The life of Abdul Sattar Edhi

                                - V. Sudharsan

Almost everyone in Pakistan mourned the death of Abdul Sattar Edhi when he died a few days ago in the city of Karachi. Tens of thousands of people from all over Pakistan came to pay their last respects as he was wrapped in the country's flag, and was given a state funeral, he is the first person to be given one after 1988.  But who is he?, why is he loved so much?,  what did he do?, are some of the questions that might have knocked, while you were reading headlines about him. Reading about his death awakened a curiosity in to me too.


Humble beginnings

Edhi, was born Gujarat in 1928, lost his mother to stroke when he was just 19 years of age, he came to Karachi after the Partition in 1947. His mother was the one who etched in him a sense of charity first, she would give him two Pisa everyday, one for him to spend, another to give away to anyone who needs it.
The struggles he had to face when his mother was sick made him decide he would serve people in need, offer a helping hand to anyone who suffered, because he had seen what his mother had to go through.

While in Karachi he tried selling clothes but unable to find peace with what he did, he opened a dispensary in the poor Mithadar neighbourhood of Karachi.

In 1957 when the Hong Kong flu swept Pakistan,  he put out tents all over Karachi and asked medical students to volunteer. Hung boxes outside those tents, and wrote on boards, "give what you can don't give if you can't", he even begged for money, and saved so many lives.

Edhi Foundation

He and his wife Bilquise Bano who was a nurse herself, started Edhi foundation, it grew in to the largest philanthropic Organisation in Pakistan, it even extended its charitable work to India, Afghanistan, Nepal etc..

Edhi foundation offers ambulance services, runs orphanages, dispensaries, hospitals, homes for women, all for free. Edhi ambulances are the first to show up any any sort of emergencies and have saved many lives till date. Edhi city is a place for destitute women, orphan children and elderly to stay and live as a community.

Gita the deaf Indian girl who was stranded in Pakistan, and finally returned to India this year was being cared for by the Edhi foundation.

The richest poor man

Although Edhi ran the largest philanthropic Organisation in the country and all just with private donations, he did not use a penny of it for himself or his family, his family lived in a humble house within the foundation quarters and he lived in a windowless room with just a bed and a few clothes.

Edhi's quotes

Abdul Sattar Edhi was not just one of the most loved people in Pakistan, but also one of the wisest, and some of his quotes will prove how wise he was.

Once Edhi was asked why he allows Hindus and Christians in his ambulances for this he replied

"Because the ambulance is more Muslim than you."

Edhi was very outspoken against radical Islamist he told the guardian in an interview.

“I will not go to paradise where these type of people go, I will go to heaven where the poor and miserable people live.”

His other quotes

"No religion is higher than Humanity"

"People have become educated, 
But have not become human"

And so

Even just before his death Edhi performed a beautiful deed, he donated his eyes. The remarkable person has been nominated for the noble peace prize multiple times, in 2016 the youngest nobile prize winner Malala has been campaign for Edhi to get Noble prize, and I think none deserves it more than him.