Have you heard about superheroes?
Do you know any superhero who has felt no shame in begging on the streets for the orphans and destitute? Do you know anyone who collects charity for the relief of the impoverished? Who feeds the poor without even paying attention to his own hunger and has a heart of gold.
So here I am going to narrate an anecdote of a philanthropist and humanitarian who has been a gem since his childhood – Abdul Sattar Edhi, the founder of the Edhi foundation.
Once upon a time, there was an inspiring young man who was born in the Bantwa village near Gujarat in 1928. The seeds of solicitousness and kindness were sown in his soul from the early days. When he was in his teens, his mother got hemiplegia and afterwards got a mental disorder. He devoted his days and nights to nursing his mother. When Edhi was 19, his mother passed away.
In his youth, Edhi was a cloth merchant by profession. Once, he went to the marketplace to purchase clothes and saw a horrible incident there. An injured man fell helplessly to the ground. He was in so much agony that people around him gathered after hearing his yelling of distress. He racked in pain and eventually lost his precious life. Upon seeing that heart-wrenching spectacle, Edhi made his life-changing decision. He decided to name the rest of his life to humanity’s service. Hence, he abandoned his cloth business and initiated helping the ailed and wounded in the city of Karachi. This incident gave him the vision to start his own dispensary where he would treat patients free of cost. He was a one-man army as he was the janitor, driver, owner, receptionist, and office boy of his organization. At midnight, he solely went to deal with the injured patients. With the passage of time, he became popular among people. As he was short of money, he placed the donation boxes for fundraising outside of his clinic. Fortunately, people trusted him and donated generously to the cause. He collected a huge amount for the needy yet lived an ascetic life himself.
Later on, despite having plenty of money, he kept living a simple and soulful life.
Once, he went to a Mosque to offer his Fajar prayer and saw that someone had abandoned an infant at the threshold of the Mosque. The infant was declared illegitimate by the Mullah Sahib, and he had placed an order to murder and discard the baby. Devastated by this order, Edhi Sahib adopted the child and fed him. Later, that child was adopted by another couple through a legal adoption procedure from the Edhi Foundation. She went to the United States of America and completed her Masters in Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Law. Likewise, thousands of children are living splendid lives and inspiring others.
Edhi and his wife were once robbed while on a journey. Upon knowing that he is the world-renowned social activist, the robbers left them and returned the looted amount of money; they got off their horses and kissed Edhi\’s hand and said in an embarrassed manner, “We know, when we die, you will bury us.”
The globally acknowledged sympathizer left the world on July 8, 2016, in Karachi. The legendary philanthropist established a network of the world’s largest volunteer ambulance service. Irrespective of caste, religion, and creed, he served everyone equally. Many used to complain and question, ‘Why must you pick up Christians and Hindus in your Ambulance? He smiled and replied, ‘Because the ambulance is more Muslim than you.’
Across the country, there are 330 Edhi centres and trained over 40,000 nurses. The organization has rescued more than 20,000 abandoned infants and rehabilitated over 50,000 orphans. Edhi foundation has also served internationally in times of calamity and war.
Now you know, real superheroes don’t always appear in capes; sometimes, they are seen in the most worn and torn clothes, standing at the corner of a street with a bowl in their hands collecting money for those who need it most.
Moral
So the moral of the story is if you look past the religious and political differences and help people irrespective of their beliefs, you might just become a true hero – one who lives on even after departing from the world. True heroes might never be seen in capes, but often in drapes. They might leave the world physically, but they always stay alive in our hearts. So, if you want to become a true hero, help those who need it most.
