April 1

April 1

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John Philip Abizaid (born April 1, 1951) is a retired United States Army general and former U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander who served as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2021.

Abizaid retired after 34 years of service.[1] As of 2007, Abizaid is employed as a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.[2] He assumed the Distinguished Chair of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point in December 2007. Abizaid was appointed to the board of directors of RPM International on January 24, 2008, and also sits on the board of directors of the Defense Ventures Group.[3] In 2008 he was selected as a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College.[4]

On November 13, 2018, he was nominated as the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.[5] He was confirmed by the United States Senate as Ambassador on April 10, 2019 and sworn in on April 30, 2019.[6] Abizaid formally presented his credentials to King Salman on June 16, 2019.[7] He resigned on January 20, 2021.


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    28 Safar, 50 AH (April 1, 670 CC) -- Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son of 'Ali and Muhammad's daughter Fatimah, died.


    Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (b. 15 Ramadan, 3 AH [December 1, 624 CC], Medina, Hejaz, Arabia - d. 28 Safar, 50 AH [April 1, 670 CC], Medina, Umayyad Caliphate, Arabia), . was the older son of Ali and Muhammad's daughter Fatimah and was the older brother of Husayn.  Hasan was also the fifth (and last) of the Rashidun -- or "Rightly Guided" -- Caliphs.  Muslims respect him as a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.  Among Shi'a Muslims, Hasan is revered as the second Imam.  Hasan was elected to the caliphate after his father's death, but abdicated after six or seven months to Muawiyah I, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty.  After Hasan's abdication, the caliphate turned into a kingship.  


    Hasan was known for donating to the poor, his kindness to the poor and bondsmen, and for his knowledge, tolerance and bravery.  For the rest of his life, Hasan lived in Medina, until he died at the age of 45.  Hasan's death at the age of 45 believed to have been attributable to his wife, Ja'da bint al-Ash'at, who is commonly accused of having poisoned Hasan. 


    Hasan was buried in the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery in Medina.  

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    When Hasan was born in the year 624 CC, Muhammad slaughtered a ram for the poor on the occasion of his birth, and chose the name "Hasan" for him.  Fatimah shaved his head and gave the weight of his hair in silver as alms.  According to Shi'a belief, theirs was the only house that archangel Gabriel allowed to have a door to the courtyard of al-Masjid an-Nabawi.  Both Shi'a and Sunni Muslims consider Hasan to belong to the Ahl al-Bayt ("People of the House [Family]") of Muhammad as one of the Ahl al-Kisa ("People of the Cloak") and participants of the Event of Mubahalah.


    There are many narrations showing the respect of Muhammad toward his grandsons, including the statements that his two grandsons would be "sayyeda Sabab (leaders of the youth) of Paradise", and that they were Imams "whether they stand up or sit down".  He also reportedly predicted that Hasan would make peace between two factions of Muslims.


    In the year 10 AH (631/632 CC), a Christian envoy from Najran (now in northern Yemen) came to Muhammad to argue which of the two parties erred in its doctrine concerning Isa (Jesus).  After likening Jesus' miraculous birth to Adam's creation, -- who was born to neither  mother nor a father -- and when the Christians did not accept the Islamic doctrine about Jesus, Muhammad was instructed to call them to Mubahalah where each party should ask God to destroy the false party and their families.  "If anyone dispute with you in this matter (concerning Jesus) after the knowledge which has come to you, say: Come let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then let us swear an oath and place the curse of God on those who lie."

    Sunni historians mention Muhammad, Fatimah, Hasan and Husayn as having participated in the Mubahalah, and some agree with Shi'a tradition that 'Ali was among them.   Accordingly, in the Shi'a perspective, in the verse of Mubahalah, the phrase "our sons" would refer to Hasan and Husayn, "our women" refers to Fatimah, and "ourselves" refers to 'Ali.


    One day, the 'Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid questioned the seventh Twelver Shi'a Imam, Musa al-Kadhim, asking why he had permitted people to call him "Son of the Apostle of Allah", while he and his forefathers were Muhammad's daughter's children, and that "the progeny belongs to the male ('Ali) and not to the female (Fatimah)".  In response al-Kadhim recited the verses Qur'an 6:84 and Qur'an 6:85 and then asked "Who is Jesus' father, O Commander of the faithful?"


    "Jesus had no father", said Harun.  Al-Kadhim argued that God, in these verses, had ascribed Jesus to descendants of the Prophets, through Mary, saying "similarly, we have been ascribed to the descendants of the Prophet through our mother Fatimah." 


    Harun asked Musa to give him more evidence.  Al-Kadhim thus recited the verse of Mubahalah, and argued "None claims that the Prophet made someone enter under the cloak when he challenged the Christians to a contest of prayer to God (the Mubahalah), except 'Ali, Fatimah, Al-Hasan, and Al-Husayn.  So in the verse, 'Our sons' refers to Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn." 


    Hasan was one of the guards defending 'Uthman ibn 'Affan during his assassination.  During the reign of 'Ali, he was a participant in the Battles of Siffin, Nahrawan and Jamal.


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    There was not a significant difference between the idea of the Imamate, or divine right, exemplified by each Imam designating his successor, and other ideas that "only the Prophet's Bayt were entitled to rule the Community", and Hasan, whom he had appointed as his inheritor, must have been the obvious choice, as he would eventually be chosen by the people to be the next caliph.


    Sunnis, on the other hand, reject the Imamate on the basis of their interpretation of verse 33:40 of the Qur'an which says that Muhammad, as the Khatam an-Nabiyyin ("Seal of the Prophets"), "is not the father of any of your men"; and that is why God let Muhammad's sons die in infancy.  This is why Muhammad did not nominate a successor, as he wanted to leave the succession to be resolved "by the Muslim Community on the basis of the Qur'anic principle of consultation (Shura)".  


