Dr Abdus Salam - The ’Mystic’ scientist

Dr . Salam , someone who is respect and loved by every Pakistan extremist or not - its Mulla Politics which I agree has always been hijacking every new paper and every story in Pakistan - somehow we are helpless its Interior Punjab and NWFP where fanatics are comming from - because of lack of education and poverty this need to be addressed .

Hamidum, Romair, and Urstruly:

For an outsider like me, can you answer in simple way that I can understand.

Why ``who is muslim, not a contract between the individual, the book (in case of Islam - Koran), and Allah?

How could another human being be a better interpretor or even a judge of such a solemn contract between a person, his/her book, and his/her Allah?

Thank you.
Anil

Zainab:

Thank you for this most informative article about one of the best sons of Panjab. It is interesting that the two panjabi nobel prize winners, Dr. Salam and Dr. Khurana are both from West Panjab and both were treated better by their countries of adoption (US in case of Khurana) than by their home countries.

I hope that this article is discussed as a celebration of Dr. Ahmadi`s life and not a discussion re. his religion.

prelude:

...temporal’s first my kalima: pehlay insaan, phir musalmaan, pehlya ta’aleem phir tafheem, pehlay Khuda phir Rasool ... and the second: be good amma ba`ad...

...dr. abdus salam was a insaan
--how many of us are even that?

...he was a good Pakistani
--how many of us are eventhat?

...he was a compassionate man
--how many of us have that compassion?

...his mazhab...madhab for wannabees... was his personal decision.

...i acknowledge his services to Pakistan and his human-ness in the same spirit as i do that of al-ma’amun…mamonides…from my past...meaning his achievements cannot be detracted, distracted or subtracted because he was a jew...

rgds,

t

ps: zainab: thanks for this and except for minor errors no need to be apolegetic

i kept confusing Professor Dirac (his teacher) with Professor Duff (his student at cambridge) in my mind, while replying to your posts, so im sorry for the error.

Hamidm2 - and might i ask what is it that your friends are squabbling over on the other board? its funny how certain topics elicit such fiery responses, now only if all this energy that people like urstruly have is direcetd towards something productive..we`d be a developed country!

romair,

.........indeed, you are totally clueless !

hamidm #9: ``after all, there are many shades of christians, hindoos and jews who seem to get along fine most of the time...``

I think you maybe jumping the gun, a bit. Your partners in crime, the Christian Evangelicals, have declared all of us to hell, if we don`t consider Jesus our savior. I even saw a 10 year old girl on CNN declaring me to hell, as she was casually preparing her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a nice home in subarban USA. Scared the hell out of me!! And I had to cancel my business trip to her Red state, of South Carolina. But the nightmares won`t go away........

Urstruly, and whomever else, are generally harmless. All talk, no action......It`s your new found friends, who we should worry about.......Maybe that is what is needed. Now that these guys are in power, thanks to their votebase, maybe they will declare all Sunnis, Shias, Wahabis, Ismailis, and Ahmedis, equally to hell. Which may force the later, to finally shake hands with each other........

P.S. Would you happen to know, exactly how one declares Jesus to be one`s savior? Is there a formal ceremony? Is it acceptable, to Ralph and Jerry if we declare Jesus the no. 2 savior, i.e. standby, after Muhammad?

...... it really gives me a lot of comfort to see that rabid mullahs like urstruly and malik99 are in a minority on the chowk - maybe, just maybe, this portends a better future .........

........... but then there are my more secular friends rsaxena and tahmed squabbling with equal rabidity on the other board !.......... can`t win for losing!

again, im sorry, your correction has been duly noted, thanks for your appreciation.
freethinker, bts and hamidm2...i thank you for your opinions and support.

Zainab:

Just another correction: Dirac was not Salam`s student but in fact he was his teacher. I appreciate and admire your interset in Salam`s contributions. He was indeed a great scientist. Regards,

Mohammad Gill

Zainab:

Just another correction: Dirac was not Salam`s student but in fact he was his teacher. I appreciate and admire your interset in Salam`s contributions. He was indeed a great scientist. Regards,

Mohammad Gill

``At half past four of December 10, 1979, three mrn - Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg - entered the auditorium of the Stockholm Concert Hall to a flourish of trumpets. They were to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, for their construction of a single theory incorporating weak and electromagnetic interactions, an achievement that began, almost unnoticed, in the years following the discovery of the strange particles. The laureates walked down the wide aisle - Glashow and Weinberg in tails and studs: Salam in full Pakistani formal regalia, including shoes with toes that curled several painful inches into the air - and onto a platform, where they were introduced and individually extolled by a middle-aged member of the Sweish Academy of Sciences. At the end of each peroration, the two thousand people in the audience applauded as the prizewinner walked to center stage to meet King Gustav XVI, who presided over the ceremony. Each physicist shook the king`s hand and received a leather-bound diploma, a hefty gold medal, and a letter......``

