20th edition of Quran awards to be named after late Rashid Bin Mohammad

Dubai: The 20th edition of the Dubai International Holy Quran Award (DIHQA) will be dedicated to the late Shaikh Rashid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who passed away last year, the organising committee of the annual Quran awards announced on Sunday.

One of the most sought after cultural events of Dubai’s Islamic calendar, DIHQA’s main segment — the international Quran recitation and memorisation contest — coincides every year with the month of Ramadan.

This year, the prestigious annual event will begin with a series of lectures in multiple languages, followed by the main Quran contest, which will be held at the Dubai Chamber auditorium from Ramadan 7 to Ramadan 20.

Announcing the details of the programme, Ebrahim Bu Melha, adviser to the Ruler of Dubai for cultural and humanitarian affairs and head of the DIHQA organising committee, said that the organising committee of the award has decided to name the 20th edition of the award after the late Shaikh Rashid Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum.

He added that another key segment of the award, the ‘Most Beautiful Recitation Contest’, will be renamed the Shaikh Rashid Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum Contest for Most Beautiful Recitation, with effect from the 11th edition of the contest from next year.

Contestants from 92 countries and foreign communities have confirmed their participation this year, making it one of the largest contests ever.

Participants from Chechnya, Dagestan and Tataristan will be taking part in the contest for the first time.

A specialist committee has prepared 500 questions for the contest, which will be randomly asked of different contestants through an electronic automated process.

Bu Melha said the examination system shall remain unchanged.

“All contestants need to clear the initial qualifying tests, following which they have to answer five questions each in the final examinations; two in the afternoon at their accommodation and three later on at Dubai Chamber auditorium,” he said.

He added that introducing Quran text in the software of the electronic arbitration system has helped the arbitrators to closely and easily follow the contestants’ performance without referring to the printed copy of the Quran.

From the first of Ramadan, two lectures will be held every night after the Taraweeh prayers at 10.30pm; the first open for the public at the Dubai Chamber and the second for women only at the Dubai Women’s Association in Abu Hail.

Interestingly, this year the theme of the 22-lecture programmes will be happiness and positivity.

Renowned Islamic scholars from around the world will be participating in the multi-language lecture programme, including Shaikh Saleh Al Maghamsi, Shaikh Sulaiman Al Jubailan, Dr Shaikh Saeed Bin Misfer, Shaikh Talal Fakher, Dr Shaikh Omar Abdul Kafy.

“The widely popular scholars will be talking about the deeply-rooted concepts of happiness and positivity in Islam as stipulated in the Holy Quran and urged by Prophet Mohammad (PBUH),” said Bu Melha.

Lectures in Asian languages such as Malayalam, Bengali, and Tamil will be held at Indian Academy theatre in Al Muhaisnah.

As part of the programme, Dubai Culture will run the second edition of the Islamic and Arabic calligraphy exhibition which was well received last year.

Two new elements will be added to the programme this year, a contest about scientific miracles of the Quran and a classical poetry competition. However, further details about the contests will be announced later.

The judges for the 20th Quran contest will be Prof Dr Adel Bin Ebrahim Mohammad Rifai from Saudi Arabia, Emirati Shaikh Hassan Abdullah Al Ali, Shaikh Ayman Ahmad Mohammad Saeed from Egypt, Shaikh Abdul Aziz Fadel Mattar Fahd Al Anzi from Kuwait, Shaikh Ayman Rushdi Suwaid from Syria and Shaikh Ali Mohammad Al Zain Mazroui from Sudan.