He may not have succeeded in reinterpreting and implementing the core tenets of Islam as per the needs of the compulsive circumstances; however it is indubitable that Sir Sayyid's life and writings have been subjected to contending interpretations. For both Muslims as well as non-Muslims, he is the repository of a difficult heritage. There are not few in the subcontinent for whom he remains the progenitor of Partition; for many more he nurtured the irrevocable Bidad (a reprehensible religious innovation) and thus sprinkled salt on the wounds of South Asian Muslims who had not yet recovered from the agony engendered by the dispossession of power and privilege. The extinction of the Muslim rule had caused great pain and anguish 48 Science and Spirituality and with Sir Sayyid's radical intervention challenging long cherished values and belief systems in the religious sphere, the pain was further accentuated.