KSA distributes over 250,000 copies of Quran in a month

King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Quran in Madinah, KSA has distributed 263,430 copies of the Quran, in addition to other materials to various agencies, embassies and consulates internationally in the third month of the Islamic calendar for the year 1439.

According to a report issued by the Complex that was mentioned by the Saudi Press Agency, the total distribution of the Complex since its inception in 1405 until the end of the month of Rabi'I* 1439
amounted to 301,738,624 copies.

*ربيع الأوّل

Registration open for Katara Quran Memorization sessions

Source: Katara Twitter account. Poster for the Katara Quran Memorization sessions.

Stemming from its keenness to raise the young generation and enforce their bond with their Islamic identity and principles of their religion, the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara is organising its 6th consecutive edition of the Quran Memorization Sessions, during Ramadhan.​

The event is open to children born between 2003 and 2010​.

Katara is part of a vision to position Qatar as a cultural beacon in the Middle East through activities around theatre, literature, music, visual art, conventions and exhibitions.

Interested?

The sessions will run from May 28 to June 15, from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, at the Katara Masjid. Registration is open from May 14 to 18. Register

Check directions

Download the Katara mobile app

Hashtags: #Katara, #Quran

Boubyan Bank organises Quran Memorisation Competition

Boubyan Bank is organising the second Qur’an Memorization Competition, which is open to all children with priority given to those from customers.

The competition has categories for children aged seven to 12, and for teens aged 13 to 17, divided by gender. Cash prizes range from KD100 to KD350.

The younger ones will compete on Surah An-Naziat while the teens are to memorise Surah An-Najm. Participants should follow Quran recitation rules (tajweed). Male contestants will recite on June 12 and 13 and females on June 14 and 15. Each session will take place after tarawih prayers, at 10pm.

Interested?

Register by 6 June 2016

posted from Bloggeroid

Illustrating the trends in Quranic commentary worldwide

Source: OUP.

The OUP/Institute of Ismaili Studies has published The Qur'an and its Readers Worldwide: Contemporary Commentaries and Translations, edited by Suha Taji-Farouki (ISBN: 9780198754770) as part of its Qur'anic Studies Series.

Some 80% of Muslims in the contemporary world speak languages other than Arabic, the language of the Quran. To respond to the needs of their communities, Muslim scholars and laypersons must increasingly explain and communicate the meanings of the Quran in their own languages — including through the medium of Quran commentary and translation.

The Qur'an and its Readers Worldwide provides an introduction to this rich and expanding field. It brings together a selection of Quran commentaries and translations produced across the twentieth century to the present day, and ranging in provenance from the regions of the traditional Islamic heartlands to the new loci of global Islam. Individual chapters examine works in Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, English, German, Malay, Persian, Swahili, Turkish and Urdu, each viewed in terms of the impact of modernity on the encounter with the Quran.

Through these case studies this book illustrates the defining trends in Quran commentary worldwide, addressing evolving questions of authorship, message, intended readership and media of communication. It also samples debates concerning Quranic meaning in translation.

Taji-Farouki is Senior Lecturer in Modern Islam at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the University of Exeter. She was formerly at the University of Durham, and has held Visiting Fellowships in London, Berlin, Oxford and Amman.

Interested?

The hardback costs £60.

Annual National Quranic Reading and Recitation competitions open for applications in Singapore

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) has opened registration for the Annual National Quranic Reading (Tilawah) and Recitation (Tahfiz) competitions.

Both competitions aim to discover new talent in the field of reading and reciting the Quran, raise the quality of Quranic reading and recitation, and encourage an interest in both practices. Competitors may represent Singapore for international Quran competitions.


Competitors are judged on their pronunciation, fluency, song and voice for the Tilawah competition and on recitation, pronunciation and fluency for the Tahfiz competition.

Singaporeans or permanent residents of Singapore may participate.

Interested?

For the Tilawah competition, semifinals for the child category will be held on 13 February, with the finals on 23 April. Youth competitors undergo semifinals on 27 February, and finals on 24 April. There will be a preliminary round for adults on 12 March, followed by semifinals on 19 March and finals on 23 April. The Tahfiz competition will be held over 2 and 3 April. All sessions will be held at Muis Hub.

A registration fee of S$10 is required for each competition. Completed forms and registration fee can only be made at the An-Nur Mosque payment counter, which is open 830am to 5pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on weekends. Download an application form 

First book to study tafsir as a genre published

Source: OUP website.

Tafsīr and Islamic Intellectual History: Exploring the Boundaries of a Genre (ISBN 978-0-19-870206-1), is part of the Oxford University Press' Qur'anic Studies Series. The volume offers the only up-to-date survey of scholarship on tafsīr as a genre and its place within the broader framework of Muslim scholarship.

The 400-page hardback, launched in January 2015, represents the first attempt at analysing the fields in which Muslim exegetical activity takes place, its relation to other fields of learning and the conditions that influence the results of exegesis. The £55 book discusses the emergence of the genre in the beginnings of Islamic history and the changes and potential ruptures it has experienced in later times, the role of hadith, law, language, philosophy, theology and political ideology for the interpretive process, the regional dimension, the influx of modernist ideas and the process of writing tafsīr in languages other than Arabic.

Questions answered include: 

• How and when did Qur'anic exegesis (tafsīr) emerge as a literary genre of its own? 
• To what extent was it influenced by other disciplines, such as law, theology or philosophy
• How did different political or theological agendas shape works of tafsīr, and in what ways did the genre develop over time and in different regions?

