Where Do We Belong, Where Will We Find Peace, and Where Is Our Home?

“Where is our home?” Perhaps this question seems a bit strange! We are all familiar with the concept of ‘home,’ and if we were to answer the question, “Where is our home?” we would answer, “Wherever the heart is happy,” or “wherever we feel warm, calm, and safe.” However, in the heart of this question and in all the possible answers, there hides a subtle concept, which we intend to address in this article.

In the morning of a workday, we get out of home, and in the evening, we return home after hours of hard work. Depending on whether we have had a good day or not, we return home with a smiling or sad face. Even if our looks do not tell others what has happened during the day, we feel victory or defeat within ourselves, and at least we ourselves are aware of it. If a family member asks us why we are happy or sad, our answer reflects what we have faced throughout the day. Therefore, raising the question “Are our happiness and sadness depend on the conditions of the home or what has happened during the day?” probably does not make sense, because the home and its characteristics have not changed. Rather, what happened outside the home has led to our happiness or unhappiness.

Now let us return to our first question: “Where is our home?” Our home is our origin; we get out of it in the morning and return to it at night. At the end of the night, our home is the resurrection or where we return. Now, if someone asks you to describe your home, which home do you describe? The home you left in the morning, or the home you returned to at night?

The home of the morning is the same as the home at night, and time does not change its characteristics. In this article, we will discuss the exact same concept: “Where is our home?” It is the place from which we have come and to which we will return.

Where Have We Come from, and Where Are We Going?

In Islamic philosophy, we encounter the concept of resurrection, which refers to the return of the human being. It should be noted that a return only makes sense if a departure has taken place before it. No one uses the verb “to return” for a place they have never been to or did not come from. When talking about resurrection, it means that the human has come from somewhere to this world and is supposed to return to that place. This means that the origin and destination do not differ from each other, but rather they are the same environment with the same conditions.

What highlights the importance of resurrection is the changes and transformations that occur in a being that is supposed to go through this path. It is not that the origin has created changes in its characteristics and has transformed into resurrection with different characteristics. Rather, a being named the human has entered a stage called the world from an origin, transforms in the world, and will return to that same origin again. Therefore, our origin is our home to which we will return.

Home is where we belong to, and we yearn to return to it throughout the day. Even when we are not satisfied with the conditions in our home, we constantly think of improving them or finding a new home . As we stated, home is where we feel safe, at peace, and where we always come back to. We do not belong to the places we spend our days in; rather, we belong to our home and family, and everywhere other than home is only a place where we acquire something.

Our relation with the hereafter is also the same. We have come from the hereafter and will return to it. Thus, in response to the question “Where is our home?” we must state that the hereafter is our safe home and this world is a place for us to acquire assets.  The only thing that has changed in the midst of this is our state, which has a direct relation with what we have acquired in this world and will take with us.

We must be the child of the hereafter because we have come from there and will return there.^[1] We stated that the truth of our existence is the supra-rational dimension of our being. This truth has come from the hereafter to this world and will return to its own home in a long journey which we explained earlier.

Why Have We Left Home?

Imagine a farmer that has planted a seed. Knowing that if he takes care of it, he will be able to harvest a lot after some time. In fact, the farmer knows what capabilities this seed has and wants to actualize the potentials hidden in it. He transfers the seed from the surface of the soil into the earth and provides favorable conditions required for the seed to grow and germinate so that after a while it returns to the soil with a very different appearance.

The seed returns to where it was before, although it has been away from its original environment for a while and has changed in the earth so much that it has no similarity to what it used to be. As we stated before, our human dimension or our true self is a Divine Spirit.^[2] Before being breathed into the body, the Divine Spirit is created in another realm, i.e., the hereafter, and is transferred to the body in one of the stages of physical development. In other words, the truth of the human being has come from the hereafter to this world in a descending journey. The birth of the soul in this world is its birth into the body. The origin and mother of our material body is this world itself. According to the principle that “Everything returns to its origin,”[3] after a period of life, our body is buried in the ground and returns to this world again; our soul that is born in another realm returns to where it comes from after a certain period of settling in an earthly body. In other words, the truth of our existence returns to the hereafter in an ascending journey again.[4]

:The Starting Point and Ending Point Are the Same!

The origin and resurrection, i.e., return and beginning, are both related to the other realm or the hereafter. Thus, in response to the question “Where is our home?” we deal with two concepts: one related to the world and the other related to the hereafter. The hereafter is the home we have come from and will return to. The important point is that the hereafter is not the next realm but the other realm, which is the abode of our origin and resurrection, and in the midst of this, we spend some time in this world.

In fact, the starting and ending point of our spiritual journey is one, and we will reach the same starting point again in a circular motion.

If we know who and where our origin is, we will truly be free from many philosophical ambiguities and misconceptions. One of the biggest obstacles which prevents our intellect from understanding the essence of the world is that we start our knowledge from the middle of the path, from birth to this world, not from the beginning of the journey. Someone who does not know where his home or starting point is and believes that this world is his origin faces contradiction in understanding the reasons behind many of his needs and desires, and he either ignores or denies them. In our discussions on the desire for infinity, we explored those needs and desires as well as their origin and the reasons for their existence.

In this article, we answered the question “Where is our home?” and concluded that our home is not the world, but the same place where we have come from and will return to. Just like a seed that stays in the soil for a while and returns to the world again, we have come to acquire some things. In the upcoming articles, we will address why and for what purpose we have left our home.

^[1]. Nahj al-balagha, Ali ibn Abi Talib, sermon 154.

^[2]. Quran, 15:29

[3]. A saying by Muhammad Al-Baqir ibn Ali. Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 64, p. 106.

[4]. “Allah alone caused you to grow from the earth like a plant. Then He will return you to it, and then simply bring you forth again.” (Quran, 71:17-18)

redundant sentence.