Ibrahim Abu Shumays

In Cambridge, Shri Nathji met another nuclear physicist friend of Priya Nath, Ibrahim Abu Shumays, who was an Arab from Lebanon.

At a time when no Hindu spiritual organisation was willing to offer any encouragement for Shri Nathji’s visit to the U.S.A., this Arab had said to Priya Nath:

"Let your father come over! I shall stand by in case of any difficulty. He can even stay in my apartment!"

It was only in the presence of Shri Nathji that Arabs and Jews would sit together. Shri Nathji spoke to Ibrahim Abu Shumays in Arabic, quoting the Koran:

"Bismillah ar Raihmaan ir Raheem"

"I begin in the name of the God who is Kind and Benevolent.

"These are great words for the world," Shri Nathji said, "those who believe in God shall find Him to be kind-hearted and generous. He is merciful to the sinner who repents, and He effaces his sins. The only condition is that the repentance be genuine. God is benevolent because He has granted to man such a beautiful world and has placed His strength in man.”

Shri Nathji's interaction is mentioned in the Mahagranth - God Incarnate on page: 1107 -1109, were one can read it in detail.

Ibrahim Abu Shumays was very impressed by Shri Nathji. Later, in a mood of spiritual reverie, he said to Priya Nath: "Your father is a very wise man!" That was the extent to which Shri Nathji had disclosed himself upon him. The weather was hot and humid during those days, and Ibrahim would take Shri Nathji and Priya Nath to a drive-in restaurant and bring ice cream for them. That was the part ordained for him in the scheme of things for the service of God– Rab.

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Ibrahim Khalil Abu-Shumays was a mathematician who received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1966. His professional career included work in the United States, notably at the Westinghouse Research Labs and the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, focusing on applied mathematics and nuclear engineering problems such as radiative transport theory

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He subsequently became a professor in the Mathematics department at the University of Petroleum and Minerals (now King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, or KFUPM) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and held this position during the 1980s and 1990s. His work from this period often appeared in the Transactions of the American Nuclear Society.