Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Center (MMERC) is an institute floated to groom the gifted madrassa students with secular and market oriented studies. It has been the endeavour of the Centre to transform the products of the Islamic seminaries into an asset for the country.
Maulana Badruddin Ajmal Qasmi, whose Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) won the parliamentary election with a huge margin, is the brain behind the Centre.
Principal of the institute Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi said, “We don’t have a weekly off, neither a Friday nor a Sunday. Our students are busy right from the morning till late in the evening for whole of the year.”
The Maulana, who is the right hand man of Badruddin Ajmal, is friend, philosopher and guide to his students. The students hold him in high esteem and follow his ideals.
Ask about the wisdom in investing in the madrassa students whose foundations are based on temporal rather than mundane education, pat comes the retort from Burhanuddin Qasmi, “Had there not been Ulema after the decline of Muslim rule, the mythical Indian civilization would have absorbed Muslim identity and culture”.
“Ulema have been the backbone of the Muslim community and their extraordinary efforts through ages have kept the Islamic assets protected and flourishing on the Indian soil. Therefore, the fate of Muslims as a unit and a separate religious group depends on the progressive ideas, up-to-date policies and universal thoughts of their spiritual leaders,” he elaborates.
In a short span of few years of the existence of MMERC, the maulana transformed the lives of over a hundred madrassa students. Quality of the education for the two-year course of the institute is maintained strictly. The intake is maintained at 25 for each year.
“Total discipline and absolutely no leisure to anyone, our rules are very clear. Above all our evaluation method leaves no chance for the students to freak out. To come with the flying colors, they have no option but to perform”, said Maulana Burhan Qasmi.
As a result, MMERC products are high in demand. Everyone, from publication houses to consulates, industries to education centres are approaching the Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Center for with plum offers of job opportunities for its students.
In the wake of the demand for its students, the institute which is billed as an IIM of madrassa students has branched out in Assam, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Gujarat.