The above is an excerpt from ``The Second Creation`` , by Robert P. Crease and Charles C. Mann, p. 181. The Nobel was just a formal recognition of the milestone contribution of Salam, Weinberg, and Glashow. Pakistanis can take pride that Salam was a compatriot. If his achievement inspires them to do creative work, it`s great. Otherwise, his contributions can be filed together with those of Razi, Ibn -e Sina, and others and referred to when debating the greatness of our religion and religious culture.

Mohammad Gill

I’m going to say this just once because i dont want to get caught up in useless arguments which serve no purpose.

1. Qadianis do not refrain from referring to themselves as qadianis or purposely call themselves muslims to offend anyone else. the title of this community is ``Ahmadi`` not qadiani, so hence followers call themselves ``ahmadi muslims``, and no political law changes the status of a community. Just as boris, shias, wahabis and agha khanis refer to themselves as ``muslims`` so do ``ahmadis``, simple as that. I am shocked that you seem to beleive you alone, somehow have the right to impose restrictions on others, we can call ourselves a budhist, a muslim, a catholic if we find that we share the beliefs professed by the proponents of these religions, not the followers. no human being can tell anyone what they are or aren’t, he may have an opinion to which he is entitled, but he does not by any authority, religious or political, have the right to tell others what to call themselves.
2. the reason I repeatedly mentioned abdus salam’s spiritual and religious side is not to “shove” the fact that he was a muslim down anyone’s throat but to make it clear once and for all, that he was a better muslim than most of us will ever be and again I repeat no constitutional amendment can stop him or me or anyone else form calling him an “exemplary muslim” because that is what he was.
As for Mohar11’s statement “This is a desperate attempt by the author to legitimize Mr Salam, an ahmedi, to the dogmatic muslim masses in general and pakis in particular”. This article was not an attempt to do anything of the sort. Every mention of his Islamic leanings were factual and observed by his family members and friends throughout his life or were descriptions of himself that he made himself at different occasions such as interviews or seminars. With regards to his pursuit of knowledge when he arrives at Cambridge, Professor Salam began to study all kinds of religions, he read 15 volumes of hindu and sikh religions as well as several commentaries of the bible, philosophies, histories, and economies of the world, and also read a great deal about Islamic mysticism and history as he realized majority of these faculties found their roots in Islamic history as Islamic civilizations were at one time the most advanced in every sense, (education, lifestyle, health and knowledge).
3. it is because of ignorance and conditioned prejudices which spring out of archaic misconceptions fuelled by extremist political and religious parties that this rift has been created between Pakistani sects. Many of the interactors have gone and proved that enlightenment is a long way away from our nation, and those who do admit to respecting and revering abdus salam despite his religious leanings, well atleast they have decided to step out of the box, it’s a beginning.
4. as for the errors regarding the awarding of the nobel prize and the name of the student, I did realize the mistakes later but they were made as I was translating from the “urdu” book and only later realized that I had mis-quoted the name of the theory and the student (spelled in urdu it sounded like Derek) he was awarded the nobel prize for. I apologize for these errors.
I thank those again who have the decency to accept people for who they are and what they do, rather than what they are told to think about a specific kind of race or community.

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urstruly ....

..... i honestly fail to understand why you and others of your ilk so violently object to ahmedis calling themselves muslim ........ why is it so important ?......... after all, there are many shades of christians, hindoos and jews who seem to get along fine most of the time ........ i know many reform jews who think the orthodox are nutcases, and are somewhat ashamed of them, but they don`t disown them .......... even the mormons and jehovah`s witnesses, as weird as they might be, are accepted as christians by their co-religionists .............. what is so terrible about ahmedis ?

.......... in the seventies when your brethren were killing ahmedi students and burning their books and belongings at the hostel, i had to spend a week in exile at a friend`s house in lahore cantt because some of your friends with shaven underarms started a rumor that i was an ahmedi ........ i really didn`t mind it at that time - airconditioning, home cooked meals and maid service for a week was like manna from heaven - but, today i look back at the insanity and still wonder what drives people like you to commit mayhem and murder ..........so what is it with you and the ahmedis ?