International Islamic News Agency - 9/8/2004 5:00:00 PM GMT
The International Foundation for the Memorization of the Holy Quran, which is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has recently organized a Quran contest in South Africa, in which 24 students took part.
The participants were the winners of similar competitions in the country, on the district and provincial levels.
There were three categories in the contest: memorizing the entire Holy Quran, memorizing 15 chapters, and memorizing five chapters.
The adjudication committee consisted of nine Sheikhs who are experts in the fields of memorization and intonation of the Holy Quran and each group of three of them was responsible for a branch of the competition.
After the contest, a special function was held at the Dar-us-Salaam Mosque in Cape Town.
Ibrahim Rasul, Chief Minister of Cape Town, and a large number of those who are interested in the Holy Quran attended the function.
The function was also attended by Dr. Alabbass bin Hussein Al-Hazmy, an academic at the Imam Saud University in Riyadh, and the representative of the international foundation.
All the people who attended the competition were very impressed by the performance, particularly the parents of the participants, and considered the occasion a historical one in their country.
This is the first Quran competition to be held by the Foundation in South Africa.