Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Greatest Man in History is MUHAMMAD, focuses on the life of the Prophet of
Islam. Authored by a Pakistani diplomat, Mian Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi Qureshi, the
voluminous book looks at Muhammad from the perspective of the 21st century. A
Jellyman publication, the book was published in Wellington in early 2017.
Quoting from original historical sources, including Ibne Ishaq, Ibne Kathir and others,
Ambassador Afrasiab emphasises the fact that before the Prophet, there was no person
on earth who was given the name Muhammad. Today, there are more than 400 million
people the world over, who have his name as their name. In fact, Muhammad is the
most popular name in the world today. Similarly, almost each and every Muslim
woman today and in the last more than 1400 years, has been named after the lady
family members of Muhammad, friends of his family, or have names that are
connected with the message of the Prophet.
Muhammad stood for human rights. He spoke of animal rights. Muhammad had a pet
cat called Muezza. He loved the cat so much that it used to sit on his lap when the
Prophet delivered sermons in the mosque in Medina. Muhammad spoke of
environment and conservation, instructing his followers, not to cut a green tree, and
not to waste water.
The annexures in the book would also be useful to a research scholar. Among others,
they relate to the Charter of Medina, Letters by the Prophet to the sovereigns of his
time, the Charter of Rights granted by Muhammad to the Monks of the Saint
Catherines Monastery in Sinai, and poetry in praise of the Prophet from the Morisco
period of Al-Andalus.
Ambassador Afrasiab has used simple language in his book to convey to the reader the
simple message of unity, peace and harmony, which forms the crux of Islam. The
book highlights commonalities among Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the three great
Abrahamic religions. Muhammad respected Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Islam has
great respect for Holy Mary. The book aims at promoting interfaith harmony and
building bridges, which is the need of the time.
Afrasiab joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1984. He has done diplomatic
assignments in the Pakistani Embassies in Washington DC, New Delhi, Vienna and
Beijing. In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad, he served as Director
Americas, Director General South Asia, and later as Additional Foreign Secretary. He
also served as Pakistans High Commissioner to Bangladesh, and was later appointed
as High Commissioner to New Zealand. Other books authored by Ambassador
Afrasiab, include the following: