Where Does God Live?

I once read somewhere something along the lines of:

I looked for God in a church; I could not find Him.
I looked for God in a mosque; I could not find Him.
I looked for God in my heart, and I found Him.

These sage words have remained with me since. Belief in God, I believe, is an internal as the deepest corner of the heart, where His sacred temple resides. I have always thought to myself, does the location and techniques we use to worship Him really matter? Imagine if we could convert a consumerist hub like a mall, with all its luscious space, into a mosque. Or rather, what if it were a universal mosque, where Jews, Christians, and Muslims can worship God in their own approach; because isn't it the same God after all?

Yet, I do have to admit that I was stunned by what I witnessed yesterday. I never thought about it, but to this day, we continue to build our houses of worship in old-age architecture. Why is that? Is religion not compatable with modernity? Hence, for the first time in my life, I had witnessed a modern-style architecturally built mosque; it was simply revolutionary. Not only that, but the mosque's designer was a female, quite a feat in and of itself in the Islamic world.

I was flabbergasted when first reading an article about the construction of this mosque sometime ago on a bbc article, but visiting this mosque yesterday was a completely different experience. The simplicity and modernity of the mosque's interior and courtyard emitted such a tranquility I had not experienced at a mosque before. Even the design of the mosque itself took theological philosophy into consideration, which I thought was remarkable. Although the designer had placed the prayer section for women behind that of the men, it had elevated them to allow them a better glimpse of the mosque's internal view. I thought this to be very much in line with the notion that heaven is underneath mothers' feel in Islam, i.e. the mosque symbolizing heaven.

Overall, I feel like Islam has always encouraged architecture as a means of positively influencing believers. This is not an Islamic concept on its own, but one of all faiths. Yet, since our childhood, we are told that a mosque is God's home. No wonder why the architects of Istanbul's graceful mosques have meticulously strived to manifest God in their work. I recall reading in Alain de Botton's Architecture of Happiness that Islamic theologians strived to write beauty into matter in the construction of mosques, because ultimately beauty beauty translanted into purity and goodness of faith. This was the believe that by absorbing the beauty of architecture, one could become a better person. This is very much in line with the teachings of Avicenna's teachings that "God is the source of every beautiful thing."

I believe that the moral of this story is that with modernity in Islam can still come beauty...