Iran Can Be Capital of Promoting Quran Culture: President
He made the remark in an address to the closing ceremony of the country’s 39th International Holy Quran Competition on Wednesday evening, in which the winners were announced and awarded.
The ceremony, held at the Tehran Summit Hall, was also attended by other senior officials, including Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeili, and Education Minister Yousef Nouri.
It began with recitation of verses from the Holy Quran by Amir Hossein Rahmati, the Iranian qari who came first in the recitation category.
Then, Hojat-ol-Islam Seyed Mehdi Khamoushi, head of the Awqaf and Charity Afffairs Organization, presented a report about the organization’s Quranic activities, including holding national and international Quran competitions.
He noted that this edition of the international Quranic event was held in two stages, with the first round having been attended by 150 contenders from 80 countries.
From among them, 52 qaris and memorizers from 33 countries made it to the final round, which kicked off in Tehran on Saturday, he added.
Next, a statement released by the competition’s panels of arbiters was read out by Abbas Salimi, who headed the panel in the men section.
The statement hailed the glorious organization of the competition with the motto of “One Book, One Ummah”, stressing that it showcased Muslims’ unity and coherence.
It also condemned recent acts of desecration of Islamic sanctities in the world, calling on all people to study the Quran and contemplate its sublime teachings.
Then the president took the podium, hailing the competition as a major Quranic event in the Muslim world.
He said the Awqaf and Charity Affairs Organization has good experiences in holding such contests and is ready to share them with other countries.
Raeisi added that the competition should lead to innovation and developments in other Quranic areas.
Later in the ceremony, winners of different categories were named and received their awards.
In the women’s section, Fahimeh Asgharzadeh from Iran, Layla Afara from Lebanon and Ameneh Shirzad from Afghanistan came first to third in the category of Tarteel.
In memorization of the entire Quran, the top winners were Amina Ibrahim from Ghana, Hajar Mehralian from Iran and Nasrin Khaledi from Algeria.
In the men section’s Tarteel, Mohammad Javad Javeri from Iran bagged the top prize, while Mohammad Yar from Kyrgyzstan and Ismail Hamdan from Lebanon came second and third.
The best reciter of the competition was Amir Hossein Rahmati from Iran. The runner-up in recitation was Seyed Amir Hashemi from Afghanistan and the third-rank winner was Abdullah Fikri from Indonesia.
And in the last category, namely memorization of the entire Quran, teh top prize went to Sina Tabakhi from the host country. Abdul Alim Abdul Rahim from Kenya and Sheikh Mahmoud Hassan from Bangladesh came second and third in thsi category.
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