DUBAI, 6 October 2006 — It is the universal pull of the Holy Qur’an that brings them to Dubai from across the globe. Each night 81 contestants, who are participating in the Dubai International Holy Qur’an Award and from nations as far apart as Mali, Myanmar and Finland, try to prove to a panel of judges their competence in reading the Qur’an in the most perfect way.

All of the contestants, who are less than 21 years of age, have memorized the entire Qur’an by heart.

An amount of 250,000 dirhams in prize money is available to the winner of the competition, 150,000 dirhams for the person who comes second and 100,000 dirhams for the one who stands third. The prize money reduces gradually as the order of merit travels down the list. Even the contestant who gains the least amount of points will be awarded 20,000 dirhams for participating.

The competition, which is offering in total 8 million dirhams in prize money, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

The current session, which kicked off on the 10th of Ramadan, has attracted participants from 81 countries including six first-timers. “The six newcomers, who are participating in the contest, came from Finland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Daghestan, Rwanda and Azerbaijan,” said Ahmad Al-Zahed, head of media relations at the award.

The competition will conclude at a glittering ceremony on the 20th of Ramadan when the founder-patron of the award Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, UAE vice president and ruler of Dubai, will present awards to the winners.

During that ceremony an award for the Islamic Personality of the Year will be presented to Dr. Zaghloul Najar for his remarkable work in exploring the scientific secrets of the Holy Qur’an.

Dr. Najar is accredited with having completed a number of research studies relating to the Holy Qur’an and science. The contest is taking place each night after Taraweeh prayers from 9 p.m. to nearly 1 a.m., said Zahed.

This year the youngest contestant is a shy nine-year-old Australian boy called Abdullah Al-Zahabi. Zahabi began memorizing the Qur’an at the age of five under the tutelage of his father and completed the entire Qur’an at the age of seven, said his father who runs a bakery and is originally from Morocco.

Speaking to Arab News, Zahabi said, “It was not very difficult to memorize the Holy Qur’an because Allah blesses those who do so.”

Zahabi, who at the moment is still in third grade at school said he wants to grow up to be a Muslim scholar so that he can teach people in Australia about the wonders of Islam.

According to Sami Gargash, the head of PR for the competition, participation for this year’s event has been rather intense. “The award has developed a reputation for itself and you can see that from the ability of the participants. In the beginning we used to get weak contestants but that has changed dramatically and most of the participants now are very strong and able,” he said.