Abdul Sattar Edhi Quotes: Google Doodle Celebrates Pakistani Humanitarian’s 89th Birthday

Google celebrated the life and work of late Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi with a doodle on his 89th birthday Tuesday. He is credited with the establishment Pakistan’s largest volunteer ambulance network — the Edhi Foundation.

Edhi, who was born Feb. 28, 1928 in the western Indian state of Gujarat, moved to the Pakistani city of Karachi after the country was formed in 1947. After shifting to Karachi, he noticed an abject lack of medicine, proper educational institutions and other essentials, prompting him to serve the people. In 1951, he established the Edhi Foundation — funded by private donations.

The foundation is currently the largest welfare organization in the South Asian country and has rescued over 20,000 abandoned babies, helped about 50,000 orphans and trained over 40,000 nurses so far.

In 2005, Edhi’s foundation raised $100,000 in aid relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Edhi died last July in Karachi due to renal failure. He insisted on being treated at a government hospital in Pakistan, refusing an offer to be treated abroad.

Here are a few quotes by Edhi:

“People know that I have adopted four principles in living my life: simple living, punctuality, hard work and prudence.”

“No religion is higher than humanity.”

“You have to care for all beings created by God...My mission is to help any person in need.”

“I believe in nature and humanity and am here to serve the common people of Pakistan. There is a great deal of suffering in this country and I'm here to help.”

“My religion is humanitarianism, which is the basis of every religion in the world.”

“I do not have any formal education. What use is education when we do not become human beings? My school is the welfare of humanity.”

“So, many years later there were many who still complained and questioned, ‘Why must you pick up Christians and Hindus in your ambulance?’ And I was saying, ‘Because the ambulance is more Muslim than you’.”

“Those who believed in changing the world were either hungry by circumstance or practiced deprivation by choice.”

“Appearance is a distraction, surrendering it develops truth and humility in abundance.”

“I do this work for the common people and part of that work is creating a general awareness of such problems as they exist because my work is beyond class, religion and creed.”