THE second annual Qur’an recitation competition of Sanni Osoro Mosque, Agbeja, Imalefalafia, Oke-Ado, Ibadan, Oyo State, was held last week, with 12 participants performing to the admiration of their families, teachers, well-wishers and guests.
The youngsters, whose ages ranged between 11 and 19, slugged it out in four categories of the competition, Juz Amma, Juz Mujaadilah, Juz Dhariyat and Juz Ahqof, at the end of which Al-Ameen Adegoke emerged the overall best scorer.
The other participants included Abdurrahman Olajire, Awwal Kazeem, Aishat Adebowale, Aishat Olatunde, Abdulmujeeb Abdulhameed and Zainab Abdulfatah. Others were Soffeeyah Nurudeen, Muadh Nurudeen, Mahfouz Aleilo, Basheer Abdulhakeem and Maryam Abdulfatah
In a lecture at the event, Ustadh Rasheed Miftaudeen Adedamola (As-Sayaari) described the Qur’an as Allah’s letter to the entire world to provide guidance for mankind.
The lecturer urged Muslims to seek the learning and understanding of the holy book and explore it for solutions to existential problems.
According to him, every Muslim has a duty to promote the Qur’an, the tradition of Prophet Muhammad and other aspects of Islam, as may be easy for them.
Adedamola called on all Muslim parents to put premium on getting their children to learn and memorise the Qur’an and then internalise the word of Allah.
He, however, appealed to organisers of Qur’an recitation competitions in Nigeria and beyond, the participants and other stakeholders not to lose sight of the objective of the contest which he said is to encourage young Muslims and earn the pleasure of Allah.
He said: “The organisers should always sensitise all and sundry as to the idea behind the competition so as to guard against the competition generating a feeling of ill-will in the losers towards the winners. And people rooting for particular candidates should avoid transgressing the bounds of Allah and engaging in devilish acts in their support for their candidates.
“The participants must not see such competitions as a do-or-die affair. The winners should be magnanimous and the losers embrace the spirit of sportsmanship and not become embittered for missing out on the ‘juicy prizes.’”
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