Eighteen years ago on November the 21st with the death of Dr Abdus Salam, though we physically lost Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate, a physicist and a mathematician par excellance. His mertits were not confined to this only, he was also a man whose passion and deep love for Quran and Pakistan was manifested in both his words and deeds, but the spirit of his legacy is alive and cherished in many parts of the world as the institutions he established continue to benefit millions of human beings.
Salam was a multidimensional individual and so is his legacy. His scientific contribution remains influential even today. His contribution and prediction for Higgs-boson particle- a discovery that earned Nobel prize for physics this year is well recognized by the scientists. However, his achievements in the fields other than sciences and sometimes in the realms considered contrasting to sciences are equally fascinating and motivating. Thus, we have all the reasons to remember this role model more often than on birth and death anniversaries.
Most of us are aware of traditional conflict between faith and reason and religion and science. A general view is that these streams cannot go hand in hand. They are rather seen as opposing each other, sometimes, deemed fatal to each other’s growth. Salam successfully busted this myth and established reconciliation between the two by achieving the heights of excellence in Mathematics and Physics while retaining deep connections with faith and religion. He rather proved both supporting each other. For him Holy Quran and his firm belief in unity of Allah were his biggest guiding principles in widening his vision of scientific inquiry.
Salam understood meanings of Holy Quran and found it great source of guidance and motivation for his scientific work. He made huge efforts to introduce to the world, the, often forgotten, intellectual side of the Holy Quran. He tried to make people aware of Quran’s injunctions for quest for knowledge; a book not in conflict with reason but one that is truly compatible with reason, knowledge, scientific thinking and the one that guides people to avoid conflict on earth.
Anyone who would have tried to understand meanings of Holy Quran must be aware of the fact that the book is full of wisdom and knowledge and covers besides morality and philosophical issues a much wider range of guidance on different spheres of life including sociology, economics and even touches upon many scientific concepts, some of which were not even talked about just a few centuries ago.
Salam stated many a times and proved through his works that he derived motivation for scientific achievements by reading and contemplating on the verses of Holy Quran. He stated, “The Holy Quran enjoins us to reflect on the verities of Allah’s created laws of nature”. During his acceptance speech for the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on unification of weak electromagnetic forces, Salam quoted the following verses from the Quran.
