Thought for the Day, 2 July 2008

Dr Mona Siddiqui

In a recent conversation with a journalist, I was asked about my family home. As I began reflecting it occurred to me that I had no one family home, my parents had moved four times in the same town; that in some respects each house had been a home for a while and then we had moved on.

The ability to be able to move from one place to another, to build a new home in a new place when the need arises has become an important part of modern life. This is why the current gloom around the UK housing market becomes more poignant. As house prices fall fast and people are finding it much harder to move, this is not just about an economic downturn. We have taken the buying and selling of property as a costly but essential part of our lifestyle choices. When this stops, we are frustrated because we no longer feel free. Ofcourse feeling rooted is equally important. Houses and homes are what anchor us, help us to live full lives, keep us focused on building something for the future, something we can pass on to our children. But we don't ever want to feel stuck; to feel that we have no freedom to grow and explore new places.

I've been in my current house for four years and know that I will have to move again at some point in the future. I'm all too aware that as I spend more money and time on my own home, I will be sorry to leave for our houses can be our biggest investments; there is virtue in settling, in feeling rooted, in building ones memories around a single house. But there is also virtue in knowing that a home can be built and rebuilt anywhere, that the sense of journeying doesn't deprive us of a sense of love and security but just points to new horizons.

This feeling resonates with the essence of Islam. Like many other faiths it recognises that life is a journey, that I must live on this earth as if I were a traveller, that nothing is permanent and that God tests us most with our possessions and our children. The changes we make to our lives may not always be essential to lead the good life but they may be essential in making us feel alive.