He will give away prizes worth a total of SR1 million to winners at a function, which will be held at KAU’s King Faisal Conference Hall. The governor will also open an exhibition on the Qur’an, to be organized by the Qur’an Studies Department at the university, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Abdullah Mahraji, dean of students’ affairs at KAU, conducted an inspection tour of the exhibition’s pavilions and reviewed the preparations for the event. There will be 20 pavilions, including the pavilions of King Fahd Holy Qur’an Complex Madinah, the Higher Commission on the Scientific Wonders of the Holy Qur'an, the Holy Qur’an Memorization International Organization, International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), Imam Al-Shatibi Institute under the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance, and the Qur’an Studies Department at KAU.

King Fahd Holy Qur’an Complex’s pavilion will be the major attraction of the fair. The complex produces 10 million copies of the Holy Qur’an annually, in addition to its translations in 53 languages, as well as 150 publications and CDs. Salah Ba Othman, chairman of the exhibition’s organizing committee, said the Qur’an Studies Department’s pavilion contains more than more 10,000 books.

Ba Othman, who is also chairman of the Qur’an competition’s organizing committee, said 200 boy and girl students who have memorized the holy book are taking part in the competition. The contestants have completed three categories of the competition for memorization, recitation and intonation of the Qur’an.

A total of 2,000 young men and women have so far graduated from the Qur’an Studies Department under KAU’s faculty of education. Hassan bin Ayel Ahmad, dean of the faculty, said the department is exerting efforts to organize the competition among various universities throughout the Kingdom.

While commending the government’s keenness and support in spreading the message of the holy book, he noted there are 144 Qur’an memorization charitable societies in the Kingdom. According to the latest figures, the number of boy and girl students who attend Qur’an memorization courses reached 641,296. There are 28,609 men and women teachers at various institutions, and the number of Qur’an memorizers has reached 7,249, he said.