    One of the theological questions that arises is why did the family members of Muhammad not inherit aspects of Muhammad's character, apart from prophethood, such as Hukm (Rule), Hikmah (Wisdom), and Imamah (Leadership).  Since the Sunni concept of the "true caliphate" itself defines it as a "succession of the Prophet in every respect except his prophethood".   An additional question that arises is if God really wanted to indicate that he should not be succeeded by any of his family, why did He not let his grandsons and other kin die like his sons?"


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    After 'Ali was assassinated, Hasan became the caliph of the Ummah, in a manner which followed the custom established by Abu Bakr.  He made a speech at the al-Masjid al-Mu'azzam bil-Kufah ("The Great Mosque in Al-Kufah") in which he praised the merits of his family, quoting verses of the Qur'an on the matter: "I am of the family of the Prophet from whom Allah has removed filth and whom He has purified, whose love He has made obligatory in His Book when He said: "Whosoever performs a good act, We shall increase the good in it."  Performing a good act is love for us, the family of the Prophet."   


    Qays ibn Sa'd was the first to give allegiance to Hasan.  Qays then stipulated the condition that the Bay'ah (Pledge of Allegiance) should be based on the Qur'an, the Sunnah (Deeds, Sayings, etc.) of Muhammad, and on the pursuit of a Jihad (Struggle) against those who declared Halal (Lawful) that which was Haram (Unlawful).  Hasan, however, tried to avoid the last condition by saying that it was implicitly included in the first two, as if he knew, from the very beginning of the Iraqis' lack of resolution in time of trials.  By doing so, Hasan wanted to avoid commitment to an extreme stand which might lead to complete disaster. 


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    As soon as the news of Hasan's selection as Caliph reached Mu'awiyah, who had been fighting 'Ali for the caliphate, Mu'awiyah condemned the selection, and declared his decision not to recognize him.  Letters exchanged between Hasan and Mu'awiyah before their troops faced each other were to no avail.  However, these letters provided useful agruments concerning the rights of the caliphate which would lead to the origin of the Shi'a -- the Party of 'Ali and the Household of Muhammad.


    In one of his long letters to Mu'awiyah in which Hasan summoned Mu'awiyah to pledge allegiance to him.  Hasan made use of the argument of his father, 'Ali, which the latter had advanced against Abu Bakr after the death of Muhammad.  'Ali had said: "If Quraysh could claim the leadership over the Ansar on the grounds that the Prophet belonged to Quraysh, then the members of his family, who were the nearest to him in every respect, were better qualified for the leadership of the community."


    Mu'awiyah, while recognizing the excellence of Muhammad's family, further asserted that he would willingly follow Hasan's request were it not for his superior experience in governing.  Mu'awiyah said, "You are asking me to settle the matter peacefully and surrender, but the situation concerning you and me today is like the one between you [your family] and Abu Bakr after the death of the Prophet ... I have a longer period of reign [probably referring to his governorship], and I am more experienced, better in policies, and older in age than you ... If you enter into obedience to me now, you will accede to the caliphate after me."


    At the time, the majority of the Muslims, who became known as Sunnis afterwards, placed the religious leadership in the totality of the community (Ahl al-Sunnah wal Jamaah), represented by the Ulama -- by the Islamic scholars, as the custodian of religion and the exponent of the Qur'an and the Sunnah of Muhammad, while accepting state authority as binding ... A minority of the Muslims, on the other hand, could not find satisfaction for their religious aspirations except in the charismatic leadership from among the people of the house of the Prophet, the Ahl al-Bayt, as the sole exponents of the Qur'an and the Prophetic Sunnah, although this minority too had to accept the state's authority.  This group was called the Shi'a.


    There was more correspondence between Hasan and Mu'awiyah with no result, so, as negotiations had stalled, Mu'awiyah summoned all the commanders of his forces in Ash-Sham, the region that stretches from Syria and southern Anatolia, in the north, to Palestine and Transjordan in the south, and began preparations for war.  Soon, he marched his army of sixty thousand men through Mesopotamia to Maskin, on the Tigris boundary of Mosul, towards the Sawad.  Meanwhile, he attempted to negotiate with Hasan, sending the young heir letters asking him to give up his claim.  


    Mu'awiyah hoped to either force Hasan to come to terms, or attack the Iraqi forces before they had time to strengthen their location.  However, Mu'awiyah believed that, even if Hasan was defeated and killed, he was still a threat, for another member of the clan of Hashim could simply claim to be his successor.  Should Hasan abdicate in favor of Mu'awiyah, however, such claims would have no weight and Mu'awiyah's position would be guaranteed.  


    Mu'awiyah was correct, for ten years later, after the death of Hasan, when the Iraqis turned to Hasan's younger brother, Husayn, to support an uprising, Husayn instructed them to wait for as long as Mu'awiyah was alive due to Hasan's peace treaty with him. 


    As the news of Mu'awiyah's army reached Hasan, Hasan ordered his local governors to mobilize.  There was no response at first, as some tribal chiefs, paid by Mu'awiyah, were reluctant to move.  Hasan's companions scolded them, asking whether they would not answer to the son of the Prophet's daughter.  Turning to Hasan, they assured him of their obedience, and immediately left for the war camp.  Hasan admired them and later joined them at An-Nukhayla, where people were coming together in large groups. 

      

    Hasan appointed 'Ubayd Allah ibn al-Abbas as the commander of his vanguard of twelve thousand men to move to Maskin.  There, 'Ubayd Allah ibn alp-Abbas was told to hold Mu'awiyah until Hasan arrived with the main army.  'Ubayd Allah was advised not to fight unless attacked, and that he should consult with Qays ibn Sa'd who was appointed as second in command.


    While Hasan's vanguard was waiting for 'Ubayd Allah's arrival at Maskin, Hasan himself was facing a serious problem at Sabat near Al-Mada'in, where he gave a sermon after morning prayer in which he declared that he prayed to God to be the most sincere of His creation; that he bore no resentment nor hatred against any Muslim, nor did he want evil and harm to anyone; and that whatever his followers hated in the community was better than what they loved in schism.  Hasan was, he continued, looking after their best interest, better than they themselves; and he instructed them not to disobey whatever orders he gave them.


