In 2023, a competition was organized for the first time in Finland by the Young Muslim Forum (NMF) and the Islamic Society of Finland as a pilot project. In that case, the only category in which the competition was held was "tilaawah" - reciting the Quran while reading it from a book (mus'haf).
This year's Finnish National Quran Competition featured high-level recitation of the Quran by a number of international and Finnish participants. The goal is to make the competition more widely known to Finns, both Muslims and others. For 2024, the participants competed in the "hifdh category of three juz" (reciting from heart - out of the area covering 60 pages).
Congratulations to the organisers for bringing people together and organising this year's 2nd edition. Thank you for inviting the Malaysian Embassy Helsinki and we hope this good coordination and cooperation continues for the years to come.
On another note, it was also a pleasant surprise to meet with Mr Abdul Rauf, imam and Islamic community leader. He had the pleasure of studying in Malaysia's University Malaya (UM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) for over 10 years in total and is now back here serving his community in Vaasa, Finland. Such a warm feeling to hear how much he is fond of Malaysia and considers himself a Ghanaian Malaysian. May our paths cross again soon.
