On the Jan 29, 1926, Chaudhry Muhammad Hussein and Bibi HajiraHussien had a baby boy at their two-bedroom abode in Jhang. They named him Abdus Salam — ‘servant of peace’.

Salam had his early schooling in Jhang city. At the age of 12, Abdus Salam was admitted to Jhang’s local college for his intermediate education. Right from the start, Salam was deeply invested in his academic growth. At 14, he scored record breaking marks in Punjab University’s matriculation entrance exams. In 1942, Salam joined the Government College University at Lahore. He enrolled to study Mathematics A and B, and English. Apart from being somewhat of a prodigy at mathematics, Salam was also seen as a highly able student of the English language by his mentors. It is recorded that some of his tutors thought he would make a great English teacher.

In Mathematics, Salam published his first paper in 1943. It was titled, “A problem of Ramanujan”. He graduated next year with jaw-dropping scores: 300 out of 300 marks in Mathematics, 121 out of 150 in English Honours. He stood first at his university, breaking all records in the B.A examinations. As a result of Salam’s high scores, he secured a scholarship for further studying mathematics at Cambridge University’s prestigious St John’s College.

While being groomed in a quintessentially British environment at Cambridge University, Salam did not lose sight of his purpose of being there. His grades spoke volumes about his performance.His time at Cambridge ended, for the time being, with a PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory at St John’s. By the end of his tenure, he had made a mark in the scientific fraternity as a promising young scientist.In 1951, after having won a number of awards and accolades, Salam was ready to move back to Pakistan. He dismissed an opportunity to spend a year at Princeton University (where Professor Albert Einstein was too!) and took up the offer to head the mathematics department at the Government College Lahore (GC).

In 1953,Abdus Salam returned to St John’s College as a mathematics lecturer. Despite his move from Pakistan, sections of the Pakistani academia and intelligentsia had begun to value Salam as an asset. He was inducted in 1954, as a fellow at the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. In 1955, Salam had his first brush with the UN as scientific secretary at the first ‘Atoms for Peace’ conference. He also helped set up the United Nations Advisory Committee for Science and Technology.

In 1957, Salam joined Imperial College London, initially, as a lecturer of applied mathematics. By next 1960, he was bestowed with the responsibility of chairing the Theoretical Physics department, along with Paul Matthews.

In both Cambridge and London, he had formulated a team of scientists to work with, a majority of whom were Pakistanis. One such scientist was Munir Rashid.

President Field Marshal Ayub Khan appointed Abdus Salam as his Chief Scientific Officer. With this appointment, Salam endeavoured to improve the standard of scientific progress in Pakistan, using his newly legitimised influence as a leading scientist. During the 60s Abdus Salam gained influence in Pakistan’s domestic scientific policy and established a number of scientific institutions in Pakistan.

The International Centre for Theoretical Physics was another brainchild of Professor Abdus Salam. Professor Salam believed in the potential that scientists from the third-world could offer to the global scientific community. 

In 1968, Salam received the Atoms for Peace award for his efforts in “making the world aware of the benefits to be gained from using nuclear knowledge for peace, health and prosperity.” In 1970, Salam helped set up Pakistan’s first nuclear power plant in Karachi with the help of Canadian and Pakistani engineers.

Abdus Salam died at the age of 70. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and had become frail and weak towards the end of his life.

Salam’s journey from Jhang to the peripheries of scientific knowledge is a wonder in itself. He is remembered fondly by the global scientific community at large.

Abdus Salam’s grave. — Imran Gabol

Regretfully his epitaph continues to provide a ground for ideological warfare between conflicting schools of religious political thought; the word ‘Muslim’ is often erased from his tombstone.