Otr Elkalam: GEA chief honors Saudi Arabia's Al-Sharif, Iranian Shahmradi with valuable prizes Initiative wins six certificates from Guinness World Records

In the closing episode of the Otr Elkalam show that was broadcast on Friday, Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of General Entertainment Authority, honored 20 winners of the competition.
Saudi contestant Mohammed Al-Sharif won the first place in the call to prayer (adhan) track and Iran's Younis Shahmradi won the first place in the Qur'an recitation track, bagging SR2 million and SR3 million respectively in prize money.
The competition, which concluded on Friday, won six certificates from the Guinness Book of Records. It set two records in terms of the number of participating countries in the competitions and the number of participants in the Qur'an track. It also made another record as the largest competition to attract participants in the adhan competition. The other records were fro the largest prize pool for a Qur'an recitation competition and the largest prize pool for a call to prayer (adhan) competition.
Alalshikh honored the winners of the competition and presented them with the prizes. Iranian contestant Shahmradi won the first place in the recitation track and received a prize of SR3 million, while Abdulaziz Al-Faqih from Saudi Arabia won the second place and a prize of SR2 million.
Moroccan contestant Zakaria Al-Zirk won third place and a prize of SR1 million, and his compatriot Abdullah Al-Daghri won the fourth place that carried a prize of SR700,000.
As for the adhan track, the second place was won by Indonesian Diaa Al-Din bin Nazar Al-Din with a prize of SR1 million, the third place by Raheef Al-Hajj with a prize of SR500,000, and the fourth place by British national Ibrahim Asad with a prize of SR300,000.
The episode, dedicated to honoring the winners of this year's Otr Elkalam competition, opened with the recitation of Qur'anic verses by the winner of the first edition of the competition, Moroccan reciter Younes Gharbi, and a call to prayer by Turkish national Mohsen Kara, the winner in the call to prayer category last year.
The Quran and adhan competition, which was organized this year in strategic partnership with the Muslim World League, is one of the international initiativesof the General Entertainment Authority. It allowed participation by Muslims from anywhere in the world by registering for the qualifiers through easy steps.
The initial qualifying round of the competition this year began last January. More than 50,000 contestants from 165 countries participated with 50 contestants qualifying for the next round. The 50 winners of the first round competed in the recitation and adhan tracks through the Otr Elkalam show, which was broadcast on MBC and the Shahid digital platform.
The competition is one of the most important initiatives of the General Entertainment Authority during Ramadan. its content is commensurate with the spirituality of the month, as well as its standards and provisions that enhance competitiveness through stages and qualifiers that ensure that only talented and distinguished people reach the final stage.
Otr Elkalam, which telecasts the competitions, is one of the most famous Ramadan shows and enjoys wide popularity not only in the Islamic world but in several other countries around the world. — SG