The Quranic Centre built in the Sir Syed House compound of Aligarh Muslim University always pinches me and reminds me of an incident. About 10 years ago, I got a chance to meet Mr Naseem Ahmed the vice chancellor of AMU with my uncle Dr Abdullah (of Maryland, USA). Beside discussing various he spent good fraction of time praising the idea Mr Nizami of New York Islamic Centre, who proposed to build the Quranic center in the Sir Syed compound. Mr Nizami wanted the structure to resemble the old architecture of AMU and was very particular about the appearance. The VC went on to praise efforts of the team working on the project, as how they brought the bricks from far away places and various other details of the construction.
Hearing his praises, as a student I gather myself to asked the VC 'if he really thinks its a good idea'. He said why, and I replied. First of all any aesthetically superior structure in the compound is bound to draw more attention than the founder's house. Thus undermining the significance of Sir Syed House and the Aligarh Movement. Also the Aligarh Movement primarily promoted modern education among Indian Muslim and not the Islamic education. I certainly don't wish ignore or dwarf the importance of Islamic education but it certainly was not the objective of the founder's movement.
Today when I see pictures like the one above I feel sadden that the architecturally superior building has started to eclipse the historically far superior one.
