Katara invites entries for Qur’an competition

Katara – the Cultural Village Foundation has invited entries for the third edition of the Katara Prize for Qur’an recitation.Registration will begin tomorrow and the last date for receiving entries is December 31, Katara has said in a press statement.The annual contest, titled ‘Adorn the Qur’an with your voices’, carries cash prizes worth a total of QR1.5mn, to be divided among the first five winners.Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti, general manager of Katara, said the third edition of the contest “has been inspired by the great success of the previous edition”, which had 100 contestants shortlisted from 1,429 applicants from across the world, including 37 non-Arab countries.“The participation of reciters from even non-Arab countries indicates the global reputation of the Katara Prize for Qur’an Recitation. The competition has achieved its objective of discovering the best reciters, supporting and encouraging them and introducing them to the world as new entrants in this field,” he said.The rules and conditions of the contest will be obtained from the website, www.kataraquran.com, or by sending an e-mail to prize2018@kataraquran.com The competition is open to men aged 18 years and above.The candidates should be proficient in the rules of Qur’an recitation and have an appealing voice, the statement notes.Imams of mosques, Islamic preachers and teachers of Shariah and the Arabic language are not permitted to participate in the contest, Katara said. Those who have won international prizes in Qur’an recitation during 2017-2018 and those who have produced Qur’an recordings on television or other media are also not allowed, according to the competition’s rules.Khalid al-Sayed, general supervisor of the competition, said the judging panel will interact with all the applicants to shortlist 100 candidates for the final rounds of the contest, which will be held in Doha.Over five days of the contest in Doha, 25 finalists will be selected through several interactive rounds, from whom the five winning candidates will be chosen. The first prize winner will get a cash prize worth QR500,000, while the second and third prizes carry cash prizes of QR400,000 and QR300,000, respectively. Winners of the fourth and fifth positions will get QR200,000 and QR100,000, respectively.The judging panel for the final rounds will comprise six experts in Qur’an recitation.The winners will be selected based on their style of rendering, voice quality and their adherence to the rules of recitation, among other factors, al-Sayed added.