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This chapter focuses on the cultural background of Abdus Salam. Salam's assimilation into Western, and particularly British, life was so complete that his background was little understood by his European colleagues. For most of those who called him ‘Abdus’, it remained unknown and irrelevant. As an Ahmadi Muslim in British India, Salam inherited a special demographic and cultural legacy, which guided his destiny.

This chapter focuses on the role of faith and religion in Salam's life. Salam belonged to the Ahmadi sect of Islam. Aside from being a driving influence on his personal and family life, Salam's fervent belief affected his status in Pakistan: his reputation in his home country was always as a barometer of Ahmadi status.

Pakistan has codified some of the world's most draconian anti-blasphemy laws, which can carry a life sentence or the death penalty. While there have been no official executions for blasphemy, extremists have frequently murdered the accused before, during, or after adjudication, even after an acquittal. A vastly disproportionate number of cases involve the Ahmadi and Christian minorities, who are particularly vulnerable since, in blasphemy cases, their testimonies count for less than that of Muslims. Mobs, whipped into hysteria by blasphemy accusations broadcast from mosques, have assaulted, typically with impunity, the accused, their families, and their coreligionists. attacking houses of worship, homes, and businesses, and destroying entire villages. In Punjab in 2009, after an unsubstantiated accusation that a Qur’an had been desecrated, at least seven Christians were burned alive and over 50 houses torched. Credible reports indicated that extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda were involved. Muslim reformers are also targeted and silenced. Author Younus Shaikh was sentenced to life in prison for “deviating from the teachings of the Quran” by criticizing rajam – stoning for adultery. While officials, such as Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, have called for rescinding the blasphemy laws, public opinion and entrenched extremists prevent them from acting.

This chapter contains several documents that reveal that the Muslim leadership was bereft of any creativity even after a colossal misfortune. The documents highlight the National Convention’s resolution on reservation of jobs for Muslims; Sitaram Kesri on injustice to Muslims; Prime Minister Vajpayee’ address to the Convention of Muslim Women; Declaration of the National Convention launching the movement for empowerment of Muslim Indians; and extracts from the inaugural address by Mr Justice A.M. Ahmadi delivered on 9 May 1999 at the National Convention for the movement for empowerment of Muslim Indians.

This chapter describes the Pathak Court of 1986–9. Twenty-four years after becoming a judge of the Allahabad High Court and after nearly nine years of experience on the SCI, the government announced that the sixty-two-year-old R.S. Pathak would become the nation’s eighteenth CJI on 21 December 1986. Philosophically, he was a man of the middle and several of his colleagues would later volunteer the compliment that he brought relative peace to the SCI. His appointees include Madhukar Hiralal Kania, Kalmanje Jagannatha Shetty, Lalit Mohan Sharma, Manepalle Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah, Srinivasachari Ranganathan, Narain Dutt Ojha, Subbiah Ratnavel Pandian, Thamarappallil Kochu Thommen, Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi, Khagendra Nath Saikia, Kuldip Singh, and Jagdish Sharan Verma. The fact that a dozen judges were appointed during his two and a half years as CJI was a significant accomplishment. Five of them — Kania, Sharma, Venkatachaliah, Ahmadi, and Verma — would serve as CJIs during the 1991–8 years.

Ibn Taymiyya is often hailed as a vanguard of Islamic traditionalism. He argues that anyone who receives the divine message and turns away from it will be held accountable on Judgment Day. Nevertheless, even the wicked will one day be spared of chastisement and even redeemed. This chapter examines Ibn Taymiyya’s arguments for universalism, a refutation by Taqi al-Din al-Subki (d. 1355), and a re-articulation of Ibn Taymiyya’s arguments by his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350). This chapter also looks at a somewhat similar modern debate between Muhammad ‘Ali (d. 1951) of Lahore and the Western academic James Robson (d. 1981).Ibn Taymiyya (or: Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Taymiyah, Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Taimiyyah, Ibn Taimiyya, Ibn Taimiyah).