Seeing Dr Abdus Salam's 'Theism' In a Broader Canvas and Context
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
24 May 2022
Religious
Orthodoxy and the Spirit of Intolerance Are Two of the Major Factors Responsible
For Killing the Once Flourishing Enterprise of Science in Islam
Main
Points:
1. Why should a
Muslim, a Sunni at that, have any truck with Salam's faith or no-faith?
2. Abdus Salam is
a non-Muslim in Pakistan and to most of the Sunnis, he's a heretic.
3. Go beyond
your religiocentric vision and see good in all things made by nature.
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Mohammad Abdus Salam was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and a Nobel
Prize laureate
-----
Many years
ago, Pakistani physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy, well-known for his staunchly
secularist views, asked the Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam to write the preface
for his book Islam and Science: Coexistence and Conflict, he expected his more
devout colleague to decline. Salam stunned Hoodbhoy by agreeing and beginning
his preface by stating, “I completely agree with him that religious orthodoxy
and the spirit of intolerance are two of the major factors responsible for
killing the once flourishing enterprise of Science in Islam.”
The preface
goes on with Salam joining Hoodbhoy in opposing the “Islamic Science” movement:
“I agree with the statement that there is only one universal Science; that its
problems and modalities are international and that there is no such thing as
‘Islamic Science’ just as there is no ‘Hindu Science,’ no ‘Jewish Science,’ no
‘Confucian Science,’ nor ‘Christian Science."
Austin
Dacey's above-mentioned excerpts from 'Unification of Forces' puts the
legendary physicist Dr Salam's 'religiosity' in perspective. It's not his
religiosity or non-religiosity that should matter to an obstinate Muslim
believer or a non-Muslim non-believer. 'Faith is a contextualised perception,'
wrote the Brazilian philosopher and popular writer Paulo Coelho. And remember,
seeing is not always believing.
When I met
Khuswant Singh at his residence in Sujan Singh Park in Delhi in 2011, I asked
him off the record whether the world-renowned scientist was really a profound
believer. En passant, Khuswant was one of the first journalists in India who
interviewed Salam after he got the Nobel in 1979. He (Khuswant Singh) also
carried a long article in his long-defunct magazine, ' New Delhi.' Khuswant, himself an agnostic, told me that
it was his firm belief that Dr Salam's religiosity was a very fine gesture on
behalf of his beleaguered Ahmadiyya community, persecuted by Sunnis, across the
world, esp. back home (Pakistan).
Dr Salam
wanted to send across the message of being a deeply religious person so that
his perceived community of Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan got a modicum of
respectability (and also safety) because Qadiyanis or Ahmadiyyas are considered
to be heretics, atheists and non-Muslims. Didn't Gabriel Marquez say so
tellingly, " Every individual has three personalities: Public, Private and
SECRET.
A Pakistani
scholar told me that Javed Iqbal (son of Dr Muhammad Iqbal), who was a friend
and coeval of Dr Salam, subtly suggested that he (Salam) should retain his
(devout) religious identity for the sake of his community. Mind you, Iqbal's
family had a natural inclination towards the Ahmadiyya sect and Iqbal always
supported the Qadiyanis. Though, it could be debatable, to the point of being
apocryphal.
Moreover,
when the ever-grateful Nobel laureate visited Calcutta on January 19, 1981 to
pay his respects to Professor Anilendra Ganguly, who taught him Mathematics at
Sanatan Dharma College in Lahore, a lady journalist from the now defunct Bangla
broadsheet Jugantar (Bangla edition of The Amrita Bazar Patrika) asked his
apercus on god, religion and personal belief, the mild-mannered scientist just
smiled.
Here I
reiterate, my objective is not projecting him as a theist or atheist. This is a
stupid debate that has no end. Neither a theist will get a Nobel for proving
Salam to be a believer nor an atheist will get anything if he can prove that
the man had no faith and no belief. Moreover, why should a Muslim, a Sunni at
that, have any truck with Salam's faith or no-faith? He's a non-Muslim in
Pakistan and to most of the Sunnis, he's a heretic. That's it.
What
matters is his trenchant comment upon the misnomer: Islamic Science. Science is
science. It's a universal concept and the legacy of mankind, not the
prerogative of any specific religion, race or community.
Now the
majoritarian in India are emulating the hidebound Muslims in claiming that
their ancient texts have plastic surgery, space science and rockets. Rubbish!
It's time to drop such sectarian nomenclature and surge ahead. Science belongs
to mankind, regardless of religious stripes. When Arabs were giving Astronomy,
Cipher, Theorems (sorry, Newton cannot be called the Father of Differential
Calculus), the camera obscura, the elephant clock, Al-Idrisi's world map,
Al-Zahrawi's surgical instruments (scalpel is still used) and even decibel
system (though it's still uncertain) to the world, Aryabhatta was giving
Sinusoidal functions, solution of quadratic equations and the Value of Pai,
Diameter of Earth, among others. Greeks gave Geometry, culminating in Euclid's
Elements, the odometer, the alarm clock and water mill, Pythagoras, Archimedes
etc. to the world. Ancient Babylonians and Egyptians also contributed
significantly. Look at the symmetry of Pyramids, esp, the Giza Pyramids, built
aeons ago.
So,
scientific development is a concerted endeavour which has a cumulative outcome.
Go beyond your religiocentric vision and see good in all things made by nature.
That'll be the epitome of faith and epicentre of man's religiosity without
which most of the humans cannot survive.
----
An occasional columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit
Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam.
He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/abdus-salam-theism-canvas-context/d/127077
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