    Some of Hasan's troops, taking the sermon as a sign that Hasan was preparing to give up; rebelled against him and looted his tent, seizing even the prayer rug from underneath him.  


    Hasan shouted for his horse and rode off surrounded by his partisans who kept back those who were trying to reach Hasan.  While they were passing by Sabat, however, al-Jarrah ibn Sinan, a Kharijite, managed to ambush Hasan and wounded him in the thigh with a dagger, while al-Jarrah was shouting, "God is the Greatest! You have become a Kafir (Infidel) like youir father before you."  Abd Allah ibn al-Hisl jumped on al-Jarrah, and as others joined in, al-Jarrah was overpowered and killed.


    Hasan was taken to Al-Mada'in where he was cared for by his governor, Sa'd ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi.  The news of this attack, having been spread by Mu'awiyah, further demoralized the already discouraged army of Hasan, and led to a massive desertion by his troops. 


    When 'Ubayd Allah and the Kufan vanguard arrived at al-Maskin, they found that Mu'awiyah had already arrived.  Mu'awiyah sent an envoy to tell them that he had received letters from Hasan asking for an armistice and asked the Kufans not to attack until the negotiations were complete.  Mu'awiyah's claim was probably untrue, but he had good reason to think that he could make Hasan concede.  


    However, the Kufans insulted Mu'awiyah's envoy.  In response, Mu'awiyah sent an envoy to 'Ubayd Allah in private, and to swear to 'Ubayd Allah had requested a truce from Mu'awiyah, and offered 'Ubayd Allah 1,000,000 dirhams (silver coins), half to be paid at once, the other half in Kufa, provided that 'Ubayd Allah switched sides.  'Ubayd Allah accepted and deserted at night to Mu'awiyah's camp.  Mu'awiyah was extremely pleased and fulfilled his promise to him.


    The next morning, the Kufans waited for 'Ubayd Allah to emerge and lead the morning prayer.  But 'Ubayd Allah was gone.  Instead, Qays ibn Sa'd took charge and, in his sermon, severely denounced 'Ubayd Allah, his father and his brother.  The people shouted: "Praise be to God that He has removed him from us; stand up with us against our enemy."


    Believing that the desertion of 'Ubayd Allah had broken the spirit of his enemy (had broken the spirit of the Kufans), Mu'awiyah sent Busr with an armed force to force Kufans' surrender.  However, Qays ibn Sa'd attacked and drove Busr back.


    The next day Busr attacked with a larger force but was repulsed again.  Mu'awiyah then sent a letter to Qays offering bribes but Qays replied that he "would never meet him except with a lance between them."  


    As the news of the revolt against Hasan and of his having been wounded arrived, both sides withdrew from fighting to await further news.


    Mu'awiyah, who had already commenced negotiations with Hasan, now sent high level envoys along with a witnessed letter in which Mu'awiyah committed himself to appoint Hasan his successor and to give Hassan whatever he wished.  Hasan accepted the offer in principle and sent 'Amr ibn Salima al-Hamdani al-Arhabl and his own brother-in-law Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath al-Kindi back to Mu'awiyah as his negotiators, along with Mu'awiyah's envoys.


    Mu'awiyah then wrote a letter saying that he was making peace with Hasan, who would become caliph after him.  Mu'awiyah swore that he would not seek to harm Hasan, and that he would give him 1,000,000 dirhams (silver coins) from the treasury (Bayt al-mal) annually, along with the land tax of Fasa and Darabjird, which Hasan was to send his own tax agents to collect.  The letter was witnessed by the four envoys.


    When Hasan read the letter, he commented:  "He is trying to appeal to my greed for a matter which, if I desired it, I would not surrender to him."  Then he sent Abd Allah ibn al-Harith, whose mother, Hind, was Mu'awiyah's sister, to Mu'awiyah, instructing him: "Go to your uncle and tell him:  If you grant safety to the people I shall pledge allegiance to you."  Afterward, Mu'awiyah gave Hasan a blank paper with his seal at the bottom, inviting Hasan to write on it whatever he desired.


    Hasan surrendered the reign over the Muslims to Mu'awiyah on the basis that "he act according to the Book of God, the Sunnah of His Prophet and the conduct of the righteous caliphs.  Mu'awiyah should not be entitled to appoint his successor but that there should be an electoral council (Shura); the people would be safe, wherever they were, with respect to their person, their property and their offspring; Mu'awiyah would not seek any wrong against Hasan secretly or openly, and would not intimidate any of his companions."  The letter was witnessed by Abd Allah ibn al-Harith, and Amr ibn Salima and transmitted by them to Mu'awiyah for him to acknowledge its contents and to confirm his acceptance.  Hasan thus surrendered his control of Iraq in Rabi II 41 AH/August 661 CC after a reign of seven months.


    After the peace treaty with Hasan, Mu'awiyah set out with his troops to Kufa, where at a public surrender ceremony Hasan rose and reminded the people that he and Husayn were the only grandsons of Muhammad, and that he had surrendered the caliphate to Mu'awiyah in the best interest of the community.  "O people, surely it was God who led you by the first of us and Who has spared you bloodshed by the last of us.  I have made peace with Mu'awiyah, and I know not whether happily this be not for your trial, and that ye may enjoy yourselves for a time," declared Hasan. 


    In his own speech Mu'awiyah told them that the reason why he had fought them was not to make them pray, fast, perform the pilgrimage, and give alms, considering that they had been already doing those, but to be their Amir (Commander or Leader), and that God had bestowed that upon him against their will.  According to some sources, he also said "The agreement I made with Hasan is null and void.  It lies trampled under my feet." Then he shouted: "God's protection is dissolved from anyone who does not come forth and pledge allegiance.  Surely, I have sought revenge for the blood of Uthman, may God kill his murderers, and have returned the reign to those to whom it belongs in spite of the rancour of some people.  We grant respite of three nights.  Whoever has not pledged allegiance by then will have no protection and no pardon."  The people rushed from every direction to vow allegiance.


