How Sheikh Zayed united the emirates and its people

In the 45^th chapter of his latest book, Qissati, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, remembers the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and how Emiratis continue to live with him every day.
There are two kinds of people: Those who live life and those who give life. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan was among the latter. He added to the life of his nation, benefitting millions of people through his wisdom and insight. That is true immortality.
I often accompanied Sheikh Zayed, and learned so much from him. I learned to look for areas of agreement instead of discord, to look towards the future instead of the past, to look for factors that unite us, make us stronger and elevate us. That was how Sheikh Zayed worked to unite the UAE, and had it not been for his wisdom, the country would not be where it is today.
Sheikh Zayed became the Ruler of Al Ain in 1946 when he was only 28 years old. The tribes loved him and his men rallied around him as he began his great journey in the middle of the desert. He dug wells with his own hands alongside the Bedu, helped build the aflai (irrigation channels), and did not let the lack of water and funds stand in his way.
He built the first school, the first marketplace, the first clinic and the first modern road network. He will always be the first.
In 1953, 13 years before becoming the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed went on a tour that included the US, UK, France, Switzerland, Egypt, Iraq and India, among other countries. He came back from this trip full of conviction, dreams and determination; conviction that his people deserved to live like the people in those nations, dreams of building a state similar to those countries and determination never to give up on his dream until his last breath.
Sheikh Zayed, may he rest in peace, began working towards his dream, never stopping nor tiring until his death in 2004.
If I were to describe him using only one word, I would say 'wise'.
I personally learned from him how to give privately, for the donations he made privately amounted to much more than those which he gave publicly. He was a man with a big heart and there was always sincerity in his deeds.
Sheikh Zayed died peacefully on November 2, 2004, but Emiratis continue to live with him every day.
May your final abode be Paradise, beloved Sheikh Zayed.
hesham@khaleejtimes.com
In what he is calling his "incomplete biography", His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has broken his latest book, Qissati (My Story), into 50 chapters, narrating 50 stories in his 50 years of serving the nation. Khaleej Times got a signed copy of the book from the Dubai Ruler and every day, we will be featuring excerpts from each of the 50 chapters.