The Muslim Ambulance Society was formed by a group of sincere and selfless members on 24th July 1932, with the objects of rendering first aid to the injured and needy and infusing among the people the desire for social work without consideration of caste, creed and religion.
The inaugural ceremony was performed at the hands of His Holiness Pir Ibhrahim Saheb of Baghdad on the 2nd September 1932. The Pir Saheb at the public gathering made a moving appeal to all the Muslims to help the good work of the Society reminding them of the words of the prophet that “The best amongst the humans are those who are useful to others.”
Doctor Sir Mohammed Iqbal, Bar-at-Law and the great Orientalist and scholar in his letter dated 13th August 1932, to the Society wrote as follows:
“I welcome the inauguration of the Bombay Muslim Ambulance Society and heartily congratulate the Bombay Muslims on their truly Islamic form of service.”
“The way to God”, quoted the learned Doctor from Shaikh Saadi “is through service of humanity and not by the mere counting of beads and wearing of holy garments.”
The Muslim Ambulance Division was formed on 25-9-1932 and was affiliated to St. John Ambulance Association.
On 3rd September 1933 The Muslim Ambulance Division attended Ganpati Immersion Ceremony at Chowpatty.
A sum of Rs. 251/- was received as donation from Sona Chandi Tolvano Dharamno Kanto.
Extract from a speech made by the then Governor of Bombay on 14th day of March 1933 at the Inspection parade.
“A welcome addition has been made during the year to the list of existing nine ambulance divisions by the formation of The Ambulance Division. I would extend my best congratulations to the community on their entrance in this very useful field of public service.”
H.E. Sir Frederick Sykes
P.C.G.C.I.E, K.C.B., C.M.G.
Governor of Bombay
Extract from the speech of H. Excellency the Viceroy of India delivered at the Indian Red Cross Society’s Annual General Meeting as reported by the Times of India, 23rd March 1934.
“While I was in Bombay in August last I had an opportunity of inspecting the New Muslim Ambulance Division with its Ambulance Car, and am very glad to learn, that it has already done good work.”
H. E. Lord Willingdon
G.M.I.E., G.C.M.G., G.M.E.,
Viceroy of India
(Rs. 500/- donated by the Society to the Victory’s Bihar Earthquake Relief Fund).
Quetta Earthquake Relief work undertaken. On 22nd April 1935 the Muslim Nursing Division was formed with the object of rendering Nursing Aid and the Division was affiliated to the St. John Ambulance Brigade.
Communal riots once again rocked the city. The first case picked up by our volunteers was of a Hindu injured near the Railway quarters at Byculla and right from the beginning to the end our Division recognized no distinction of caste or creed and served the victims of both the Communities alike.
Colonel J. L. Sleeman, C.B.C.M.G., C.B.E. Chief Commissioner for the Brigade of Overseas paid glowing tribute to the Division in the following words:
“I believe it is the first time in the history of India a Muslim Nursing Division (purdah women) rendered first rate ambulance treatment to both Hindus and Muslims. India in general and Bombay in particular is to be congratulated upon this fine work.” Extract from the letter dated 20th October 1936 by Superintendent J. J. Hospital to the Editor of “Hind Praja” Bombay.
“It is with great pleasure that I inform you of the excellent work done by the Muslim Ambulance in removing at considerable risk convalescent Hindus and Mohamedan patients from this Hospital, entering pre-dominantly Hindu Localities to take Hindu patients to their homes.”
S. S. Vazifdar
Lieut. Colonel, I.M.S.
Superintendent, J. J. Hospital
The foundation stone of the New Building at Kambekar Street was laid on the 19th December 1938 at the auspicious hands of Maulana Pir Haji Ghulam Mohammad Ibne Pir Haji Zia Ma’soom Saheb Nakshbandi in the presence of a distinguished gathering. On 21st August 1938, the following messages were received.
“It gives me great pleasure to know of the selfless humanitarian work your association is doing. I wish you all success in your efforts to raise funds so as to extend the utility of your services,”
The Hon’ble Dr. M.D.D.Gilder
M.D.F.R.C.S.,
Minister to the Government of Bombay
“I wish every success to the efforts of the Muslim Ambulance Society to have a building for itself.”
The Hon’ble M.K.M, MUNSHI
Minister to the Government of Bombay
The Hon’ble Mrs. Copland Griffiths, Asst. Lady Superintendent in Chief of The St. John Ambulance Brigade inspected the Muslim Nursing Division on 27th November 1939.In a letter to the Muslim Nursing Division she said “I thank you on behalf of the Order for the marvelous work you have done for us in founding the first Muslim Purdah Nursing Division in the world, which is indeed a very great achievement.”