    While still camping outside Kufah, Mu'awiyah faced a Kharijite revolt.  He sent a cavalry troop against them, but they were beaten back.  Mu'awiyah then sent for Hasan, who had already left for Medina, and commanded him to return and fight against the Kharijites.  Hasan, who had reached al-Qadisiyyah, wrote back: "I have abandoned the fight against you, even though it was my legal right, for the sake of peace and reconciliation of the Community.  Do you think I shall fight together with you?"


    In the nine year period between Hasan's abdication in 41 AH (661 CC) and his death in 50 AH (670 CC), Hasan retired to Medina, trying to keep aloof from political involvement for or against Mu'awiyah.  In spite of that, however, he was considered the chief of Muhammad's household, by the Banu Hashim themselves and the partisans of 'Ali, who pinned their hopes on his final succession to Mu'awiyah.  Occasionally, Shi'a, mostly from Kufa, went to Hasan and Husayn in small groups, and asked them to be their leaders, a request to which they declined to respond.  Hasan has been quoted as commenting "If Mu'awiyah was the rightful successor to the Caliphate, he has received it.  And if I had that right, I, too, have passed it on to him; so the matter ends there."


    Hasan, on the basis of his peace terms with Mu'awiyah, sent his tax collectors to Fasa and Darabjird.  Mu'awiyah had, however, instructed Abdullah ibn Aamir, now again governor of Al-Basrah, to incite the Basrans to protest that this money belonged to them by right of their conquest, and they chased Hasan's tax collectors out of the two provinces.  


    That Hasan would send tax collectors from Medina to Iran, after just having made plain that he would not join Mu'awiyah in fighting the Kharijites, was problematic.  In any case, as Mu'awiyah came to know that Hasan would not help his government, relations between them became worse.  Hasan rarely, if ever, visited Mu'awiyah in Damascus, Al-Sham, though he is said to have accepted gifts from him.


    Hasan's closeness to Muhammad was such that when Muhammad wanted to curse the deceitful, Hasan was with him.  Muhammad also said, "who worries him, has worried me." or "Hasan is from me, and I am from him," and "Hasan and Husayn are the two masters of the youth in Paradise."


    Hasan spent most of his youth in "making and unmaking marriages", so that "these easy morals gained him the title mitlaq, the divorcer, which involved 'Ali in serious enmities."  According to his grandson, Abdullah ibn Hasan, he usually had four free wives, the limit allowed by the law.  It is alleged that Hasan may have had as many as 70 wives in his lifetime, along with a harem of 300 concubines.  He had 15 sons and 9 daughters from six wives and three named concubines.  Many of these children died in their early years.  It is said that most of these marriages had a political intent in his father's interest.


    Historical sources are in general agreement that Hasan was poisoned by his wife, Ja'da bint al-Ash'at, at the instigation of Mu'awiyah.  He died in 670 CC.  He was 45 years old.


    Hasan was 38 years old when he abdicated the caliphate to Mu'awiyah.  Mu'awiyah was 58 years old at the time.  This difference in age indicates a serious obstacle for Mu'awiyah, who wanted to have his son Yazid succeed him as caliph.  However, the succession of Yazid was unlikely due to the terms of the agreement which Hasan made with Mu'awiyah in 41 AH/661 CC and the fact that, being 20 years younger, Hasan was likely to outlive Mu'awiyah.  Accordingly, Mu'awiyah would naturally be suspected of having a hand in a killing that removed an obstacle to the succession of his son Yazid.


    The burial of Hasan's body near that of his grandfather, Muhammad, was another problem which could have led to bloodshed.  Hasan had instructed his brothers to bury him near his grandfather, but that if they feared evil, then they were to bury him in the Cemetery of Al-Baqi.  The Umayyad governor, Sa'id ibn al-'As, did not interfere, but Marwan swore that he would not permit Hasan to be buried near Muhammad with Abu Bakr and Umar, while Uthman was buried in the Cemetery of Al-Baqi.  Banu Hashim and Banu Umayyah were on the verge of a fight, with their supporters brandishing their weapons.  At this point, Abu Hurairah, who was on the side of Banu Hashim, despite having previously served Mu'awiyah on a mission to ask for the surrender of the killers of Uthman, tried to reason with Marwan, telling him how Muhammad had highly regarded Hasan and Husayn.  Nevertheless, Marwan, who was a cousin of Uthman, was unconvinced, and A'ishah, while sitting on a mule surrounded by her supporters, seeing the parties and their weapons, decided not to permit Hasan to be buried near his grandfather, fearing evil would occur.


    A'ishah said: "The apartment is mine.  I shall not permit anyone to be buried in it."  Ibn Abbas, who was also present at the burial, condemned A'ishah by comparing her sitting on the mule at the funeral to her sitting on a camel in a war against Hasan's father at the Battle of Jamal.  Her refusal to allow Hasan to be buried next his grandfather, despite allowing her father, Abu Bakr and Umar to be buried there, offended the supporters of 'Ali. 


    Then Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah reminded Husayn that Hasan made the matter conditional by saying "unless you fear evil".  Ibn al-Hanafiyyah further asked "What evil could be greater than what you see?"  And so the body was carried to the Cemetery of Al-Baqi.  Marwan joined the body carriers, and when questioned about it, said that he gave his respect to a man "whose hilm (forbearance) weighed mountains."  Husayn led the funeral prayer.


    The shrine containing Hasan's tomb was destroyed once in 1925 during the conquest of Medina as part of a general destruction of memorials in cemeteries for religious reasons.  "In the eyes of Wahhabis, historical sites and shrines encourage "shirk" -- the sin of idolatry or polytheism -- and should be destroyed.


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    Donaldson, Dwight M.; The Shi'ite Religion: A History of Islam in Persia and Irak; Burleigh Press, 1933. 


