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“A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on that condition that you believe much more in His love than in your weakness”
Mother Teresa.
A boy homeless, penniless and destitute over his mother’s demise. To him there was nothing he could do with his life now, and no means to live. As he thought about his life now, he could only remember taking care of his paralyzed, mentally ill mother, who was the whole world to him. Now he has no one to struggle to survive for. Thinking about it, lying on a footpath he saw an old woman who would be of the age of his mother, picking up plastic bottles from the heap of garbage nearby. As he looked in his surroundings, he could see a boy of hardly six years, who was being brutally assaulted by his landlord for not cleaning the car porch. Quite helpless, he now has to sleep on a cold road on a cold night. He closed his eyes and suddenly was wide open with a scream of a girl who was thrown out of her husband’s house for her rebellious ideals. Now that boy knew whom he would live for. This is the same boy whom we title as Philanthropist of the Century, ABDUL SATTAR EDHI. He devoted his life for the welfare of such old, young and infants who were living a hard life or had no home. He struggled day and night to arrange for food, shelter and clothes to anyone who would need them. He started helping people amidst his difficult times. He would earn a few rupees and would still divide them in 3 parts; two of them were always kept for charity. He always led a very simple life, spending as less as possible on himself so that he could help others. He established old homes, orphanages, hospitals and EDHI centers which were all in all for the people of his country, and later, he started expanding his services to the whole world by founding world’s largest ambulance service. We lost him at the age of 88 in 2016, which is considered the biggest lost to humanity. Edhi’s funeral was accorded as the first state funeral in Pakistan in 30 years. Edhi was filled with love and selfless humanitarianism, who provided welfare without any discrimination of caste, creed and color. Pakistan lost a legendary humanitarian but his legacy lives on. Let us commemorate this amazing person on his birthday (28th Febraury), who worked day and night tirelessly for the good cause of humanity.
As Edhi himself says:
“My religion is humanitarianism, which is the basis of every religion in the world.”
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