If more people thought that way
Many of my friends are mourning the death of Abdus Sattar Edhi. The BBC has details:
Renowned Pakistani philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, who dedicated his life to the poor, has died at the age of 88.
Mr Edhi’s family said he died on Friday at a medical centre in Karachi where he had been having treatment for weeks.
The Edhi Foundation now provides a broad range of free social services, including ambulances, orphanages and support for the elderly and disabled.
His funeral was today. Thousands of people went. The Beeb has photos of the crowd. (Sadly it appears to be pretty much all men.)
Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai described Mr Edhi as a “legendary figure”.
“He lived his life for the lives and happiness of others and that is why he is a role model. I haven’t seen anyone else like him,” she told the BBC.
She also repeated her call for him to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
…
Mr Edhi came from a family of Gujarati traders and arrived in Pakistan in 1947.
But he decided to take up philanthropy after seeing how the state failed to help his family care for his paralysed and ill mother, Dawn newspaper reported.
He opened his first clinic in 1951 and the Edhi Foundation grew to be the country’s largest welfare organisation, running schools, hospitals and ambulance services across the country, often plugging gaps in services which the state simply fails to provide.
Which is somewhat surprising, given the status of Islam in Pakistan and what we’re always told about Islam’s concern for the poor.
Correspondents say Mr Edhi was Pakistan’s most respected figure and was seen by some as almost a saint.
In 2014 he told the BBC that simplicity, honesty, hard work and punctuality were the cornerstones of his work.
“It is everyone’s responsibility to take care of others, that’s what being human means. If more people thought that way, so many problems could be solved,” he said.
The truth in a nutshell.
This is the natural outgrowth of a humanist viewpoint (note I didn’t say atheist; it should be, because there is no god to help us out, but it’s become obvious in recent years that this is not the case). We need to help each other because we are all human (though I don’t totally like that formulation; I also help dogs, cats, chickens, and other non-humans where I can, and that is because they are living things, and I recognize life in them. Plants, too, if they are in distress, say by lack of water and I can water them; they too are life).
Yes and I have the hardest time not thinking of plants as enjoying the drink and the shower when I water them.
Anthropomorphize all the things!
Iran is an Islamic nation. Many Christian Americans think America is, or should be, a Christian nation.
Yet they want to use the government to police morality in every way *but* charity, although it is supposed to bee so important… *that* they want to leave up to individual conscience, unlike church attendance, clothing choices, relationships, etc.
It’s almost like they want *power*, not to follow the teachings of their scripture.
^ Funny that isn’t it.
Good point.
It also goes with the fact that sexual “morality” is treated as so central and important, while charity in all its meanings is not so much.
Apparently women were banned from the funeral. A lot of my friends are very pissed off about that.
Oh, they were! That’s appalling. I restrained my urge to fume more at the apparent absence of women, but I shouldn’t have bothered. Ffs.
[…] I mentioned yesterday that the BBC photo of the crowd at Edhi’s funeral seemed to show only men. I’m now learning that in some majority-Muslim countries women are barred from all funerals, period. The Muslim Women’s League puts it this way: […]