DIHQA International Quran competition starts

Popular Saudi scholar Dr Shaikh Saeed bin Misfer Al Qahtani lectured on impossible wishes at the Dubai Chamber whereas Prof Dr Ahmed Abdul Aziz, Egypt talked about earthquakes and volcanoes at the Women Renaissance Society.

Dubai: The international Quran competition - the main branch of the Dubai International Holy Quran Award (DIHQA), started at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday with six competitors.

The contestants from Indonesia, Sudan, Oman, Ivory Coast, Tajikistan, and Burkina Faso, having cleared the initial qualifying tests, were eligible for final examinations. They had first to answer two questions at the Flora Hotel where they are temporarily hosted, and then sat for three more questions in public at the Dubai Chamber stage late at 10.30pm.

Seven more memorisers of the over 80 final contestants are to sit for final examinations on Thursday night, June 25, at the chamber situated on the Dubai Creek. Those are from Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, Mauritius, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Central Africa, and Barbados.

Meanwhile, the DIHQA cultural program came to a conclusion on Tuesday night with two more moving lectures after the Taraweeh prayers. The first was open to the public while the second was for women only.

Popular Saudi scholar Dr Shaikh Saeed bin Misfer Al Qahtani lectured on impossible wishes at the Dubai Chamber whereas Prof Dr Ahmed Abdul Aziz, Egypt talked about earthquakes and volcanoes at the Women Renaissance Society.

However, the illuminating cultural program still includes 10 more lectures; three Arabic speeches for women only at Women Renaissance Society – June 24-26, and seven Malayalam, Bengali and Tamil lectures for foreign communities at the Indian Academic School, Muhaisanah 3 – June 25-July 04.

The 22-lecture program, June 18 - July 04, is part of the 19th edition of the award being organised under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

In his much-awaited speech, Dr Qahtani warned that ‘impossible wishes’ are the merchandise of the losers and brokers who waste their potential, sources, time, wealth, health, opportunities and whole life, and fall into despair and feel sorry about their misfortune. “They bizarrely wish to win and be successful in life and the Hereafter though.”

Almighty Allah warns people against four main useless wishes, he added. “The first in Verse 24/89: ‘Ah! Would that I had sent forth (good deeds) for my (Future) Life!’ Man only discovers that life is but little drops of the hereafter huge ocean upon death.”

It is impossible for any human, no matter how genius he is, to know the reason behind his creation unless guided by the messengers sent by Almighty Allah, he underlined. “It is the right time now to take the chance and be prepared with good deeds for that critical moment, with no restrictions to enjoy worldly pleasures as due.”

Elaborating the second wish which may never come true, Dr Qahtani said Almighty Allah described the state of sinners on the Doomsday in verse 28/25: ‘Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that one as a friend.’

“Beware bad friends whose ‘contagious’ corrupt ideologies or behavior may mislead you. Also, take heed fanatic extremists and terrorists who have distorted the tolerant image of Islam.”

In Verse 25/69, Almighty Allah describes the condition of hellfire people: ‘But as for he who is given his record in his left hand, he will say, "Oh, I wish I had not been given my record’.

“Every one of us shall be held responsible for his deeds which he mostly forgets though they are precisely and timely recorded one by one. Therefore, the wise person is the one who records nothing but good in his book of deeds, considering that there is no single prohibition unless replaced with sound and permissible alternatives as is the case with adultery which is replaced with marriage.”

The final impossible wish has been stipulated in verse 66/33 on disbelievers: ‘The day their faces will be turned about in the Fire, they will say, How we wish we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger.’ “We still have the chance to change our destiny and be truly submissive to God’s will and teachings, and we shall never feel sorry.”

ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE