Heirs of unclaimed dead bodies: Padma Shri Mohammad Sharif

In the bone-chilling cold of January, common people face difficulty even in leaving the house and to avoid the cold, they wear whatever warm clothes they can wear. But even in such a situation, an 80-year-old man in Lord Shri Ram’s city Ayodhya, dressed in tattered clothes, being a victim of an accident etc., was collecting dead bodies lying scattered, decaying, emitting foul smell. He can often be seen alone trying to perform the last rites. Yes, we are talking about 80-year-old Mohammad Sharif, a resident of Khirki Ali Baig locality in the city area of Ayodhya district, whom people of all ages call Sharif Chacha. He has been performing the last rites of unclaimed dead bodies since 1992 and even today the very good-hearted, noble uncle who is leading a normal, fakir life is passing through the stages of old age. This representative of God, by his works, has become a living angel in Ayodhya district. No selfishness, no desire, no greed. Sharif Chacha’s only wish is that “Lord, no human being has to leave this world in an unclaimed condition after death”. The speciality is that Sharif Chacha does his work on his own while he does not have a house to live in. Struggling with poverty, and being ill due to old age, your wife is also ill. There is no earning member in the family, there is no solid source of income.

The son whom Sharif’s uncle was looking for support in his old age had gone to Sultanpur in the neighbouring district in the year 1992 and suddenly went missing. Even after searching a lot, there was no trace of him for many days. One day suddenly it was informed the police that an unclaimed dead body was found by the police, which was cremated due to no heir being found, but his clothes are safe. When Sharif Chacha saw those clothes, his eyes closed, and darkness started spreading in front of him, as if everything had ended because it was not the clothes of anyone else but Sharif Chacha’s son. Like every father, you too were struck by thunder. After all, every father wants his last farewell to be on the shoulders of his son. The son whom he had carried on his shoulders, fed and had to see off on his shoulders, there can be no greater trauma for any father than this. After all, no shoulder is strong enough to carry this load. Sharif Chacha bore this thunderbolt with great difficulty. At that time it seemed that now everything is over, the purpose of living seemed meaningless, and the age started falling very fast. Suddenly one day I thought that the dead bodies of many human beings like my son are often seen and heard on the banks of hospitals, and railway lines, so why not take care of them? From there you decided that as long as there is breath in his body, no human being will be allowed to bid farewell as an unclaimed person. Humanity is destined to perform the last rites, so why not do such a thing that no one leaves the earth unclaimed? Your journey just started from here.

In the early days, you used to run a small bicycle repair shop, which used to feed the family, but old age forced it to close, but you never let illness and poverty come in the way of this charitable work. You go out every morning to see if any person has died who has no one to perform the last rites. Day and night you keep visiting hospitals, railway stations and other such places where there is a possibility of finding unclaimed dead bodies and as soon as any such information is received, you reach them immediately. After that, they try to know to which religion the deceased belongs and perform the last rites according to that religion. Seeing this pious work of yours continuously, now some people have started helping as someone arranges for a shroud, someone makes a vehicle available. You have been doing this work for a long time, till now you have performed the last rites of thousands of unclaimed dead bodies of different religions without taking any help from anyone. Given the incredible work of this divine man, who is known as the messiah of unclaimed dead bodies, in the year 2019, the Government of India has announced to give Padma Shri to Sharif Chacha.