The opening ceremony of this competition which was held at the hall of Imam Al-Hassan (peace be upon him), has an extensive presence led by the High Responsible of the Al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine, its Deputy Secretary General and a number of its departments' officials in addition to a group of those interested in Quranic affairs from the readers and memorizers as well as the participants in this competition.
The ceremony started with the recitation of verses from the holy Quran and reading al-Fatiha in memory of the martyrs of Iraq, then the word of the Institute Director; Sheikh Jawad al-Nasrawi, in which he enumerated the numerous activities of the Institute that are divided into two parts: The research side overseen by the Center of Quran sciences, interpretation and printing, and the reading side overseen by the Center of the preparation of readers and memorizers.
Then he added: "With regard to the memorization of the holy Quran, we have established courses in all branches of the Institute for the development of mechanisms through which the reader can memorize the Quran, according to the plan developed by the Center, starting by memorizing one Juz' to the whole Quran. And we have some readers who have memorized twenty Juz' and it is hoped that they finish memorizing the whole Quran in five years; five Juz' each year and according to the level of memorization of each reader. And this competition is the product of our efforts in order to prepare a group of Quran memorizers."
Then came the word of the High Responsible of the Al-Abbas's (p) Holy Shrine; Sayed Ahmed Al-Safi, followed by the explanation given by the Quranic arbitrator Mr. Qassem Hami showing the mechanism to be followed in calculating the points for the participants, which are based on four axes: The recitation, the memorization, the voice and tune, and recitation rules, and in the light of these tests the final score for each reader will be calculated according to the parts he memorize, upon which questions will be asked.
The participants started the competition on a schedule set by the organizing committee, in four sessions that will be concluded on Saturday, and the results will be announced at a ceremony that will be held in the sanctuary of Aba Al-Fadl Al-Abbas (peace be upon him).
