This world is not our habitat. God made Paradise as a habitat for human beings, just as water is the habitat for the fish. The moment a fish enters water, its entire being is fully satisfied. A human being's search, his desires, the world he wants for himself where he finds fulfilment is Paradise. A human being's habitat is Paradise.
Surah Kahaf mentions Paradise: نِعْمَ الثَّوَابُ وَحَسُنَتْ مُرْتَفَقًا (18:31) An excellent reward and an excellent resting place! Murtafaqa is translated as resting place. An excellent resting place, a very nice place to live. This is the meaning of murtafaqa. Reflecting on this I realized that if we change the terminology, the matter will become clear. To understand the Quran, you have to change the terms. You have to change the terms to make the message understandable for yourself. An excellent resting place means the best habitat. Surah al-Teen says that man was created in the best of mould. (95:4) Surah Kahaf speaks about murtafaq-e-ahsan, while Surah al-Teen speaks about ahsan-e-taqweem. The resting place a human being needs is Paradise. This is called habitat.
For example, the habitat of the fish is water. It swims around and splashes in water. But if you take the fish out and place it on sand, it would become restless. The habitat of the fish is water. It finds no peace outside water. The habitat of a human being is one where he can find perfection, idealism, eternity and everlasting health. He should suffer no accident. He must not die. That will be his right habitat. The present world is not our habitat. Habitat is a place where a person has everything according to his desires. We desire eternity. This world doesn’t have eternity. We want to remain healthy forever. In this world, we can't find everlasting good health. We want to live forever. But in this world we have to face death. We don’t want to be bored. But here, there is boredom. We don’t want to experience stress. Here we have to suffer from stress. We want a perfect world. But here we have to stay in an imperfect world.
This world is not our habitat. God made Paradise as a habitat for human beings, just as water is the habitat for the fish. The moment a fish enters water, its entire being is fully satisfied. A human being's search, his desires, the world he wants for himself where he finds fulfilment is Paradise. A human being's habitat is Paradise.