    Halevi, Leor; Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society; Columbia University Press, 2011.


    Lalani, Arzina R.; Early Shi'i Thought: The Teachings of Imam Muhammad Al-Baqir; I.  B . Tauris, 2001.


    Madelung, Wilferd; The Succession to Muhammad; Cambridge University Press, 1998.


    Momen, Moojan; An Introduction to Shi'i Islam; Yale University Press, 1985.


    Tabatabai, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn; Shi'ite Islam; SUNY Press, 1997.


    Tomass, Mark; The Religious Roots of the Syrian Conflict; Springer, 2016.


    Weston, Mark; Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present; John Wiley & Sons, 2008.


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    Khan, Abdul Qadeer
    Abdul Qadeer Khan     (b. April 1, 1936, Bhopal, Bhopal State, British India – d. October 10, 2021, Islamabad, Pakistan), known as A. Q. Khan, was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer who is colloquially known as the "father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program". 

    An emigre from India who migrated to Pakistan in 1952, Khan was educated in the metallurgical engineering departments of Western European technical universities where he pioneered studies in phase transitions of metallic alloys, uranium metallurgy, and isotope separation based on gas centrifuges. After learning of India's "Smiling Buddha" nuclear test in 1974, Khan joined his nation's clandestine efforts to develop atomic weapons when he founded the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in 1976 and was both its chief scientist and director for many years.

    In January 2004, Khan was subjected to a debriefing by the Musharraf administration over evidence of nuclear proliferation handed to them by the Bush administration of the United States.  Khan admitted his role in running the proliferation network – only to retract his statements in later years when he levelled accusations at the former administration of Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990, and also directed allegations at President Musharraf over the controversy in 2008.

    Khan was accused of selling nuclear secrets illegally and was put under house arrest in 2004, when he confessed to the charges and was pardoned by then President Pervez Musharraf. After years of house arrest, Khan successfully filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government of Pakistan at the Islamabad High Court whose verdict declared his debriefing unconstitutional and freed him on February 6, 2009.  The United States reacted negatively to the verdict and the Obama administration issued an official statement warning that Khan still remained a "serious proliferation risk".

    Abdul Qadeer Khan was born on April 1, 1936 in Bhopal, a city then in the erstwhile British Indian princely state of Bhopal State, and now the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. His family is of Pashtun origin.  His father, Abdul Ghafoor, was a schoolteacher who once worked for the Ministry of Education, and his mother, Zulekha, was a housewife with a very religious mindset.  His older siblings, along with other family members, had emigrated to Pakistan during the bloody partition of India (splitting off the independent state of Pakistan) in 1947.  His siblings would often write to Khan's parents about the new life they had found in Pakistan.

    After his matriculation from a local school in Bhopal, in 1952 Khan emigrated from India to Pakistan on the Sind Mail train, partly due to the reservation politics  at that time, and religious violence in India during his youth had left an indelible impression on his world view. Upon settling in Karachi with his family, Khan briefly attended the D. J. Science College before transferring to the University of Karachi, where he graduated in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in physics with a concentration on solid-state physics. 

    From 1956 to 1959, Khan was employed by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (city government) as an Inspector of weights and measures, and applied for a scholarship that allowed him to study in West Germany.  In 1961, Khan departed for West Germany to study material science at the Technical University in West Berlin,  where he academically excelled in courses in metallurgy, but left West Berlin when he switched to the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands in 1965.

    In 1962, while on vacation in The Hague, he met Henny – a British passport holder who had been born in South Africa to Dutch expatriates. She spoke Dutch and had spent her childhood in Africa before returning with her parents to the Netherlands where she lived as a registered foreigner. In 1963, he married Henny in a modest Muslim ceremony at Pakistan's embassy in The Hague. Khan and Henny together had two daughters.

    In 1967, Khan obtained an engineer's degree in materials technology – an equivalent to a Master of Science (MS) offered in English-speaking nations such as Pakistan – and joined the doctoral program in metallurgical engineering at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.  Khan worked under Belgian professor Martin J. Brabers at Leuven University, who supervised his doctoral thesis which Khan successfully defended, and graduated with a Doctor of Engineering degree in metallurgical engineering in 1972.  His thesis included fundamental work on martensite and its extended industrial applications in the field of graphene morphology.  

    In 1972, Khan joined the Physics Dynamics Research Laboratory, an engineering firm based in Amsterdam, from Brabers's recommendation. The FDO was a subcontractor for the Urenco Group which was operating a uranium enrichment plant in Almelo and employed a gaseous centrifuge method to assure a supply of nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants in the Netherlands. Soon after, Khan left FDO when Urenco offered him a senior technical position, initially conducting studies on the uranium metallurgy.

    Uranium enrichment is an extremely difficult process because uranium in its natural state is composed of just 0.71% of uranium-235 (U235), which is a fissile material, 99.3% of uranium-238 (U238), which is non fissile, and 0.0055% of uranium-234 (U234), a  decay product which is also a non fissile.  The Urenco Group utilized the Zippe-type of centrifugal method to electromagnetically separate the isotopes U234, U235, and U238 from sublimed raw uranium by rotating the uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas at up to ~100,000 revolutions per minute (rpm).  Khan, whose work was based on physical metallurgy of the uranium metal, eventually dedicated his investigations on improving the efficiency of the centrifuges by 1973–74.

    Upon learning of India's surprise nuclear test, 'Smiling Buddha', in May 1974, Khan wanted to contribute to efforts to build an atomic bomb and met with officials at the Pakistani Embassy in The Hague, who dissuaded him by saying it was "hard to find" a job in PAEC (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission) as a "metallurgist". In August 1974, Khan wrote a letter which went unnoticed, but he directed another letter through the Pakistani ambassador to the Prime Minister's Secretariat in September 1974.