This year was specially marked by the increased number of non-Muslims who made use of our transport services. This fact is evinced from Newspaper reports that have appeared from time to time in some of the local newspapers.
During the year the Bombay Municipal Corporation sanctioned a grant of Rs. 300/- in recognition of the humanitarian services rendered to the citizens irrespective of caste, creed or community.
The Commissioner of Police in a letter to the Society remarked “It gives me great pleasure to record my appreciation of the good work done by your Ambulance Corps, during the recent communal riots in Bombay. Should Bombay be so unfortunate as to experience another period of disturbance of a similar kind, I trust, I may rely on you once more to render assistance to the Police.
Mrs. Sultana Fazle Hussein, the lady Ambulance Officer of our Division saved the life of a baby.
Drugs Sales Service was started to facilitate the purchase of vital life saving drugs and injections during the hours when shops were closed.
Received two Ambulance cars as gifts from Military disposal through the St. John Ambulance Association.
This year once again the Division was kept busy owing to unsettled conditions in the City. In addition to the normal transport work it rose to the occasion by starting medical relief work of helping refugees who thronged in the city since September last.
In the month of July when the Cholera epidemic broke out in Bombay the Anti-Cholera injection Centre was opened and was run with the aid of Municipal Medical Unit and a paid Nurse was appointed by the Society.
The Silver Jubilee Year
Our guest of Honour at the inaugural function was, His worship the Mayor of Bombay. The celebrations were spread over four days as follows:
Inauguration and Musharia at Kesar Baug on the first day. A highly entertaining cultural programme at C. J. Hall on the second day. Membership enrollment drive and a procession laid by prominent persons on the Third day. Contributory Dinner on the Fourth day.
The Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Y. B. Chavan eulogizes” the missionary work the Society is rendering to all the sick and needy without any distinction and wishes the same will be continued with the same vigour and enthusiasm.
In the month of June the city faced the worst type of influenza in epidemic form and the Society promptly opened a Relief Centre under the expert guidance and supervision of Dr. Malik.
A drug bank was started in December 1963 to collect used and unused drugs from the public for the purpose of distribution to Charitable Institutions and Hospitals to be used free for the benefit of poor and needy patients.
Once again we contributed our humble mite towards the National Defence Fund during the National Emergency First Aid Centre.
On 28-9-1969 Seva Medals were awarded to the Lady Ambulance Officer Mrs. Sultana F Hussain and the Lady divisional Superintendent, Mrs. Khadija S Tyebi.
This year we expanded our field of service by starting a Free Immunisation Centre, fully equipped for giving oral Polio vaccine, Triple Antigen, B C G, and Smallpox vaccinations to children of all the communities Dr. A. R. Sumar very graciously offered his Honorary services for running the Centre. At present Dr. Nazim Merchant and Dr. Shabbeer Lokhandwala are vaccinating the children.
A mass miniature X-Ray programme was arranged at the office of the society for about a week. Positive tuberculosis cases were sorted out and free treatment to the poor were started from our Zakat collection. To begin with these scheme was in service with the co-operation of Bhartiya Arogya Nidhi, under the supervision of Dr (Prof) K. C. Mohantty. Now the society under his supervision is managing a very big tuberculosis centre 5 days a week and distributing free tuberculosis medicines including 2nd Line of treatment to MDR cases to the tune of Rs 1,00,00,000/- (Rupees One Crore) annually. We also remember the selfless service of Late Miss Meenaben Parekh for the centre for many years till she was alive.
On 1-9-1975, one more Division i.e. Muslim Ambulance Division No. 3 registered with the St. John Ambulance Brigade No. 3 (Maharashtra State).
The Memon Co-operative Bank Ltd. Donated a new Ambulance Car at the cost of Rs.79,130.00 and formally handed over the vehicle at a formal function held at Beg Mohammed Baug. We are deeply grateful to all the directors of the Bank for this generous gesture. To meet the escalating operational expenses of various services a Charity Show of Hindi Film “DON” was organized at New Excelsior Theatre on Sunday, the 14th MAY6 1978, and a net sum of Rs. 20,930/- was realized. Dr. S. M. Iqbal joined the honorary management of the Immunization Centre.
The Golden Jubilee year
The society had celebrated in the year 1982 on completion of successful and serviceful 50years of the existence of the Muslim Ambulance Society. An entertainment programme titled as “Tabassum Hit Parade.” was presented by the screen celebrity Begum Tabassum at Birla Matushree Hall on Friday, the 31st December 1982. The then sheriff of Bombay, Shree S. P. Godrej was the Chief Guest of the well-attended function which was presided over by the then president of the Society, Janab Abdul Qadir Saleh Mohammed Kably. On this occasion a very informative souvenir was released by the eminent cardiologist of Bombay Hospital, Dr. B.K.Goyal.
