The South African Quran Union will be hosting its National Quran Awards (NQA) from 24- 26 September 2010 at Masjidul Kareem, Eagle Park in Cape Town.
The event comprises a national Quran recitation competition that makes accommodation for participation according to three age categories, as well as a 'Servant of the Holy Quran Award'.
The NQA will also culminate with the arrival and recital programs by top Quran reciters from various countries.
The event was started in 2005 as a Quran recital competition and was limited to the city of Cape Town.
It became a national event since the year 2006.
The organizers went at great lengths to ensure that the competition conforms to international standards and has thus studied and applied the various criteria as used in Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Hossein Karami from Iran was the only foreign judge at the 2005 event and he returned the following year when it became a national contest. He was therefore, as forerunner, instrumental in bringing value to the event especially in terms of judging.
Two other categories were added in 2008, namely the Quran research competition and the Servant of the Holy Quran Award. Again, these additions were inspired by similar contests in Iran. The event was since named the National Quran Awards.
The South African Quran Union is the organization responsible for hosting the event. It is a non governmental institute consisting of volunteers that initiated and hosted many Quran activities in the country. In addition to having Quran classes, the organization regularly hosts Quran experts (recitation, interpretation and other) from around the world. The organization also has a special section known as its Women's League that sees to the running of programs for females.
Regarding the NQA 2010, there are three categories of participation in the recital section: junior, teenage and senior. A maximum of 20 contestants will be reciting in each category for the preliminary rounds. Participants will be screened before the prelims if more than 20 registered for a category.
They will receive their verses for recitation on Thurs 23 Sept and the junior category prelims will commence the next day while the prelims for the teenage and senior categories will take place on Saturday.
Five contestants from each category will be selected for the finals that will be held on Sunday.
Winners of the recital competitions are then considered to participate at international contests.
The Quran research competition will not be part of the event for this year but the Servant of the Quran Award will still be taking place.
By: Muntahaa Ebrahim Kenny
South Africa Quran Union
source : http://www.iqna.ir
