Written by: Muhammad Ziauddin
Ejaz Rahim Sahib, who has also been the Chief Secretary of our province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has also been the Secretary of the Cabinet Division at the federal level, retired from official duty in 2005. He was counted among the most successful and important bureaucrats of Pakistan and became famous because of his brilliant service . Apart from being a bureaucrat, he is also a scholar, man of letters and writer of English poetry.
My relationship and friendship with Ejaz Rahim began fifteen years ago and it was a great honor for me to have a heartfelt academic and literary relationship with such a great personality of our province and Pakistan. In all the meetings I had with him during this period, I saw a prominent aspect of his personality , the love for the Holy Prophet . From time to time, he continued to write poetry and his books remained a treasure, which he also presented to me as gifts. While reading his poetry, I felt that he wrote on the Holy Prophet, that , he praised the Holy Prophet in his English poems in a remarkable way . He used to regularly perform Umrah with his family. , when he was performing Umrah, he presented his Umrah memoirs in his poem. He said that one day when he was sitting in the Prophet’s Mosque in a state of Tahiyah, a thread of Qaleen got stuck on his finger and he was busy twisting the thread further with his finger when suddenly he realized that this was the Holy Prophet’s Madina , his place and everything here was a trust and he suddenly thought that this thread was also a trust and he immediately untied that thread and left it there on the carpet. If you see, it is just a small thing but in terms of its meaning, how did he relate this thing with the sayings of the Holy Prophet . Remembering it with the sayings and hadith of the Prophet, he returned that thread and he also described the whole situation in his poem .
It was fifteen years ago that I read this book and enjoyed it so much that I translated the poem into my own Hindko language. This was my first translation of English poems, which I presented to him and he liked it very much. Recently, he wrote a book on the life of the Holy Prophet,
Titled: Beyond Dates and Pomegranate: An Epic Poem on the Life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Epic Poem means a long poem that he wrote about the Holy Prophet. This poem is so long that it has 32 topics, many meters and 32 chapters, and this book was published in 2023, which consists of more than 350 pages. He has written this poem in such a way that according to my knowledge and research, such a poem has not been written in the English language in the whole world. The nature of the Holy Prophet, his qualities, his services, have been described in his book, he paid tributes to the Holy Prophet in such words that he compared every aspect of his life with the study of history, when he was born, before his birth, his prophethood and after his prophethood. He describes all aspects of science development , philosophy, theology or whatever the state word during his prophethood . On these topics, he studied in great depth the philosophy, science, and religion of that time, and after studying the source books; he wrote this Epic poem.
The beauty of his poetry is that he presents a common word as a simile and metaphor, and when someone reads it, the word becomes common. For example, let me tell you word , , a date is a date, but when used for other aspect of life , it becomes a metaphor and simile. If we look at simile and metaphor in that context, a whole long story, a long story comes before us, new meaning of date surfaces . Since the personality of Ejaz Rahim Sahib and the ability of insight that Allah Almighty has given to him , when we see even a common thing, he presents it in such a powerful way , which is beyond the reach of other people, we see a man of letters , like Ejaz . He has presented his talent, style and technique that Allah Almighty has given to him , he has used this talent in his poetry and especially in this book in such a powerful way that a person is stunned and amazed. He has written the biography of the Holy Prophet in the form of a poem, making use of the most important sources. Among those who have written the biography of the Holy Prophet regarding the life of the Holy Prophet are Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, and those who came in the later periods, and he made use of the authentic sources , then he made use of the hadiths , sayings of the Holy Prophet.
After that, the most important thing he used as a source, is the Holy Quran itself, when he presented the life of the Holy Prophet, he also gave references to the relevant verses and he also presented the systematic translation of those relevant verses in his poem , in a chronological order . I got the opportunity to read all his books, he also presented his books to me as a gift, which is a great honor for me. whenever I read this book,I feel great pleasure. There is a need that we also find that source which may be name , an event of which we have knowledge as a reader of that name or event, we must increase our knowledge and comprehend the Epic poem in toto . This Epic poem is a remarkable addition in Seerat literature.
Ejaz Rahim has a lot of love for the Holy Prophet, he has love, he has affection for him and he has great Ishiq and respect for him. And this book is a great metaphor of that love, that affection and that Ishiq , a simile that he has presented in the form of this book. The way his heart loves him, with his teachings, with his personality and with his achievements, I think he has created a great piece of literature . According to my knowledge so far, this is the only book in the world in which the biography is written in a poetic manner in English. His book was declared the best by the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Government of Pakistan and awarded it with a gold medal, and in addition, the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad, declared this book as the best book in English literature and awarded it with a gold medal.