Born in 1877 at Meerut in the renowned Zuberi family of India which claims among its ancestors Hazrat Zubair bin Awan, Sir Ziauddin showed exceptional signs of intelligence and diligence even when he was quite young.
He obtained his M.A. in 1897 and D.Sc. in 1901. His brilliant academic career won him a scholarship and he joined the Cambridge University in 1901 where he took his mathematical tripos and became a Wrangler. He obtained his Ph.D in 1905 from Goetengen University of Germany and visited Paris, Bologua and Cairo before returning to Aligarh in 1906 to join his alma mater as professor of mathematics.
Dr Ziauddin rendered a yeoman's service to the Muslims of the subcontinent. He worked for the uplift of the Muslim community and devoted his time to the eradication of ignorance and illiteracy from among the Muslims, who otherwise, would have lagged behind the Hindus by not less than a century.
Dr Ziauddin can certainly be reckoned as next only to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in spreading education among the Muslims and as such they owe him profound gratitude. He played a prominent role in the renaissance of Muslim education in the subcontinent after the great champion Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and he truly and faithfully carried the torch of education into evert strentuns of Muslims throughout India.
In fact, there are few Muslims in the history of Indo-Pakistan subcontinent who have played a more important role in the development of Muslim society than Dr Ziauddin. He was the most faithful successor to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan after whose death he carried on the task of educating his people in the teeth of opposition from the fanatics at that time.
When he was proceeding to England to receive the coveted Sir Isaac Newton Scholarship, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan wanted him to sign a five-year bond to serve the university on his return.
He wrote the bond on a paper and told his master that he had been asked to sign a bond for five years' service while he had already decided to serve the institution for his life. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan tore the bond and tears rolled down his cheeks in appreciation of Dr Ziauddin's noble gesture.
He was a genius in mathematics and a pioneer in education. Besides discharging his professional duties, Dr Ziauddin took and active interest in all movements connected with the social, educational and political progress of the subcontinent.
He was one of the original members of the All-India Muslim League founded at Dacca (Dhaka) on December 31, 1906, and the remained its member till his end. On the desire of the Quaid-i-Azam, Dr Ziauddin accepted the office of secretary of the newly organised Muslim League Party in the Central Assembly in 1938.
He was elected vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University in 1935 and was re-elected in 1941, a post he held till 1947. When the Muslim students were readt ti follow Gandhi in their youthful enthusiasm for the non - co - operation movement, he dissuaded them and saved MA.O College from complete destruction later he worked for raising the college it to the status of a university which became the centre of the Pakistan Movement.
When Maulana Mohammad Ali and his associates Hakim Ajmal Khan, Dr Ansari, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Maulana Azad and others attacked Aligarh Muslim University during the Khilafat and Non-co-operation Movement and urged Dr Ziauddin Ahmad to close the university and the teaching of English, it was the foresiged of Dr Ziauddin who rescued the Muslim University from ruin.
Dr Ziauddin Ahmad was at the helm of affairs of the University when the Pakistan Movement was in full swing and he made Aligarh the Arsenal of Pakistan Movement as termed by Quaid-i-Azam.
Dr Ziauddin was a devout Muslim and lived a simple life. He had a paternal affection for the teachers and students. A veteran parliamentarian.
In the Central Assembly of undivided India, he always fought for the rights of Muslims and always supported the national interests. In the affairs of the Reserve Bank of India, he achieved the goal for which the Congress fought and failed. His contributions to the fulfilment of our national destiny is so great that a grateful Muslim nation must always pay homege to this memory.
Dr Ziauddin was a giant among the Muslims of the subcontinent. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was the founder of the movement for the emergence of the Muslim Nation but it was due to the sagacity and foresight of Dr Ziauddin who made Aligarh the cradle of Muslim education, that it was possible for Muslims to attain the separate homeland of Pakistan in 1947 under the guidance of the Quaid-i-Azam.
Dr Ziauddin's attachment to Aligarh surpassed other loyalties so much so that Aligarh and Ziauddin became synonymous.
Thus, descendants of Hazrat Zubair can undoubtedly be called one of the top benefactors of the Muslims of the subcontinent. It has been rightly said that if Sir Syed Ahmed Khan founded the Aligarh College, Sir Ziauddin helped it emerge as the most significant university for the subcontinent's Muslims.
He was a close associate of H.H Aga Khan III, and H.H Syedna Tahir Saifuddin, who were also great patrons of the Aligarh Muslim University.
In 1917, Dr Ziauddin was appointed a member of the Calcutta University Commission of which Sir Micheal Sadler was president. He played an active role in its deliberations and made a weighty contribution to the formulation of its recommendations both from the point of view of general education.
Aligarh and the Muslims of Indo-Pakistan subcontinent owe such a great debt to the services of Sir Syed Ahmed and Dr Ziauddin that it is essential to perpetuate the memory of these great heroes who can rightly be claimed as those national workers who have contributed in most abundant measure for the establishment of Pakistan.
The Legacy of Dr Sir Ziauddin Ahmed is being carried on by his daughter, Dr Ajaz Fatima, her husband, Dr Tajammul Hussain, and their children.
His grandson, Dr Asim Hussain, chancellor of Dr Sir Ziauddin Medical University and chairman of Dr Ziauddin Medical Complex is very devotedly serving the cause of suffering humanity and medical education in Pakistan.
Sir Ziauddin died in London on December 23, 1947, and was buried in Aligarh beside Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in the Muslim University Mosque premises.
(The writer is Chairman of Overseas chapter Dr Sir Ziauddin Ahmad Memorial Society, USA.)