Hawzah News Agency (Qom, Iran) – Speaking at the closing ceremony for the first round of Quranic contest held in the Iranian city of Qom on Wednesday, April 26, Hussein Assadi, the head of Quran and Hadith Department of Al-Mustafa International University asserted, "For this year's international Quran competition, we decided to arrange the contest in several sub categories focused on different Quranic sciences and activities."

He noted that 56 Quran activists, 30 memorizers of the entire Quran and 26 Qaris, from 42 countries took part in the first edition of the contest, which was held in Iran simultaneously with four other international Quranic events.

"One of the most important categories for this year's contest was the competition between Islamic Seminary students under the title of ' One book, One Ummah'."

Elsewhere in his remarks, Assadi mentioned some of the countries whose citizens were present in this edition of the contest saying," Muslims from as many as 42 countries gathered in the holy city of Qom to attend this spiritual competition. There were students from both Shia and Sunni seminaries and they competed in a brotherly and friendly atmosphere."

He also referred to the panel of judges, saying senior Quran experts and scholars from Egypt, Kuwait, Iran, Afghanistan, Senegal, Lebanon and Iraq served in the panel.

Winners of the first ranks and the runners-up in both categories were from Iran and Afghanistan, respectively.

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