A few days before Scotland's New Year alcohol-fest of Hogmanay, and as a tee-totaller not my favourite time of year. There is a certain irony being a muslim living in a country that has a name perhaps best known around the world through its association with its own particular strain of strong alcohol, the 'water of life' that destroys the health and is responsible for the deaths of so many. 

Not such a merry White Christmas for some of us, as the winds swept down from Santa's frozen north, bearing Christmas gifts in 15 foot drifts, less of a Bing Crosby dream than a nightmare. No Good King Wenceslas about, just Jack Frost arm in arm with the Grim Reaper searching out those unable to afford their winter fuel.

Strange how something so dangerous can be so beautiful, an apparently infinite variety of patterns crystallized into fragile jewels, carpeting the landscape and fragmenting the sunlight into a zillion rainbows hanging on the trees, making our puny attempts at festive decoration seem decidedly crude in comparison to the work of the Master, and all done with a little water and a little weather.

Of course, danger often walks hand in hand with beauty, living on the edge, like a mountain climber. There's nothing like the risk of losing it to enhance the experience of life. But it's not the most extreme of climatic possibilities, but the unexpected that is likely to be most threatening. In Scotland, a mist out of nowhere on the mountains is more likely to kill than an hurricane, but as anywhere in the world, humans daily face a threat much more dangerous than heavy weather.

Not even war, although indeed it kills more people, and like the weather, we rarely think about it until it picks us up and shakes us. In fact, we know our most dangerous enemy intimately, and face it in the mirror every day. A pale imitation of the exhilaration of risking instant death, we most of us prefer slow suicide. Tobacco and alcohol, our legally tolerated, socially acceptable forms of drug abuse kill hundreds of us daily, and yet we insist on remaining ostrich blind.

Qur'an says "We do not change a people until they change themselves"

If the weather killed a dozen of us we would treat it as an emergency. If an epidemic killed a hundred there would be widespread outcry. Yet especially in this season of self-indulgence, we believe in the advertising fairy, and imagine that enjoyment is bought and consumed, rather than found for free inside.

So for a Happy New Year, hangover free, ignore the siren voices. Please don't kill yourself or others to prove that you're having a good time.