ISLAMIC EPAPER

Seventeen million people around the world watched the  Dubai National Quran Awards  this year, a contest in which children recite the book from memory in pursuit of  250,000 UAE dollars  ($70,000). As well as the top prize, there’s also an award for most beautiful voice. Like many competitions between children, there’s a hint that this is about the parents: This year’s beautiful voice said, “My father who has worked hard in training me is really happy and I’m proud that I didn’t let him down.”

In 2008, Sayeed Najmul Hasan Chishti from India took the world record for creating the  largest handwritten Quran . Then in 2009, the record was being eyed by a teenager writing for 12 hours a day to produce a Quran 3,000 meters (about 1,000 ft) long. If she finished, no one noticed because the world record was taken in 2011 by a Quran in Russia. Weighing 1,763 pounds, this massive book was encrusted in gold and silver and a smattering of precious stones. After all that effort, it probably hurt when the new world’s largest Quran was unveiled in Afghanistan a couple of months later. Clearly, the quest to have the world’s largest is hard-fought, and a lot of people are putting a lot of effort into claiming it (someone should probably tell them about the 18-meter (60 ft) Quran that is part of a building in South Sumatra). There are a lot of large Qurans, is what we’re saying.