If there is any group of professionals that should covet the wisdom behind the Ramadan Fasting the most, then the truck drivers amply qualify! Experts have averred that Ramadan is one of the best times to improve driving culture and learn defensive techniques. Ramadan offers the message of compassion and exchange of goodwill and what better place than on the road to show these virtues. It could help save so many lives and there is no better thing than saving a life. There is wisdom behind every act in Islam, no matter how big or small. In time we may know the wisdom behind some acts, and for others we may never know. Salaat, the five daily prayers for instance, is a daily training for purifying a believer and reminding him that he is a member in a community of believers. Fasting, on the other hand, is an annual institution containing all conceivable attributes for human excellence. It is a training for the body and soul, a renewal of life, encouraging the spirit of sharing and giving.
However, there are several other profound benefits attached to fasting that makes for an excellent trucking life experience and which are strongly recommended for adoption both now and in the days and months succeeding the end of Ramadan season. These benefits manifest in the below listed and are examined in greater detail subsequently:
- Self-restraint
- Behavior Modification
- Self-Restraint (Taqwaa)
- Health Care
- Patience
- Social Outlook
- Family Ties
Self-restraint
Majority of accidents happen because people do not exercise patience. They are rude and they tailgate. Ramadan is the right time to practice self-restraint, because self-control is the basic principle behind fasting and this should not be applied only to eating and drinking but in all parts of life including driving. Allah (SWT) states: “O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you that you may (learn) self-restraint.” (Al-Qur`an, 2:183) This verse indicates the first lesson or wisdom to be gained by fasting: Self-restraint, (Taqwa) or the fear of Allah (SWT). That is to say, fasting instills in the heart the essence of consciousness of the Creator which leads to a moral courage both in secret and in public by guiding the heart (the seat of emotions) from spoilage and moral indecency. The overriding importance or relevance of self-restraints becomes more evident when one consider the stress level of and average truck driver and the increasing temptation to succumb to the temptation of road-rage and aggressive driving style that is highly injurious to a successful trucking experience. Some truck drivers who are given to the idea of wanton or reckless living in transit may also have a lot to imbibe from this benefit of fasting.
Behaviour Modification
Many truck drivers have become slaves to some dangerous habits including but not limited to excessive alcohol ingestion, drug abuse, illicit and unguided sex in transit etc. One of the most benefiting factors of fasting is that its observer is able to control or change his or her old or so called ‘unbreakable’ habits. The reason being that human life is an embodiment of acquired habits. To change or control a habit is to wage a war on oneself. Thus, the fasting person is admitted to the compulsory training opened only in Ramadan. The learning in this school is obligatory and succeeding or scoring high is mandatory, otherwise it is like one has never entered. The Prophet (PBUH) said: “Many a faster receives naught from his fast except the pain of hunger and thirst.” And how does Ramadan fasting helps control habits? The answer is simple. The two most important habits are eating and drinking. An average person eats three meals a day, 21 meals a week. The way the fast is structured, with its basic and drastic alteration of eating habits, a fasting person takes only light meals early in the morning and late in the evening. If a believer can do that then it will undoubtedly be easy for him or her to control other habits, including the habit of smoking, drug abuse and illicit sex which all constitute the most prominent malaise facing the trucking industry in particular and other spheres of human life in general. If one can control his tongue, hands, and all the other parts of the body for a month then it will be easy for him to apply the same training for the rest of the year.
In the next instalment of this article, we will examine health care, patience, social outlook and other benefits as we continue our assessment of the wisdom of Ramadan fasting and its implication for the truck driver. Ramadan Mubarak!
