The Power of Constructive Work

in the February 1990 issue of Al-Risala. On 30 June 1990, New Delhi’s India Today published a seven-page illustrated report with the headline: Pakistan’s Father Teresa. Constructive work has an irresistible appeal. If you truly set an example of constructive action, people will be compelled to acknowledge it—even your fiercest opponents. For Edhi, one possible path was the example set by shallow leaders in both India and Pakistan: politics of slogans and banners against the “system.” He could have started a thirdrate newspaper, publishing sensational headlines about people’s suffering. He could have launched campaigns demanding action from government institutions. He could have gathered angry young crowds who, in the name of protest, burned buses and set hospitals on fire. Another path was the one followed by so-called Islamic activists. They marched in the streets shouting slogans like “Establish the Islamic system,” creating the same atmosphere of hatred and conflict between the people and the government that today’s Islamists have irresponsibly spread everywhere. Had Edhi chosen such methods, he would only have increased his country’s problems in the name of solving them. Instead, he decided to take direct responsibility. No matter how small his work seemed, he chose to begin action himself.