    Unbeknownst to Khan, his nation's scientists were already working towards the development of an atomic bomb under a secretive crash weapons program since January 20, 1972, that was being directed by Munir Ahmad Khan, a reactor physicist. After reading his letter, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had his military secretary run a security check on Khan, who was unknown at that time, for verification and asked PAEC to dispatch a team under Bashiruddin Mahmood that met Khan at his family home in Almelo and gave him Bhutto's letter to meet him in Islamabad. Upon arriving in December 1974, Khan took a taxi straight to the Prime Minister's Secretariat.  He met with Prime Minister Bhutto in the presence of Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Agha Shahi, and Mubashir Hassan where he explained the significance of highly enriched uranium, with the meeting ending with Bhutto's remark: "He seems to make sense." 

    The next day, Khan met with Munir Ahmad and other senior scientists where he focused the discussion on production of highly enriched uranium (HEU), against weapon-grade plutonium, and explained to Bhutto why he thought the idea of "plutonium" would not work.  Later, Khan was advised by several officials in the Bhutto administration to remain in the Netherlands to learn more about centrifuge technology but continue to provide consultation on the Project-706 enrichment program led by Mahmood.   By December 1975, Khan was given a transfer to a less sensitive section when Urenco Group became suspicious of his indiscreet open sessions with Mahmood to instruct him on centrifuge technology. Khan began to fear for his safety in the Netherlands, ultimately insisting on returning home.

    In April 1976, Khan joined the atomic bomb program and became part of the enrichment division, initially collaborating with Khalil Qureshi -- a physical chemist.  Calculations performed by Khan were valuable contributions to centrifuges and a vital link to nuclear weapon research, but Khan continued to push for his ideas for development of weapon-grade uranium even though it had a low priority, with most efforts still aimed to produce military-grade plutonium.  Because of his interest in uranium metallurgy and his frustration at having been passed over for director of the uranium division (the job was instead given to Bashiruddin Mahmood), Khan refused to engage in further calculations and caused tensions with other researchers.  Khan became highly unsatisfied and bored with the research led by Mahmood – finally, he submitted a critical report to Bhutto, in which he explained that the "enrichment program" was nowhere near success.

    Upon reviewing the report, Bhutto sensed a great danger as the scientists were split between military-grade uranium and plutonium and informed Khan to take over the enrichment division from Mahmood, who separated the program from PAEC by founding the Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL).  The ERL functioned directly under the Army's Corps of Engineers, with Khan being its chief scientist, and the army engineers located the national site at isolated lands in Kahuta for the enrichment program as an ideal site for preventing accidents.

    The PAEC did not forgo its electromagnetic isotope separation program, and a parallel program was led by G. D. Alam at the Air Research Laboratories (ARL) located at Chaklala Air Force Base, even though Alam had not seen a centrifuge, and only had a rudimentary knowledge of the Manhattan Project.  During this time, Alam accomplished a great feat by perfectly balancing the rotation of the first generation of centrifuge to ~30,000 rpm and was immediately dispatched to ERL which was suffering from many setbacks in setting up its own program under Khan's direction based on centrifuge technology dependent on Urenco's methods.  Khan eventually committed to work on problems involving the differential equations concerning the rotation around fixed axis to perfectly balance the machine under influence of gravity and the design of first generation of centrifuges became functional after Khan and Alam succeeded in separating the 235U and 238U isotopes from raw natural uranium.

    In the military circles, Khan's scientific ability was well recognized and he was often known by his moniker "Centrifuge Khan"  and the national laboratory was renamed after him upon the visit of President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1983.  In spite of his role, Khan was never in charge of the actual designs of the nuclear devices, their calculations, and eventual weapons testing which remained under the directorship of Munir Ahmad Khan and the PAEC.

    The PAEC's senior scientists who worked with him and under him remember him as "an egomaniacal lightweight" given to exaggerating his scientific achievements in centrifuges. At one point, Munir Khan said that, "most of the scientists who work on the development of atomic bomb projects were extremely 'serious'. They were sobered by the weight of what they don't know; Abdul Qadeer Khan is a showman." During the timeline of the bomb program, Khan published papers on the analytical mechanics of balancing of rotating masses and thermodynamics with mathematical rigor to compete, but still failed to impress his fellow theorists at PAEC, generally in the physics community. In later years, Khan became a staunch critic of Munir Khan's research in physics, and on many occasions tried unsuccessfully to belittle Munir Khan's role in the atomic bomb projects. Their scientific rivalry became public and widely popular in the physics community and seminars held in the country over the years.

    Many of Khan's theorists were unsure that military-grade uranium would be feasible on time without the centrifuges, since Alam had notified PAEC that the "blueprints were incomplete" and "lacked the scientific information needed even for the basic gas-centrifuges." Calculations by Tasneem Shah, and confirmed by Alam, showed that Khan's earlier estimation of the quantity of uranium needing enrichment for the production of weapon-grade uranium was possible, even with the small number of centrifuges deployed.

    Khan stole the designs of the centrifuges from Urenco Group. However, they were riddled with serious technical errors, and while he bought some components for analysis, they were broken pieces, making them useless for quick assembly of a centrifuge.  Its separative work unit  (SWU) rate was extremely low, so that it would have to be rotated for thousands of RPMs at the cost of millions of taxpayers money, Alam maintained. Though Khan's knowledge of copper metallurgy greatly aided the innovation of centrifuges,it was the calculations and validation that came from his team of fellow theorists, including mathematician Tasneem Shah and Alam, who solved the differential equations concerning rotation around a fixed axis under the influence of gravity, which led Khan to come up with the innovative centrifuge designs.

    Scientists have said that Khan would have never got any closer to success without the assistance of Alam and others. The issue is controversial.  Khan maintained to his biographer that when it came to defending the "centrifuge approach" and really putting work into it, both Shah and Alam refused.

