28/05/2026
TWO MILESTONES IN HISTORY: Pakistan’s Nuclear tests - and the Conquest of Constantinople
(Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi Qureshi)
The month of May has been important in history.
On 28 May (in 1998), Pakistan became a nuclear power. The first and the only country, in the Muslim world which attained this status. Pakistan was constrained to conduct the tests after India carried out its provocative nuclear tests. (This also needs to be noted in the context of 1971.)
In another development, on 29 May (in 1453), more than six hundred years ago, a Muslim army entered Constantinople (Istanbul), the capital of the Byzantine Empire. (The city had been built by Emperor Constantine as his capital in 330 AD.)
Prophet Muhammad [pbuh], in 7th century
AD, had prophesied that Constantinople would one day come under the Muslim rule. At that time and in that age, when the world believed in ‘the power of the sword,’ the Prophet stated:
‘Verily you shall take Qustuntunia (Constantinople). What a Wonderful Leader will he be (who takes the city) , and what a Wonderful Army will that army be (that takes the place)! ‘
It was Sultan Mehmet (Muhammad bin Murad), who conquered
Constantinople. At the time of the conquest, he was only 21 years old. In fact his desire to take the city had deep linkages with the prophesy of the Prophet.
After entering Constantinople, the Sultan had composed a poem in honour of the Prophet.
In the 15th century, the Turkic Sultan Mehmed took pride in being a humble slave of the Prophet of Islam. In the 20th century, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who spearheaded Pakistan’s nuclear program, took pride in being a humble slave of the Prophet of Islam.
Had Pakistan not conducted the nuclear tests, things would have been different. Had Constantinople not been taken by the Muslims, things would have been different.
The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was coincidentally, cremated on 28 May (in 1964), used to say that Pakistan would exist for a few years, “m
