IlmFeed
On Sunday 9th December, a total of 24 finalists participated in the Grand Final of the 2nd UK Qur’an Memorisation Competition 2018. The inaugural event was held at the London Islamic Cultural Society in North London. Contestants travelled from across the country including Blackburn, Bradford, Preston, Leeds, Birmingham, Leicester and Coventry. The regional rounds took place just before Ramadan earlier this year with over 250 participants taking part. There were a total of three main categories (5 Juz, 15 Juz and 30 Juz).
It was a very closely fought contest, with the scores being very close in all of the three categories. AMS Accountants were the official auditors for the final. The chief Auditor for the final, Hafidh Esmail Jasat said: “It was a very tough job for me to do. All of the contestants did extremely well and the scores were very close. It was even down to the 0.1 margins. Well done to everyone who took part.”
The adjudication panel consisted of national and international Qurraa; Qari Saeed Makda (UK), Qari Abdalah Daudi (Tanzania), Qari Ilyas Badat (India), Shaykh Muhammad Yusuf (UK), Shaykh Abdurrahman Anwar (UK) and Mufti Suhail Patel (UK). The chief Questioner for the final, Qari Ilyaas El Badr (UK), was very impressed with the quality of recitations and said: “The level of effort made by the finalists was of a very high quality. They certainly raised the bar and credit to their teachers for the hard work put in for this event. It was very pleasing to witness such mesmerizing recitations.”
There were a total of 9 winning prizes up for grabs.
In Category A (5 Juz), the winners were; 1st position (£300 prize) Unais Mamaniat (Jameah Islamiyah, Batley), 2nd position (£200) Muhammad Ally (Dar ul Arqam, Preston) and 3rd position (£100 prize) Muhammad Bargit (Dar ul Arqam, Preston).
In Category B (15 Juz), the winners were; 1st position (£400 prize) Mohammad Younus Rahman (Al Mizan Primary School, East London Mosque), 2nd position (£300 prize) Muhammad Asad Dar (Jameah Islamiyah, Batley) and 3rd position (£200 prize) Hamza Imran Mangera (North London).
In Category C (30 Juz), the winners were; 1st position (Umrah prize) Anas Faisal Omar (Imam Shatibi Institute, West London), 2nd position (£600 prize) Abdurrahman Al Masum (Dar ul Ilm Wal Huda, Blackburn) and 3rd position (£400 prize) Adam Apabhai (Zeenat ul Islam, Coventry).
The Umrah prize for the 1st position in the 30 Juz category has kindly been sponsored by the Council of British Hajis UK (CBHUK). The CEO/Founder of National Huffadh Association UK, Qari Is’Haaq Jasat, was extremely impressed with the performance of all finalists and said; “It takes a lot of time to practice and prepare for a Qur’an competition. It is not an easy feat by any means. These finalists truly represented the Qur’an in a befitting manner. The quality of the recitations was of the highest standards and understandably, made it very a difficult day for the adjudicators. We are very much looking forward to next year’s competition already and hope to deliver another hugely successful event. Thank you to all of our sponsors and a huge thank you to everyone who helped and supported us throughout this year for this event. May The Almighty accept.”
The final attracted hundreds in attendance and there were over 10,000 global views on IlmFeed’s Facebook page, which was used as the main online live streaming platform, as well as Al Hidayah Foundation UK’s live stream on YouTube. The Secretary of London Islamic Cultural Society, Rabbiyah Ali, had full of words for praise: “This was an outstanding event. We are so happy to have been part of it. I want to say a huge thank you to all of our volunteers who worked so hard to make this special day work. Also, I wanted to express our thanks to the National Huffadh Association UK for the trophy presented to our Masjid. May Allah accept the work of this organisation and protect all those who serve it.”
