Abdus Salam, the Muslim Newton

 The day throughout Pakistan should celebrate with pride and joy the 88th anniversary of the first Muslim Nobel prize in physics, how not to write a post about this man who brought an unprecedented revolution in the world of physics. However, the impact is much larger than the intellectual revolution it has generated; Muslim first recipient of this award, all Muslims in the world today should remember some of his memories and his work. However, we see that neither Pakistan nor the Muslim world has risen, despite a few intellectuals who shout loud and clear, the injustice been the memory of this revolutionary man.

Being absolutely not a physicist by training, I could content myself here a remark purely superfluous, surely absurd to some physicists at the sight of the superficial nature of it. Dr. Abdus Salam was a Pakistani physicist (1926 – 1996) known for his work on electroweak interactions, synthesis of electromagnetism and the weak interaction. This unification has earned him alongside his counterparts Sheldon Lee Glashow and Steven Weinberg, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979, given that the contribution of each physician was very independent of each other.

Abdus Salam’s contribution to the Muslim world

The contribution of Dr. Abdus Salam to the Muslim world is not only unprecedented, it is historic. It must be borne in mind that until 1979, no Muslim was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The quality of work, experience and uniqueness of his research have certainly given the consent of the Nobel Committee to award him the time this distinction in 1979; Now, as I wrote, Dr. Abdus Salam was not only the engine of an intellectual revolution, it was also the cause of a revolution in the Muslim world.

Many countries, including Italy, wanted to offer the Dr. Abdus Salam, before he gets the Nobel Prize (he was tipped wide), citizenship. The idea was to get a Nobel price to the country which has granted citizenship to Abdus Salam upstream. His response was, however, no appeal; this Nobel Prize will go to Pakistan and any other country.This detail, which marks the attachment of Dr. Abdus Salam in his home country, is crucial if not critical to assess the degree of indifference of Pakistan with regard to this great man that I discuss in the last part of this post.

The other major contribution of Dr. Abdus Salam to the Muslim world is that it has introduced an unprecedented spirituality in a world dominated by rationality. During his speech at the ceremony of the Nobel Prize, Dr. Abdus Salam was traditionally dressed in a turban and Indo-Pakistani clothing.