A 'human interest' story in all the papers at the time, as an entire building collapsed around the visitor from New York and she walked out with hardly a scratch. 'Gimme Shelter', however,  was the name of a charitable campaign against homelessness, which was just about beginning to be recognised as a political problem as the number of homeless sleeping on the streets came to be seen as just maybe due to the Government's policies.

"No soul knows what it shall earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it shall die" says the Qur'an, similar sentiments to which might have been in the mind of Ms. Zennaiter from New York as she plunged two floors in a collapsing building in Parkhead the other day. A dramatic demonstration, if ever one was needed, of the uncertainty of life even when we think we're as safe as houses. No early warning, not even four minutes, just a few cracking noises, a few falling slates, and suddenly the houses were gone.

With almost all the residents at work or school the headlines are fortunately of miraculous escape, but thoughts of good fortune have perhaps already faded from their minds as they face a world in which they have just lost virtually everything they own. It's most unlikely that their struggle to rebuild will be considered very newsworthy, any more than the individual stories of many others on our streets left destitute and homeless.

Few will have faced so spectacularly public a devastation, but a redundancy notice can come out of the blue, or sickness can sneak up and surprise you, one thing leads to another, and suddenly your life that you thought was safe as houses can come tumbling down around your ears. And then where will you sleep at night, or cook, or wash, or go to the toilet? And after a few weeks of that what are your chances of impressing a possible future employer or landlord and changing your situation?

But whether we are talking of the local homeless or Bosnian war refugees, a cry of Gimme Shelter is only the beginning. What is needed is not just four walls and a roof, but a way of integrating those disadvantaged by circumstances back into a productive role within the community, and a system which presumes that mankind is essentially greedy and idle doesn't work because it is self fulfilling.

When, in the early days of Islam, Muhammad and his followers fled from Makkah to avoid persecution, they made the few days journey north to a small town that is now known as Madinah. The Prophet had been invited there by its citizens in the hope that he could bring peace and harmony to a place that up to then had been the centre of great intertribal feuds, and was described by its inhabitants as "torn asunder by enmity and evil".

Now you'd expect a crowd of destitute refugees to disrupt things still more, but Muhammad dealt with the situation by pairing off the the community in individual bonds of brotherhood. In this situation, those who needed help didn't abuse their  helpers, but took the minimum necessary to establish themselves as independent and productive citizens. Few people enjoy begging for a living, they would much rather feel they have something to contribute, and can pay their own way.

At the same time, the natural generosity of mankind in the face of suffering could be seen, as when given a clearly defined purpose the residents offered to share all that they had. It is the natural state of man to be a believer, and as the Prophet said, "None of you believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself."