Contestants from 53 countries to participate in Qur’an contest

Under the aegis of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Call and Guidance will organize next month the 33rd King Abdul Aziz International Contest for Memorization of the Holy Qur’an with the participation of contestants from 53 countries. “The contest to be organized in Makkah aims at highlighting the Kingdom’s interest in the memorization and recitation of the Holy Qur’an. The Kingdom wants to promote learning of the Holy Qur’an among the Muslim youth,” said the public relations director of the contest Salman bin Muhammad Al-Amri in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency on Thursday. He said out of 161 contestants from 53 countries, 87 competitors will be sent by their governments while 66 will represent Islamic organizations. The contest will have 10 judges. Four of them from the Kingdom. They are Ibrahim Al-Dossary, Emad Zuhair Hafiz, Saud Al-Ghonaim and Salim Al-Shenqiti, he said. The judges from outside the Kingdom include Ahmad Al-Maasarawi from Egypt, Samih Al-Asaminah from Jordan, Lamat Al-Ameen from Mauritania, Abdul Malik Lazim from Malaysia, Muhammad Hakeem from Pakistan and Sadiq Zawiyah from Nigeria. He added that the Kingdom spends annually more than SR100 million for the contest without seeking any material motive. The five items of contest include: Memorization of full text with correct intonated recitation, commentary and meaning of words, memorization of full text with intonated recitation, memorization of 20 continuous juz (parts) with intonated recitation, memorization of 10 continuous juz with intonated recitation and the fifth item is reserved for organizations in non-Muslim countries. It involves memorization of five continuous juz (parts) with intonated recitation. Winner of the first prize in the first category will be given a cash award of SR100,000, the second SR90,000, the third SR80,000,  the fourth SR70,000 and the fifth SR60,000.