They know not the beauty of iftar with their dear and near ones, nor do they know ceremonial festivities of fast-breaking below the Ramadhan lantern along with friends and relatives. They hardly know about the fat iftars thrown by the hotels on behalf of the corporates.
They are the blue-collar workers and the men engaged in manual labour who work in shifts digging and asphalting the roads, tunnels, bridges and other construction works covering their iftar time.
With the social iftars suspended due to preventive measures, they solely look forward to those who bring them the dates and laban to break their fast.
“We do not have the time to go to our camps to break fast, and hence we keep something when start for work in the morning. But with those good Samaritans distributing food at iftar time, we break our fast properly,” said a labourer engaged in the construction in Al Khuwair.
By and large, these are men of various ethnic backgrounds, diverse cultural origins, wearing different attires, taking part in the nation-building process and waiting to share their first meal of the day from a single platter while helping each other with drinking water, dates and other delicacies of breaking fast.
They stand in perfect unison for prayers in rows reiterating the vow to stay away from food and drinks and all material pleasures in life during the day and enhance humanity at the iftar venues.
They are in unanimity to committing themselves to Allah Almighty, and this is quite a common scene these days as the holy month of Ramadhan is entering the second ten days of its course.
With the Covid-19 protocol still in existence, these workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and many other countries are seen collecting boxes with dates, laban, water, and fruits just a few minutes before the evening prayer.
“Since the beginning of the holy month, we have been catering to hundreds of passersby every day with essentials for iftar, and the response has been tremendous. More than the CSR and loyalty-building programmes, providing iftar to the blue-collar workers right in time of breaking fast is really divine,” said Aneesh, BDM of leading money exchange, the volunteers of which were seen distributing foods to labourers engaged in public construction work in Al Khuwair.
The travellers’ iftar kits are distributed at the signals and places where the traffic is low. The men behind this are some good Samaritans. These kits are helpful for the people on the move and workers who find it difficult to reach home in time to break fast. Due to the mosque’s location, several moving people break their fast halfway to their destination every day.
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