The Katara's Cultural Village Foundation revealed that 100 participants have been qualified for the final in the 8th Katara Award for reciting the Holy Qur'an. The competition is held under the motto of: 'Beautify the Quran with Your Voices' and is officially patronised by the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs.
Katara stated that the selection committee chose 100 participants from the total number of 1,348, representing 61 Arab and foreign nations to compete in the final, with the number of qualifiers from Arab nations reaching 54 and 46 from foreign nations.
Overall, those 100 qualifiers would compete over the course of 20 television episodes with 5 participants in each episode. Thereafter, one qualifier will be selected to compete in the semifinal, featuring 20 contenders plus 5 contenders from the reserve pool.
Accordingly, one participant in each episode will be selected to compete in the final, thereby bringing the number of qualifiers to 5, and ultimately three contenders will be declared as winners of the first three places. With the TV episodes expected to be launched during the holy month of Ramadan, the award strives to encourage outstanding individuals to engage in the recitation of the Holy Qur'an, discover the talented ones to be further project them to the world, honour talented reciters, spurt young people to adhere to the religious precepts and be aware of their duties toward Islam, in pursuit of encouraging Muslims to engage in reciting the Holy Qur'an.
The jury comprises six members, three of whom are well-versed in recitation rules and three are specializing in the beauty of voice. Furthermore, QR1.5mn in cash has been allocated for this award, with the winner receiving QR500,000 and the runner-up receiving QR400,000, while the 3rd, 4th and 5th positions receiving QR300,000, QR200,000 and QR100,000 respectively.
