  This is a tribute to Abdus Salam's memory whose insight and creative thinking
set for me a role model to follow. In this contribution I show that the simple
requirement of volume quantization in space-time (with Euclidean signature)
uniquely determines the geometry to be that of a noncommutative space whose
finite part is based on an algebra that leads to Pati-Salam grand unified
models. The Standard Model corresponds to a special case where a mathematical
constraint (order one condition) is satisfied. This provides evidence that
Salam was a visionary who was generations ahead of his time.
