of nature and God are in harmony. Though his beliefs were prosecuted in his country, he drew inspiration for his research from the words of God and quoted extensively from the Holy Quran in the numerous addresses he delivered the world over. The believer that he was, his rich and busy life was an endless quest for symmetry that he pursued in the physical laws of the universe created not out of some random probability but by design.

In his address at the Nobel banquet ceremony in 1979, he stated: “The creation of physics is the shared heritage of all mankind. East and west, north and south have equally participated in it. In the Holy Book of Islam, Allah says, ‘Thou seest not, in the creation of all-Merciful any imperfection, return thy gaze, seest thou any fissure. Then return thy gaze, again and again. Thy gaze, come back to you dazzled aweary.’ This in effect is the faith of all physicists, the deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze.”

Salam always wanted the developing world and the Muslim world to contribute their part in scientific development. An excerpt from his 1975 Book, Ideals and Realities, points to this agony: “It is good to recall that three centuries ago, around the year 1660, two of the greatest monuments of modern history were erected, one in the west and one in the east, St Paul’s Cathedral in London and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Between them, the two symbolise, perhaps better than words can describe, the comparative level of architectural technology, the comparative level of craftsmanship and the comparative level of affluence and sophistication the two cultures had attained at that epoch of history. But about the same time there was also created — and this time only in the west — a third monument, a monument still greater in its eventual import for humanity. This was Newton’s Principia, published in 1687. Newton’s work had no counterpart in the India of the Mughals.”

In the early 1960s, Salam proposed the setting up of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Pakistan. The proposal was rejected by Ayub Khan’s finance minister, as “an underhand attempt to set up an international five-star hotel for the entertainment of the elite of the world scientific community”! His home country threw away an invaluable opportunity that Italy seized and, in 1964, Salam founded in Trieste, Italy, the ICTP with a mandate to advance scientific expertise and skills in the developing world.

While Salam’s prime motivation for research was, in his own words, “because of the underlying understanding it provides of the world around us of the immutable laws and of Allah’s design”, he wanted the Muslim world to contribute its share in scientific development to pay back the debt for the benefits they were deriving from the research of others. The paper titled, ‘The future of science in Islamic countries’ prepared by Salam for inclusion in a volume presented to the Islamic Summit held in Kuwait in January 1987 abounds with this desire. Salam says: “Why am I so passionately advocating our engaging in the enterprise of science and of creating scientific knowledge? This is not just because Allah has endowed us with the urge to know, this is not just because in the conditions of today this knowledge is power and science in application, the major instrument of material progress and meaningful defence; it is also that as self-respecting members of the international world community, we must discharge our responsibility and pay back our debt for the benefits we derive from the research stock of contempt for us — unspoken, but certainly there — of those who create knowledge.”

“As I have emphasised, science is important because of the underlying understanding it provides of the world around us, of the immutable laws and of Allah’s design. It could be a vehicle of cooperation for all mankind and in particular for the Islamic nations. We owe a debt to international science, which, in all self-respect, we must discharge. As Allah has promised, He does not let the efforts of those who strive, go to waste. Let me end with the following prayer: Let no future historian record that in the 15th century of the Hijra, ‘Muslim scientific talent was there but there was a dearth of statesmen to marshal and nurture it.’”

However deeply he felt for a scientific renaissance in the Muslim world, in stark contrast to Salam’s achievements as a scientist, he failed miserably in bringing science back to the religion he proclaimed. It was not for lack of effort. The Islamic Science Foundation, his grand scheme for scientific advancement, with an endowment of one billion dollars collected from oil-rich countries, came to nothing after he was banned from ever setting foot in Saudi Arabia. Kuwait and Iran did give some money to support their scientists at the ICTP, the institute he had founded for training physicists from developing countries, but it was trivial. The grand promises by kings, princes and emirs remained unkept. Yet, whatever he could do he did and donated his entire Nobel prize money towards establishing a fund for Pakistani students of science to pursue higher studies abroad.

Sadly, though Pakistan is blessed with scientific talent, the statesmen who could marshal and nurture it are absent. Our emphasis on education was reflected in the 2013-14 budgetary allocation at a skimpy 1.9 percent of our GDP.

Although Salam’s contribution to science and human development were acclaimed globally, his motherland betrayed him by not publicly acknowledging his unmatched contributions towards the development of science and the strategic weapons programme of Pakistan. Not many know that he was instrumental in setting up the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) and the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and was a board member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) for a long time. Few among those receiving higher education in sciences in Pakistan know that Salam was instrumental in sending about 500 Pakistani scientists and engineers to the best universities in the west for higher education in nuclear science and technology. These very men were to later become the backbone of the programme. Few know that, in December 1972, he helped in the setting up of a theoretical physics group in the PAEC when two theoretical physicists, Dr Riazuddin and Dr Masud, then working at the ICTP in Italy, were sent to Pakistan and asked to meet Munir Ahmad Khan who had that very year become the chairman of the PAEC. This theoretical physics group developed the designs for Pakistan’s strategic weapons. The tragedy of this maltreatment is unique: there is disquiet and perhaps even fear in accepting him as the national hero that he is. He, being an Ahmedi, was always marked as tabooed. Yet Salam kept loving his motherland. People wonder why he kept on working for Pakistan’s interests despite the mistreatment meted out to him and his faith. The answer lies in his love for God and his commitment to the saying of the Holy Prophet (PBUH): “Love for the country is part of faith.”

Pakistanis are not thankless people. One day, when the mist of propaganda clears, we will remember him as he deserves to be remembered.

The writer can be reached at thelogicalguy@yahoo.com