Moroccan boy tops Al Jazeera Qur’an recitation contest
The panel of judges at the contest.
Eleven-year old Mohamed Bu-Shkush from Morocco has bagged the first prize of QR100,000 recording a score of 91.8% in the annual Holy Qur’an recitation competition for children organised by Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC).
The second prize winner was Yusuf Nadi Tammam from Egypt (13 years) who got QR75,000, scoring 90%. The third winner was Muhannad Ahmed Bdayr (11) from Egypt who got a prize money of QR50,000, scoring 89.6%.
Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) announced the names of the first three winners on Thursday at Qatar National Convention Centre at the conclusion of the contest, which had adopted the title “The Crowns of Light” (Tijan al-Noor).
Since the competition was announced in last August, many children from around the world aged between 9-13 years took part, including non-Arabs from countries such as US, France and Germany. As many as 51 children qualified for the finals, 14 of them girls .
The panel of judges had put high standards for evaluating the participants such as following the proper rules of articulation, good performance, the quality of voice and the ability to move freely from one level of sound to another. The panel was headed by Sheikh Dr Ahmed Issa al-Asrawi, the chief of the Holy Qur’an reciters in Egypt, alongside various world’s senior Muslim scholars in the field.
Al-Asrawi affirmed the importance of such events in raising young generations on the foundations of faith and enhancing their experiences of the true basics of faith.
The deputy director of the channel Saad al-Hudayfi stressed that this year’s competition was highly distinguished worldwide and it had enjoyed wide participation even from non-native speakers of Arabic.
He indicated that JCC aimed at establishing the high status of the Holy Qur’an in the minds of youngsters and encouraging them to follow its sublime teachings.
“JCC was keen this year to accept applications for the contest at its website to encourage children to use electronic services through modern technology,” said al-Hudayfi calling on children to further participate in such competitions through uploading their Holy Qur’an recitations at the JCC website.
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