Ashraf (Arabic: أشرف‎) refers to someone claiming descent from Muhammad by way of his daughter Fatimah. The word is the plural of sharīf "noble", from sharafa "to be highborn". Ashraf, if pronounced with long ā in the second syllable (أشراف /ašrāf/) is the plural of Sharif, but with short a (أشرف /ašraf/) is the intensive of sharīf meaning "very noble", "nobler", "noblest".

Like the Sada (plural of Sayyid), Ashraf often take their names from ancestry from Ali, Fatima and Muhammad and have in many Muslim societies Ashraf evolved into an honorific denoting "master" or "gentry". More precisely, the Ashraf are descendants of Ali's elder son, Hassan, and the Sadah those of Ali's younger son Hussain.

During the Abbasid period, the term was applied to all Ahl al-Bait, basically Muhammad's own family, including, for example, the descendants of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, of Ali's second wife and of the Hashemites. During the Fatimid Dynasty, the use of the term was restricted to the descendants of Hasan and Husayn only. This restriction remained in force even after Egypt became Sunni again under the Ayyubids.

Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is a prominent politician in Afghanistan and the former chancellor of Kabul University. He is also the chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness, an organization set up in 2005 to promote the ability of states to serve their citizens. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002, Ahmadzai was a leading scholar of political science and anthropology. He has worked at the World Bank for a number of years where he learned the tools of international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he set the path for Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery after the collapse of the Taliban. He is usually referred to as Ashraf Ghani, while Ahmadzai is the name of his Pashtun tribe.

Dr. Ghani is also a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an independent initiative hosted by the UNDP. In the 2009 presidential election, he was ranked fourth in the polls, behind the president Hamid Karzai, his main contender Dr. Abdullah, and Ramazan Bashardost.

Shafie Ayar (born 1961) is an Afghan-born activist and author. He ran the Afghan Revolutionary Youth Association at Kabul University in 1978.

Ayar is the author of five books: Hamasa-e-Eman, Paqnjal Hae-e-Khoneen, Nawrooze tan Behrooz, Afghanistan – Jihad and Peace, and Afghan Hearts & Minds.

John Iwasaki, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wrote that Ayar was critical of the Afghan regime: "With Karzai able to appoint one-third of the upper house of the Afghan legislature, 'it's not democracy at all'". Apart from the politics, wrote Iwasaki, Ayar saw Afghanistan in a poor state: the roads were potholed "'even on streets in front of the Capitol,' Ayar said", while "The only eggs he saw for sale were trucked in from Pakistan and Iran". And while the Soviets had long gone (since 1984), "Twenty years is enough time for people to have chicken farms".

The poet Nicholas Klacsanzky, reviewing Afghan Hearts & Minds, wrote that "Through pleasant and conversational language, author Shafie Ayar induces the reader into a state of enjoying simple pleasures through his sincere gratitude for a life other than torture."