Edited by Andreas Görke, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, University of Edinburgh, and Johanna Pink, Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Freiburg, the book consists of essays from 15 contributors who are leading scholars in the field or young researchers, providing a mix of perspectives. 

New study analyses Razi's intellectual aims

Source: OUP.

Razi: Master of Quranic Interpretation and Theological Reasoning by Tariq Jaffer repositions the central aims of Razi's intellectual programme with original research on the methods of Razi's Quranic interpretation and theological reasoning.

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1148 to 1210) was a leading representative of Sunni orthodoxy in medieval Islam. He was the first intellectual to exploit the rich heritage of ancient and Islamic philosophy to interpret the Quran, writing on the disciplines of theology, Quranic exegesis, and philosophy, jurisprudence, medicine, physiognomy, astronomy, and astrology. After his death in 1210 his works became standard textbooks in Islamic institutions of higher learning. 

Razi investigates his contributions to the Islamic intellectual tradition, connecting his thought to the history of philosophical and scientific ideas in Islamic civilisation. Jaffer uncovers the development of Razi's appropriation of methods and ideas from ancient and Islamic philosophy into a unified Quranic commentary—and consequently into the Sunni worldview. 

The author shows that the genre of Quranic commentary in the post-classical period contains a wealth of philosophical material that is of major interest for the history of philosophical ideas in Islam and for the interaction of the aqli (عقلي) or 'rational' and naqli (نقلي), 'traditional', sciences in Islamic civilisation. Jaffer also demonstrates how Razi reconciled the opposing intellectual trends of his milieu on major methodological conflicts.

The book was published by OUP USA in January 2015. The 256-page hardback (ISBN 978-0-19-994799-7) is also available as an e-book.

Separating worldviews from lexicology and exegesis

Source: OUP.

The Meaning of the Word: Lexicology and Qur'anic Exegesis is part of Oxford University Press' Qur'anic Studies Series. The 480-page hardback is expected to be available by February 2015, and priced at £70.

The book provides what the publishers say is the first in-depth discussion focusing on the relationship between the interpretation of the Quran and the meanings of words, from the beginnings of Quranic exegesis (tafsīr) to the contemporary period.

Stephen R. Burge, Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London and the editor of the book, believes that the different theological perspectives of exegetes and translators, whether medieval or modern, influence how they understand the Quranic worldview, its theology and ethical values.
"Many modern scholars have recognised that lexicology plays an important part in exegesis, but there are few studies of how exegetes use it to develop their interpretations of the Quran or that address lexicology in Quranic exegesis in any depth. This volume of essays addresses this gap in the scholarship," states a description of the book on the OUP website.

Individual contributions analyse the different tafsīr scholars' approaches to lexicology, as well as offering comparative thematic studies of law, women in Islam, and theology. The contributions cover a wide range of subjects, from linguistics to literary criticism, and law and gender to mysticism.

Besides Burge, who also authored Angels in Islam: Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti's al-Haba'ik fi akhbar al-mala'ik (Routledge, 2012), other contributors include: Herbert Berg, Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Ayesha Chaudhry, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and Gender Studies at the University of British Columbia. Agostino Cilardo, Professor of the History and Institutions of the Islamic World, and Professor of Islamic Law at the Università degli Studi di Napoli 'L'Orientale'. Claude Gilliot, Professor Emeritus of the Université d'Aix-Marseille and IREMAM, and a member of the Institut Dominicain d'Études Orientales (IDEO) in Cairo. Toby Mayer, Research Associate in the Qur'anic Studies Unit at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. Christopher Melchert, University Lecturer in Arabic and Islam at the University of Oxford. Devin Stewart, Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Emory University. Kees Versteegh, Professor Emeritus of the University of Nijmegen. Stefan Wild. Professor Emeritus of the University of Bonn (Rheinische Freidrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn). M. Brett Wilson, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Macalester College. Travis Zadeh, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Haverford College.

Quran recitation competition starts 23 November in Kuwait

The 18th competition for memorising and reciting the Quran is to be launched on 23 November under the aegis of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Kuwait News Agency has reported.

The Secretary General of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Abdulmohsen Al-Kharafi said the annual competition is open every year to all sectors of the public, male and female. Over 2,000 participants have shown interest in the competition this year, out of whom 1,423 have been selected for the final rounds, said the Secretary General's Deputy Mohammad Al-Jalahma in a statement. 

The participants this year include 666 adults, 742 youths and 106 people with special needs. Al-Jalahma added. 

Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia opens photography exhibition on Quranic collection

In celebration of the launch of its newest publication, Al-Qur’an: The Sacred Art of Revelation (Volume II), the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) is highlighting the Quran in an exhibition running from early October to the end of 2014. 

Source: IAMM website.

The photography exhibition of the same title introduces the newly published catalogue to the public. Now in its second edition, the catalogue features the latest IAMM collection of Quranic manuscripts, categorised into a range of dynasties and geographical settings.

The exhibition displays 12 sets of Qur’an leaf images with each set consisting of Surah Al Fatihah and the first page of Surah Al Baqarah. These sets of scripts will illustrate the different designs of the Quran that have been bound in different periods and places in the Islamic world. Manuscripts from Iran, Turkey, China and the Malay world are included.

Take a virtual tour of the museum here.