What is universal life? What is man’s original homeland?

-Is man’s homeland the world or the hereafter?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Universal life is the life that becomes manifest in all realms, visible and invisible, the world and the hereafter, realm of similitude and visible realm. A subtle and fine meaning of this universal life becomes manifest even in the tablets of qadar:

Life has a manifestation on qadar, which surrounds the past and the future, too. Life is not limited with time and space only. Life has a kind of manifestation on every realm and every creature. However, the quality of those manifestations occurs based on the quality of each realm. That is, life that is manifest in material realms are not the same as life that is manifest on the tablets of qadar in terms of quality.

Life in the seed is subtle and fine but is dense and material in the tree and its trunk, which come from the seed. That is, the types of manifestation of life in terms of density and subtleness are different.

The seed is like the concretized form of the tablets of qadar in the material realm. Life becomes manifest in the seed, which is concretized qadar, in a subtle and fine form; similarly, there are subtle and fine manifestations of life in qadar whose quality we cannot know.

Since there is a manifestation of life in qadar, creatures have a kind of life in their states in qadar before coming into being. That is, the beings come to the material world from the living tablets of qadar. Therefore, the bodies of the beings based on knowledge in qadar are essential and original and their material and bodily forms are their copies. When the beings were non-existent in terms of body, they existed in the knowledge of Allah alive.

The original homeland of man is Paradise.

Some tafsir scholars state that Hz. Adam was created on earth in a different dimension; some other tafsir scholars state that he was created in the other realm, in Paradise. Those who say Hz. Adam was created on earth show the following verse as evidence for their view:   

 "From the (earth) did We create you, and into it shall We return you, and from it shall We bring you out once again." (Taha, 20/55)

The others act upon the following verse

"Get ye down, all (ye people), with enmity between yourselves" (al-Baqara, 2/36).

They think Paradise must be somewhere outside the world since it is a place where innocent people live and they interpret the verse as follows: Man’s nature was taken from the earth. However, Hz. Adam was created in Paradise. Man will die and return to soil; then, he will be resurrected.  

It is stated in some narrations in Bukhari, Muslim and Ahmad b. Hanbal’s Musnad that Hz. Adam was created in Paradise. That our origin is Paradise, that we desire it in our conscience and that we want an eternal homeland confirm it.

Accordingly, man’s original homeland is Paradise. In fact, the real origin of everything that man desires is Paradise

Badiuzzaman Said Nursi states the following in the Twentieth Letter:  

“Then most decidedly and most certainly, that All-Powerful One of Glory, that All-Wise One of Perfection, that All-Merciful One of Beauty, will carry out His promise; He will open the gate to eternal bliss; He will admit you, O people of faith, to Paradise, which was the original home of your forefather Adam.”

Thus, he states that Paradise, to which we will go, is the original home of our forefather Adam, from where he was sent away.

Therefore, the places where we live and this world cannot be our original home. We have been seeking our original home since our father Adam and our mother Hawwa (Eve) were sent to this world. Our test is to be able to go to our original homeland again. We do not have a test that makes us accept this temporary homeland real homeland and make decrees based on it.

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