“Take two paisas. Spend one on yourself and the other on someone needy”. Only such a mother could make young Abdul Sattar grow into an adult Edhi, the Edhi we all knew and revered. The state’s failure to provide treatment to his ailing mother was the determining factor in Edhi’s life - he knew what course he was to take then - feed the hungry, treat the sick, and shelter the homeless. 'Edhism' should be declared as a doctrine of philanthropy; it should be taught, written about, promoted and celebrated as one of the few achievements in Pakistan’s book of glory.
Saying merely that he was a philanthropist is a grave understatement, a slight to his name. He was rather an institution in himself constituted of empathy and compassion. He adopted Allah’s Sunnah like none of our Mullahs who preach compassion day and night could. Discrimination could not cloud his vision - he saw no difference in a Christian, Muslim or Hindu. His eyes only saw a needy human being. And yes, his ambulance was as matter of fact more Muslim than those who questioned its use by non-Muslims. He was more Muslim than our Islamic preachers. And he was more human than all of us humans.
In retrospect, it is rather fortunate that Edhi was not awarded a Nobel Prize. A person of his stature, larger than life, did not need a prize to sanction his achievements. He was beyond caring for such trifles. His work was his definition. And I speculate that even if he was awarded with the Nobel, he would not have accepted the prize money because he never accepted foreign donations anyway. His philosophy was to serve this country through its own sires.
He put baby cradles throughout the city and declared that anyone who put an abandoned child inside would not be asked any question about where it came from. He was a man who lived in one simple tiled room with minimalist possessions. He was a man who could not be deterred by death threats. He was a man who wanted to donate all his organs upon death, regardless of what mullahs thought of organ donation. He was a man who picked up rotten bodies when no one would dare to. He would not only bear their stench, but bathe them with his own hands. He was a man who wanted to be buried in the clothes he wore all his life. He was a man who wore khaddar his entire life. He was a man who did not make a house for his children, rather he made his children. Just like his mother made him.
According to his wife, all the hardships in life could not defeat him, but the deception by his trusted ones broke his back. The men who were not ashamed of looting the money of orphans and homeless children. It truly crushed him from the inside. Because he did not see the loss of money - he saw countless hungry children who could have been fed, he saw unmarried girls who could have been married, he saw ambulances that could have been bought, he saw homes that could have been built. He saw lives that could have been saved and made livable.
The tragedy in his death is, as some pointed out, that there is no Edhi to replace him. He is now respected, eulogized and remembered. But not emulated. Because we have been told that in order to be respected, we need a Range Rover; buying a wheelchair for a physically challenged would not earn that. We have been told that in order to be esteemed, we need to dine at an elitist restaurant; donating food to a hungry would not attain that purpose. We have been taught that to succeed in life, we have to jump on the motorized car of capitalist elitism, and not on the manual bicycle of charitable philanthropy. We respect him, but we are comfortable in our apathetic inertia that we cannot be him. We are ensconced in our shells that assert that we do not have ‘resources enough’ to be like Edhi. He also did not have enough. Never enough compared to what he wished to achieve. But he never waited for enough. We all want to honour him with perfect eulogies, but what better way to honour his memory than to strive to do a tiny part of what he tried to do his entire life. What better way than to donate some money to a person in need, feed a hungry child, or educate a poor. It has to begin somewhere. We can never have sufficient to take a start. We have to consider the little we have as enough. Not all, let us just help one person. Not every day, let us just help one person in a week. Not many, let us just educate one child in an entire lifetime. Not Marxism, socialism, Leninism, Gandhism- let us just adopt Edhism. It would be enough. Trust me.