edhi

Edhi is  was a prominent Pakistani philanthropist,social activist, and above all a humanitarian. He was the founder and head of the Edhi Foundation in Pakistan and ran the organization for the better part of six decades. He was known as Angel of Mercy and was considered Pakistan’s “most respected” and legendary figure. In 2013, The Huffington Post said that he might be “the world’s greatest living humanitarian.

 

Abdul Sattar Edhi migrated from India in 1947 where he started his never ending struggle to serve humanity. His life is an example to the people of the World who are busy making empires, properties, and wealth. Philanthropy does not just supports deprived and needy but it really give back in the form of peace. Edhi’s charity work has never discovered cases of discrimination because he was a believer of humanity, He said, “No religion is higher than Humanity”.

 

He died on 8th July, 2016 and left his wife, 2 daughters and 2 sons who will take care of his charitable foundation. He was the third Pakistani honoured with Pakistan State Funeral, and buried with Pakistani flag. While all Pakistanis were mourning his death, I posted a Facebook status, “Pakistan mourns Humanity – hope we will follow it too”. The biggest issue in Pakistan is the short term memory of the people – we do mistakes like every other nation, we regret, we realize, but we never learn from our mistakes. There will surely be no other Edhi happening to Pakistan in decades or centuries but there can be at least followers of his legacy. Pakistan is a country of Muslim majority, and Islam is a religion that highlights charity as its third pillar.

 

Pakistanis can learn from Edhi’s life and start from scratch with helping neighbors, relatives or whoever needy they see. Once we feel the pain of others, we will fight every big issue we face in Pakistan – including extremism, hatred and terrorism.

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