I read with interest the letters which debated whether the mega-tsunami which occurred on Boxing Day last year was due to the Almighty's vengeance against the sins of mankind.

One cannot help but notice that Banda Aceh, which is considered by devoted Muslims to be the region's cradle of Islamic teaching, was not spared this vengeance and suffered the same fate as the 'sin island' of Phuket where wine, women and song are in abundance to cater for the foreigners.

And closer to home, Penang island and parts of our mainland were also not spared the brunt of the tidal wave with loss of lives and extensive damage to property being recorded. One tends to wonder why the Almighty's punishment was not restricted to the sinners only but also visited upon the good who had to suffer for the sins of others.

Only the Almighty knows the reasons for this tragedy. We mere humans, with all our weaknesses and fragility, can only learn to be more spiritually inclined and not dwell too long on why the tsunami occurred.

It will lead to an erosion of one's faith ( akidah ) if we were to question God's wisdom on why things happen the way they do on this planet.

As Muslims, we must believe that our faith and fate ('qadak' dan 'qadar') are predetermined by the Almighty and one has to accept both good and bad tidings as the will of God even as we weep in the wake of this tragedy of gigantic proportions.

So devastating was this killer wave that many of the countries affected including Sri Lanka, India and Somalia will take years to recover. The emotional scars will remain for a lifetime.

It is a good thing to see the world's only superpower taking the lead in relief operations in the disaster areas of Aceh. Hopefully this tragedy will make people there more aware of the need to live with one another peacefully without going to war and to use military assets for peaceful purposes rather than for aggression.

One can only hope that our government, too, has learned some good lessons from this black event and that the government media will not be caught flatfooted should another tsunami hit our shores. It is hoped that by then we would have an early warning system in place and that the official media would play its role to warn the people of impending danger.