On 13th March 1988, Shree Sushil Kumar Shinde inaugurated the Muslim Ambulance Society Diagnostic Centre at 141, Zakaria Masjid Street, Mumbai – 400 009. Since then the Centre has become an ideal and model role for the diagnostic services in the city.
In June 1998, a dialysis unit was started at the Muslim Ambulance Society Diagnostic Centre with two Haemodialysis machines. In the first month (June 1998) 28 patients were dialyzed. This unit has since grown tremendously and in about 10 years time has become the largest and least expensive Dialysis Centre of Maharashtra state. At present we have 25 dialysis machines and about 2000 patients are undergoing dialysis per month.
In the year 2000, the management of Fauziya Nursing Home at Arab Galli offered their Nursing Home to the Muslim Ambulance Society. We named the said Nursing Home as The Muslim Ambulance Society Maternity & General Hospital which started functioning from 1st May 2000 under our management. New machines and equipments were added after we took over the control of the hospital and bed strength and more diagnostic and therapeutic facilities were added over there. The successive 4 years of our running the said hospital gave us a lot of experience and know-how of running the hospital, which has later helped us in the successful management of M.H. Saboo Siddique Maternity & General Hospital.
In December 2004 we started M. H. Saboo Siddique Maternity & General Hospital at Imamwada which the Municipal Corporation offered us on a care taker basis.
Started C. T. Scan Department at M. H. Saboo Siddique Maternity & General Hospital from September 2006.
Started M.R.I. Unit & Endoscopy Department at M. H. Saboo Siddique Maternity & General Hospital.
On 8th September 2007, a programme was arranged by The Muslim Ambulance Society Nursing Division at Patkar Hall as the commencement of Platinum Jubilee Celebration.
Took over the management in August 2008 of Haji Karim Mohammed Suleman Maternity & Child Care Hospital offered by their trust.
Launch of BioMerieux BacT/ALERT 3D60 fully Automated Culture system and mini API automated I D/AST system.
Our Ambulance vans were pressed in voluntary services all 24 hours to St. George’s Hospital & the Taj Hotel during the unfortunate 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Thereafter for 3 days we did absolutely Free of cost C. T. Scans of about 30 victims of the said attack who were admitted at and brought from J. J. Hospital.
Conclusion of Platinum Jubilee Year programme by holding Thanksgiving Dinner at Haj House and releasing a souvenir on 28th February 2009.
A new MRI and CT Scan departments were started in December 2011. Both the departments were completely renovated and expanded with the introduction of sophisticated Magnetom Symphony,RS excellence 1.5 Tesla MRI machine from Siemens and Brightspeed Elite Select- 32 Slice CT Scan machine from Wipro GE Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.
A new hospital was constructed and named as ‘M.H. Saboo Siddique Orthopedic & Trauma Centre’ on the 1st floor at Dar-al-Mawadda Building at Nagpada. The said 18-bedded hospital under the management of The Muslim Society started functioning since May 2012. This hospital has a modernly-built Operation theatre, Emergency room and Minor Operation theatre with well-ventilated and comfortable rooms for the patients. All major and supra-major orthopedic surgeries including total Knee and Hip replacements and spinal surgeries are performed at this hospital.
A new Diagnostic Centre was started at Malegaon with provision of Pathology, Radiology and Sonograpy examination under the management of The Muslim Ambulance Society Diagnostic Centre. It is heartening to note that in Mumbai and its suburbs we are having 16 Collection Centres from where the blood samples are sent for investigations at our Diagnostic Centre / Saboo Siddique Hospital. At a few centres we have also installed Digital X-ray machines, Sonography and ECG facilities. At Govandi, we are a having full-fledged Diagnostic Centre working independently with fully automated and sophisticated machines with Pathology and Radiology services.
We have also started a 55-bedded hospital at Mumbra named as M.H. Saboo Siddique Hospital. The said hospital was previously known as Life Care Hospital. This Life Care Hospital at Mumbra has been taken over by us and is being managed by The Muslim Ambulance Society since December 2013.
We have installed State-of-art and fully computerized and sophisticated machines for Pathology, Radiology (Digital X-rays), Sonography, etc, at the rate which are about 50
to 60 less than what are charged at other centres and hospitals without compromising on the quality of the services. The said hospital is having 8-bedded ICU, General wards, O.P.D’s etc.
Also note that apart from all the above mentioned activities we are also running more than 16 branches of our Diagnostic centres all over Mumbai and its suburbs and one branch at Sultanpur, U.P. where we provide pathology and radiology services.