Quran reciters receive prizes

Three candidates who represented Ghana at the King Mohammed VI Foundation of African Oulema in the virtual Quranic memorisation and psalmody competition have received cash prizes to the tune of $ 6,000 at a brief ceremony in Accra.

The candidates received $2,000 each as motivational prizes for proficiency in memorisation, adhering to the rules of recitation of the Holy Quran, and displaying remarkable competitive spirit among their peers across Africa.

The King Mohammed VI Foundation of African Oulema, which is an umbrella grouping of African Islamic scholars from 34 countries, was formed in 2015 to pool and coordinate the efforts, knowledge and experiences of African Muslim scholars around the principles of common religious grounds to promote interfaith dialogue and tolerance of other beliefs, among other objectives.

As part of the activities of the foundation, it runs annual Quranic memorisation competitions at the various branches which culminate in a grand finale.

Virtual

 The competition was virtual this year due to travel restrictions and the social distancing protocol because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ghana displayed an unprecedented performance by outcompeting other countries to be among the first nine best in all the three categories of the virtual contest.

In a brief remark before presenting the prize to master Umar Issa, the candidate who came up 5th in the “ WARASH” recitation method, the President of the Ghana branch of the foundation, Sheikh Mustapha Ibrahim, congratulated the candidates and commended them on raising Ghana’s name high.

He observed that even though Ghana was not known as an internationally competitive country in Quranic memorisation, the remarkable performance of the candidates showed signs of a promising future for the youth in various Quranic memorisation study circles across the country.

Sheikh Ibrahim also advised them to augment their knowledge of the Holy Quran by seeking other areas of Islamic knowledge in order to consolidate their knowledge base for bigger roles as future Islamic scholars.

The General Secretary of the Foundation, Sheikh Usman Bari, who presented the cash prize to Hamza Khalil Tamim, who came up 6th in the mixed Quranic recitation method, also commended the contestants for making Ghana proud by standing tall among their peers across the continent.

He thanked the parents and teachers of the contestants for their efforts and sacrifice and urged the winners to be obedient by adhering to the Islamic teachings through which they are being moulded.

Competition

Presenting the prize to Abdul Mou’min Abdallah who came up ninth in the fifth Ahzaab (thematic parts) of the Quran competition, the foundation’s Director of Administration, Sheikh Munir Abdallah Tawfiq, congratulated the contestants and commended, particularly, Abdallah, the youngest Ghanaian contestant, who drew commendation from the panel of judges due to the quality of his recitation despite his age.

The overall winner will receive a cash prize of $6,000, with the second prize winner taking home $5,000, and the third prize winner, $4,000 at a ceremony to be held in Dakar, Senegal, later this month.