Ramadan and Health Care for the Truck Driver
Fasting helps to correct the multidimensional health problems associated with the majorly unguided dietary habits of an average truck driver. Fasting is a sentinel against disease, provided that the faster follows the strict dietary rule: eat during fast breaking and avoiding over-eating. Allah (SWT) States: “…Eat and drink, but waste not by excess, for Allah loves not the wasters.” (Al-Qur`an, 7:31).
A great deal of ailments originates from stomach indigestion. This is why the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) says: “The son of Adam will never fill a container with something worse and evil than his stomach. It will suffice him some morsels (food) that will keep him on his feet, otherwise, he should divide his stomach into three parts: one-third for his food, the other for his drink and the other third for his breath.” (Ibn Hibban) This hadith indicates that the stomach is the origin of harmful bacteria. Even in the age of sophisticated machines, you can hardly find a machine so fragile but yet so remarkably durable and efficient like the stomach. This is the machine that receives food particles, processes and refines them, and distributes the products to different parts of the body. This is a lifelong operation. For the non-faster, the stomach will have no chance for rest.
When the stomach is empty, as a result of fasting, it gets well-desired rest, to renew and rejuvenate its energy. With the fasting, the stomach is forced to go through a discharge whereby harmful residues are eliminated through perspiration as the body searches for food during fast. During fast, the system of secretion is organized, and this in turn benefits the blood pressure, inhibiting hardening of the arteries. The heart and kidney functions are enhanced as the workload tapers off.
Patience
Truck driving is one of the most technically and physically demanding jobs in the world. It is not a job for the faint-hearted. It is highly demanding, tough, tasking and tortuous. It is in this regard that the benefit of fasting in conditioning the heart, the soul, and the body on the virtues of patience, tenacity, and firmness in the face of adversity, comes in very handy. Patience is the pinnacle of self-mastery, discipline and spiritual agility. Patience is to turn the phrase “I can’t” into “I can.” It is to say the difficult is easy. It is an inner and psychological demolition of things perceived by others as impossible. Fasting helps in all these shades for the virtuous and patient person. Because the conditioning is that if a believer can exercise patience and forsake gourmet food and drink and all its exhilaration, as well as marital association, for a month with the realization that the barrier between you and food is the consciousness of his Creator then he is able to exercise patience in virtually everything in life.
Social Outlook
Many trucking or haulage business owners are grossly deficient in the management of their key assets, the Drivers. In fact, the tendency to see the truck driver as subhuman being is very rampant in our clime. A flawed and grossly dysfunctional perspective one would say! But the Ramadan fasting has sound benefits in this regard that can provoke a rethink in our haulage business owners. Socially, fasting is an expression of solidarity with the poor, the family and the whole society. This is a period in which the rich have first-hand experience of what it is to be poor; the pains that indigents suffer in normal living conditions. The process of disciplining resulting from Islamic fasting instills in the rich the virtue of mercy, which is very important in terms of social well-being and proliferation of harmony. Allah (SWT) Bestows His mercy upon those who themselves are merciful to others. The Messenger (PBUH) said “Those who are merciful to others, the Merciful will have mercy upon them,” He continued, “Have mercy upon those on earth, and those in heaven will have mercy upon you.” (Abu Dawud/Tirmidhi)
Family Ties
Work-life balance is a major challenge in the trucking world. The nature of a truck driver’s job that requires him/her to be away from home and family for a considerable long period of time in quick succession has played a major part in compounding this problem. The benefits accruable from Ramadan fasting readily offer some help in this regard. Fasting strengthens family ties, especially in that the family is an endangered institution in the cosmopolitan society. It helps the family gather together to break fast at Iftar, and then eat sahuur (food before fasting) together at least twice a day for a month. The family even makes Salaat together with normally the head of the family as an Imam. This helps to infuse proper bonding in the family and insulate the home against sudden and unexpected collapse presently threatening most homes.
