We often hear statements like, “Home sweet home”, or “There is no place like home.”

But have we ever considered what a great favour of Allah it is that Allah has granted us a place which we can call home.

وَٱللَّهُ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنۢ بُيُوتِكُمْ سَكَنًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُم مِّن جُلُودِ ٱلْأَنْعَـٰمِ بُيُوتًا تَسْتَخِفُّونَهَا يَوْمَ ظَعْنِكُمْ وَيَوْمَ إِقَامَتِكُمْ ۙ وَمِنْ أَصْوَافِهَا وَأَوْبَارِهَا وَأَشْعَارِهَآ أَثَـٰثًا وَمَتَـٰعًا إِلَىٰ حِينٍ
Allah has made your homes the place for your rest, and animal skins for tents like houses so that you may find them light when you travel and easy to pitch when you stop; while from their wool, fur, and hair He provides you household items and articles of convenience for your prescribed term of life. [An Nahl: 80]

وَٱللَّهُ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّمَّا خَلَقَ ظِلَـٰلًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْجِبَالِ أَكْنَـٰنًا
Allah has provided you shades from the sun out of what He has created. He has granted you resorts in the mountains….. [An Nahl: 80]

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ is reported to have said:
مِنْ سَعَادَةِ الْمَرْءِ الْمَسْكَنُ الْوَاسِعُ، وَالْجَارُ الصَّالِحُ، وَالْمَرْكَبُ الْهَنِيءُ‏.‏
Nafi’ ibn ‘Abdu’l-Harith reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Part of the happiness of the Muslim man includes a spacious dwelling, righteous neighbour and a good mount” [Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 116]

A home is so integral to survival that we find even in the animal kingdom, animals have lairs and mark their territories, humans are very similar and people have fundamental attachments to places and spaces. (Some experts even go on to explain that the closeness between a child and the mother is because of this very reason that the mother`s womb was the first HOME of the foetus.) Humans, however, add layers of significance to home and place. Remember this that physical places endure while memories and people fade, so homes and neighbourhoods become “memory machines” that help us keep alive some of the strongest sources of what has given our lives meaning, well-being, and happiness.

It’s no wonder that we drive all night to get home instead of stopping at a roadside motel (which, of course, promises us all the comforts of home). For many children, a sense of home and place is shaped by their room, and it can evoke strong memories and feelings decades after they’ve moved away.

A home provides security, control, belonging, identity, and privacy, among other things. But most of all, it’s a place that provides us with a centring—a place from which we leave each morning and to which we return each evening.
Think about it, on a scorching hot day where do we take shade? On a bitter cold day, where do we look for warmth? When it is raining and storming, where do we seek shelter?

Is it not in our homes!
So be grateful for it, appreciate it and Allah will give you better and more.