    Khan was also very critical of PAEC's concentrated efforts towards developing a plutonium "implosion-type" nuclear devices and provided strong advocacy for the relatively simple "gun-type" device that only had to work with high-enriched uranium – a design concept of gun-type device he eventually submitted to the Ministry of Energy (MoE) and the Ministry of Defense (MoD).  Khan downplayed the importance of plutonium despite many of the theorists maintaining that "plutonium and the fuel cycle has its significance", and he insisted on the uranium route to the Bhutto administration when France's offer for an extraction plant was in the offing.

    Though he had helped to come up with the centrifuge designs, and had been a long-time proponent of the concept, Khan was not chosen to head the development project to test his nation's first nuclear-weapons (his reputation of a thorny personality likely played a role in this) after India conducted its series of nuclear tests, "Pokhran-II" in 1998.  Intervention by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Jehangir Karamat,  allowed Khan to be a participant and eye-witness his Pakistan's first nuclear test, "Chagai-I" in 1998. At a news conference, Khan confirmed the testing of the boosted fission devices while stating that it was KRL's highly enriched uranium (HEU) that was used in the detonation of Pakistan's first nuclear devices on May 28, 1998.

    Many of Khan's colleagues were irritated that he seemed to enjoy taking full credit for something he had only a small part in, and in response, he authored an article, "Torch-Bearers", which appeared in The News International, emphasizing that he was not alone in the weapon's development. He made an attempt to work on the Teller-Ulam design for the hydrogen bomb, but the military strategists had objected to the idea as it went against the government's policy of minimum credible deterrence. 

    In the 1970s, Khan had been very vocal about establishing a network to acquire imported electronic materials from the Dutch firms and had very little trust of PAEC's domestic manufacturing of materials, despite the government accepting PAEC's arguments for the long term sustainability of the nuclear weapons program.  At one point, Khan reached out to the People's Republic of China for acquiring the uranium hexafluoride (UF6) when he attended a conference there – the Pakistani Government sent it back to the People's Republic of China, asking KRL to use the UF6 supplied by PAEC.

    In 1982, an unnamed Arab country reached out to Khan for the sale of centrifuge technology. Khan was very receptive to the financial offer, but one scientist alerted the Zia administration which investigated the matter, only for Khan to vehemently deny such an offer was made to him. The Zia administration tasked Major-General Ali Nawab, an engineering officer, to keep surveillance on Khan, which he did until 1983 when he retired from his military service, and Khan's activities went undetected for several years after.

    In 1979, the Dutch government eventually probed Khan on suspicion of nuclear espionage but he was not prosecuted due to lack of evidence.  However, the Dutch government did file a criminal complaint against him in a local court in Amsterdam, which sentenced him in absentia in 1985 to four years in prison. Upon learning of the sentence, Khan filed an appeal through his attorney, S. M. Zafar, who teamed up with the administration of Leuven University, and successfully argued that the technical information requested by Khan was commonly found and taught in undergraduate and doctoral physics at the university.  The court subsequently exonerated Khan by overturning his sentence on a legal technicality. Reacting to the suspicions of espionage, Khan stressed that: "I had requested for it as we had no library of our own at KRL, at that time. All the research work [at Kahuta] was the result of our innovation and struggle. We did not receive any technical 'know-how' from abroad, but we cannot reject the use of books, magazines, and research papers in this connection."

    In 1979, the Zia administration, which was making an effort to keep their nuclear capability discreet to avoid pressure from the Reagan administration of the United States, nearly lost its patience with Khan when he reportedly attempted to meet with a local journalist to announce the existence of the enrichment program.  During the Indian Operation Brasstacks military exercise in 1987, Khan gave another interview to local press and stated: "the Americans had been well aware of the success of the atomic quest of Pakistan", allegedly confirming the speculation of technology export.  At both instances, the Zia administration sharply denied Khan's statement and a furious President Zia met with Khan and used a "tough tone", promising Khan severe repercussions had he not retracted all of his statements, which Khan immediately did by contacting several news correspondents.

    In 1996, Khan again appeared on his country's news channels and maintained that "at no stage was the program of producing 90% weapons-grade enriched uranium ever stopped", despite Benazir Bhutto's administration reaching an understanding with the United States Clinton administration to cap the program to three percent (3%) enrichment in 1990.

    The innovation and improved designs of centrifuges were marked as classified for export restriction by the Pakistan government, though Khan was still in possession of earlier designs of centrifuges from when he worked for Urenco Group in the 1970s.  In 1990, the United States alleged that highly sensitive information was being exported to North Korea in exchange for rocket engines. On multiple occasions, Khan levelled accusations against Benazir Bhutto's administration of providing secret enrichment information, on a compact disc (CD), to North Korea; these accusations were denied by Benazir Bhutto's staff and military personnel.

    Between 1987 and 1989, Khan secretly leaked knowledge of centrifuges to Iran without notifying the Pakistan Government, although this issue is a subject of political controversy. In 2003, the European Union pressured Iran to accept tougher inspections of its nuclear program and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed an enrichment facility in the city of Natanz, Iran, utilizing gas centrifuges based on the designs and methods used by the Urenco Group. The IAEA inspectors quickly identified the centrifuges as P-1 types, which had been obtained "from a foreign intermediary in 1989", and the Iranian negotiators turned over the names of their suppliers, which identified Khan as one of them.

    In 2003, Libya negotiated with the United States to roll back its nuclear program to have economic sanctions lifted, effected by the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act, and shipped centrifuges to the United States that were identified as P-1 models by the American inspectors. Ultimately, the Bush administration launched its investigation of Khan, focusing on his personal role, when Libya handed over a list of its suppliers.

    Starting in 2001, Khan served as an adviser on science and technology in the Musharraf administration and became a public figure who enjoyed much support from his country's political conservative sphere.  In 2003, the Bush administration reportedly turned over evidence of a nuclear proliferation network that implicated Khan's role to the Musharraf administration. Khan was dismissed from his post on January 31, 2004.  On February 4, 2004, Khan appeared on Pakistan Television (PTV) and confessed to running a proliferation ring, and transferring technology to Iran between 1989 and 1991, and to North Korea and Libya between 1991 and 1997. The Musharraf administration avoided arresting Khan but launched security hearings on Khan who confessed to the military investigators that former Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Beg had given authorization for technology transfer to Iran.

