Ugandan students win Quran contest

Abdallah Sajid Mutyaba (2ndL), who won the Quran recitation competitions, received his award from Prince Mush-al Bin Abdullah al Saud, the governor of Makkah in Saudi Arabia. Dr Abdullah Atturki, the director Muslim World League (L) and Dr Abdullah Bin Ali Basfar (R), the secretary of Holy Quran Memorisation International Organisation, attended the function. Courtesy photo

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Achievement. Abdallah Sajid Mutyaba and Abubakar Ali Mutebi won Quran memorisation competition held in Saudi Arabia and Tanzania respectively.

KAMPALA.

Two Ugandans students, both at Ubayyi Bun Ka’ab Quran Memorisation Institute in Bwebajja on the Entebbe-Kampala road, have emerged the best in the recitation of the Quran, Islamic holy book.
Mr Abdallah Sajid Mutyaba, 22, topped his competitors from 51 countries that included Egypt, Tanzania, Sudan, Yemen, Tajikistan, which are rated among the best countries with people memorising the Quran

The competitions, which lasted for a week, were organised by the Holy Quran Memorisation International Organisation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia early this month.

“I am overwhelmed by this achievement, to emerge as the best in reciting the holy book of Allah. I believe it was only possible because of His will. I cannot claim the victory as a mere mortal,” the soft spoken Mutyaba told the Daily Monitor in a telephone interview yesterday.
Close to Uganda were Egypt in the second and Yemen in the third position.

Ubayyi Bun Ka’ab director of studies, Sheikh Abdullah Serujja, said the student has put Uganda to a level that describes its people as God- fearing and asked parents to enrol their children in Quranic schools.

“I want to thank Sheikh Haruna Bukenya who endeavoured to make the student who he is today,” Sheikh Serujja said in an email yesterday.
The competition is organised annually and has always been dominated by Egypt and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, another Uganda student from the same institution has been declared the best in East and Central Africa in the memorisation of the Quran during a competition that took place in Tanzania.
Mr Abubakar Ali Mutebi topped others from Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Both competitions involved memorising the Quran and interpreting its recitation rules and understanding its meaning.