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"People have become educated, but have yet to become human."
A Symbol of humanity, for six decades, a person who always ready to help everyone with no differentiation, helped needy people by himselfA true hero in himself, Abdul Sattar Edhi died on 8th July 2016 in Karachi. . He was the true Pakistani hero who founded Edhi foundation which is running hospitals, Ambulance service, homeless shelters, orphan houses throughout Pakistan. He introduced new trend of helping and sharing in the world. Many institutes of humanity services are started after getting inspiration from his personality. If we look at his life, we can easily see that his full life was dedicated to humanity. He was a true example of devotion. He completely devoted himself to the welfare of human beings. Because of his continuous struggle, he became a pioneer in the work of welfare of others. He is now an inspiration for others. Many people started the work as a social worker after watching his efforts in this field. His whole life was the example of humanity and simplicity. He has no blood relations with us but whenever we write or say something about him we feel his loyalty to the needy people, we all feel him close to our hearts. He started his welfare work from a very basic scale. He started his welfare work when he was very young. He started this work from Methadar (Karachi).
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Abdul Sattar Eidhi’s ancestors belonged to Gujarat (India).He was born in 1928 in Gujarat. After partition, his family migrated to Karachi (Pakistan).He was only 19 years old at that time. The passion for serving humanity arose in him by taking care of his mother in her illness. When his mother had a severe attack and got paralysis. She was really ill and she could not even move by herself. At that time, he was the only person who took care of his mother. This moment, the instinct of human welfare provoked him to serve the humanity. This moment was a turning point of his life. He decided to serve the whole nation by helping the needy ones.
“Empty words and long praises do not impress God. Show Him your faith by your deeds”
― Abdul Sattar Edhi
Abdul Sattar Edhi and his wife
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His mother died after 8 years of illness. After the death of his mother, he fully devoted himself to the welfare work for others. His mother always taught him to be kind to others. After his mother, the second lady in his life who played a really important role in his life was his wife. His beloved wife always stood beside him and fully supported him to serve mankind. Before the marriage, Bilquis Edhi was working as a nurse in a dispensary. In 1965 they got married and almost 51 years of their life they lived together. In 1951 Abdul Sattar Eidhi bought a shop in just 5 thousand rupees and started a small dispensary there. This small dispensary provided medical facilities on a limited scale free of cost. But yet he was not satisfied with his work. He wanted to expand this setup. So he started to collect aid from people and he gathered the amount of 2 lacs. With this amount, he bought an ambulance.
At that time, use of the telephone was not as common as compared to today. Many people used to come to his dispensary and asked for help. He was always ready to help. He devoted his full life from young to the old period to serve mankind. He helped everyone without any cost. He never discriminated between Muslims and nonMuslims. He just helped them when they needed. He never demanded any reward and never asked for appreciation. He did all this to make Allah happy. He was a true reflection of Islam. He lived very simple life. We always saw him in very simple black dress and plastic slippers. This small dispensary turned into a big welfare organization with his continuous struggle and hard work. This organization with the name Eidhi works in the different medium of life. If we just look on the Eidhi ambulances service, it is a grand service, thousands of Eidhi ambulances are working in Pakistan. This ambulance service is the biggest ambulance service of the world.
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Only in Karachi, 8 hospitals are working to treat people free of cost. Mobile dispensaries are also available. There are also many blood banks working in different cities. There are also 15 houses made by Eidhi organization, where orphans and homeless people are living. For the person who has no access to help, Eidhi organization is also there for help.
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“Edhi jhoola"(Edhi cradle) is the renowned initiative taken by Eidhi organization for the saving of abandoned children. This cradle is set up at the gate of the Eidhi center in every city where people can leave the unwanted newborn and this organization takes care of the child without any question. This organization also has their own mourge where they kept dead bodies in cold storage. They also bury the unknown dead bodies when there is no one to own them. Eidhi organization takes responsibility for them and also offers their funeral ceremony according to their religion.
You have to care for all beings created by God….My mission is to help any person in need. ― Abdul Sattar Edhi
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Many people in the world write on his personality but it is actually impossible to cover such a great personality in words. He also got many awards on the national and international level for his services. He was also awarded by national excellence award in 1989 by the Pakistani government. In 1988, Russian government awarded him with Lenin peace award. In 2010, university of Bradford awarded him the complimentary degree of the doctorate (Ph.D.). In 1986, the Philippine government also awarded him the Magsaysay award. He got many prizes or awards but the real achievement of his life is the trust and faith of people in him. He actually won the heart of people. Personalities like Abdul Sattar Eidhi born once in centuries.
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At a time, we can say that he is the richest and also very poor person in the world. He never bought any property for himself and led extremely simple life. He begged on the roads for the needy and poor people. It was the trust of people on him that on his one call, they gave aid and donations anything. He never wished to live a luxurious life. He neither tried to drive expensive cars nor did he like to have expensive clothes. He never wished to have an overseas nationality. He never had any secret account. He lived fully transparent life. His whole life was dedicated to humanity. He was a true hero. His family was so grand; thousands of orphans had him as a father in their lives.
Abdul Sattar Edhi with Hindu girl Geeta
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He also provided help to the women and girls who faced torture by the society and protected them by providing them shelter and food also. Many people criticized him but he never stopped and took one step forward in his mission to serve humanity. His network is so vast early 1,800 minivan ambulances are working in this. He was an Angel of Mercy.
He might be "the world's greatest living humanitarian (The Huffington Post, 2013)
He was a true face of religious tolerance. He was nominated for noble prize several times. His organization saved 20,000 abandoned infants. He also faced many travel issues. He was arrested by Israeli troops while he was trying to enter in Lebanon for help. In 2006 he was detained for 6 hours in Canada. He was also interrogated for the murder of John F Kennedy for 8 hours. When he was asked about elongated detention then he replied, "The only explanation I can think of is my beard and my dress”.
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In 2013, he faced serious illness and on 25 June 2013 doctor declared that his both kidneys are failed. He was on dialysis. In the last day of his life, he was on a ventilator until 8 July 2016. He died in Karachi. He was buried at Edhi Village Karachi. Remarkable words on his death:
We have lost a great servant of Humanity (Prime Minister, Pakistan)
He also donated his all organs. But after his death because of the condition, only his cornea was suitable to donate. We have no words to describe his personality. Till the last day of this world; his name will be remembered as a hero of humanity and will never forget him. His words which can never be forgotten are "My religion is humanitarianism, which is the basis of every religion in the world".
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