Again a case of having to deal with tragedy - lives lost at sea - means that one has to tread extremely carefully. Sensitivity is the order of the day at such times, though I do try to avoid the 'We know how they must feel' syndrome that tends to infect many public commentators. But in fact, for me as with most people it was a headline in the paper, no more, not the personal loss of those involved, and to say otherwise would make me feel like a hypocrite. I really didn't like writing about tragedies like these, but the need to comment on the news meant that there were times when I couldn't avoid them.

It’s often said that farmers are better equipped to deal with the vagaries of their fellow humans because of their daily encounters with the vagaries of God, their livelihoods depending on the sun, wind and rain, known as signs of God in the Qur’an.

When the weather is benign, as it is most of the time, it is the natural context that sustains us and feeds us (with a little help from our farmer friends). But familiarity with that gentleness of disposition in the earthly expression of God’s provision for humankind, can tempt us to ignore its awesome power.

When our crops are watered by gentle showers, or we laze in the warmth of a summer breeze, it’s easy to forget that our comfort zone is actually quite narrow, and a breeze is only a breath away from a hurricane.

Farmers live with the fact that a slight variation in the weather can easily destroy their crops and their livelihoods. But even our farmers are not as bound up with the elements as our sailors, who know that extremes of weather threaten not just their livelihoods but their lives, a fact to which the fate of the Solway Harvester bears witness.

Of course our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who died in the storm, but for all our public condolences we can never really share in the private depth of their personal grief. Nonetheless, their tragedy does serve as a fearsome reminder to us all of the way that death will inevitably strike just as closely to the rest of us in the not too distant future.

For though many of us do our best to ignore it, we will never be able to avoid it. It comes to us all, and on that day we receive recompense in truth and justice for all the good and bad deeds of our lives.

“Surely God's promise is true:” says the Qur’an, “so let not the present life delude you, and let not the Tempter fool you concerning God.”

“Surely God - He has knowledge of the Hour; He sends down the rain; He knows what is in the wombs. No soul knows what it shall earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it shall die.”

“Surely God is the All-knowing and All-aware.”