    On February 5, 2004, President Pervez Musharraf issued a pardon to Khan as he feared that the issue would be politicized by his political rivals. Despite the pardon, Khan, who had strong conservative support, had badly damaged the political credibility of the Musharraf administration and the image of the United States which was attempting to win the hearts and minds of local populations during the height of the insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. While the local television news media aired sympathetic documentaries on Khan, the opposition parties in the country protested so strongly that the United States Embassy in Islamabad was compelled to point out to the Bush administration that the successor to Musharraf could be less friendly towards the United States. This revelation restrained the Bush administration from applying further direct pressure on Musharraf due to a strategic calculation that it might cause the loss of Musharraf as an ally.

    In December 2006, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC), headed by Hans Blix, stated that Khan could not have acted alone "without the awareness of the Pakistan Government". Blix's statement was also reciprocated by the United States government, with one anonymous American government intelligence official quoted by independent journalist and author Seymour Hersh: "Suppose if Edward Teller had suddenly decided to spread nuclear technology around the world. Could he really do that without the American government knowing?".

    In 2007, United States and European Commission politicians as well as IAEA officials made several strong calls to have Khan interrogated by IAEA investigators, given the lingering skepticism about the disclosures made by Pakistan.  However, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who remained supportive of Khan and spoke highly of him, strongly dismissed the calls by terming it as "case closed".

    In 2008, the security hearings were officially terminated by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Tariq Majid who marked the details of debriefings as "classified". In 2008, in an interview, Khan laid the whole blame on former President Pervez Musharraf, and labelled Musharraf as the "Big Boss" for proliferation deals. In 2012, Khan also implicated Benazir Bhutto's administration in proliferation matters, pointing to the fact as she had issued "clear directions in thi[s] regard."

    Khan's strong advocacy for nuclear sharing of technology eventually led to his ostracization by much of the scientific community.  Nevertheless, Khan was still quite welcome in his country's political and military circles. After leaving the directorship of the Khan Research Laboratories in 2001, Khan briefly joined the Musharraf administration as a policy adviser on science and technology on a request from President Musharraf. In this capacity, Khan promoted increased defense spending on his nation's missile program to counter the perceived threats from the Indian missile program and advised the Musharraf administration on space policy. He presented the idea of using the Ghauri missile system as an expendable launch system to launch satellites into space.

    At the height of the proliferation controversy in 2007, Khan was paid tribute by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on state television.  While commenting in the last part of his speech, Aziz stressed: "The services of [nuclear] scientist ... Dr. [Abdul] Qadeer Khan are "unforgettable" for the country".

    In the 1990s, Khan secured a fellowship with the Pakistan Academy of Sciences  – he served as its president in 1996–97. Khan published two books on material science and started publishing his articles from KRL in the 1980s. Gopal S. Upadhyaya, an Indian metallurgist who attended Khan's conference and met him along with Kuldip Nayar, reportedly described Khan as being a proud Pakistani who wanted to show the world that scientists from Pakistan are inferior to no one in the world. Khan also served as project director of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology and briefly served as a tenured professor of physics before joining the faculty of the Hamdard University; where he remained on the board of directors of the university until his death in 2021. Later, Khan helped established the A. Q. Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering at Karachi University. 

    In 2012 Khan announced the formation of a conservative political advocacy group, Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Pakistan (Movement for the Protection of Pakistan). It was subsequently dissolved in 2013.

    In August 2021, Khan was admitted to Khan Research Laboratories Hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. Khan died on October 10, 2021, at the age of 85 after being transferred to a hospital in Islamabad with lung problems. He was given a state funeral at the Faisal Mosque before being buried at the H-8 graveyard in Islamabad.

    The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, expressed grief over his death in a tweet, adding that "for the people of Pakistan he was a national icon". President of Pakistan Arif Alvi also expressed sadness adding that "a grateful nation will never forget his services".

    During his time in the atomic bomb project, Khan pioneered research in the thermal quantum field theory and condensed matter physics, while he co-authored articles on chemical reactions of the highly unstable isotope particles in the controlled physical system. He maintained his stance on the use of controversial technological solutions to both military and civilian problems, including the use of military technologies for civilian welfare. Khan also remained a vigorous advocate for a nuclear testing program and defense strength through nuclear weapons. He justified Pakistan's nuclear deterrence program as sparing his country the fate of Iraq or Libya. In an interview in 2011, Khan maintained his stance on peace through strength and vigorously defended the nuclear weapons program as part of the deterrence policy:

    [P]akistan's motivation for nuclear weapons arose from a need to prevent "nuclear blackmail" by India. Had Iraq and Libya been nuclear powers, they wouldn't have been destroyed in the way we have seen recently. ... If (Pakistan) had an [atomic] capability before 1971, we [Pakistanis] would not have lost half of our country after a disgraceful defeat.

    — Abdul Qadeer Khan, statement on May 16, 2011, published in Newsweek

    During his work on the nuclear weapons program and onwards, Khan faced heated and intense criticism from his fellow theorists, most notably Pervez Hoodbhoy who contested his scientific understanding in quantum physics. In addition, Khan's false claims that he was the "father" of the atomic bomb project since its inception and his personal attacks on Munir Ahmad Khan caused even greater animosity from his fellow theorists, and most particularly, within the general physics community, such as the Pakistan Physics Society.  

    Nevertheless, in spite of the proliferation controversy and his volatile personality, Khan remained a popular public figure and has been as a symbol of national pride with many in Pakistan who see him as a national hero. While Khan was bestowed with many medals and honors by the federal government and universities in Pakistan, Khan also remains the only citizen of Pakistan to have been honored twice with the Nishan-e-Imtiaz. the highly restricted and prestigious award roughly equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom (United States) and the Order of the British Empire (United Kingdom).



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