SHAFAQNA- IQNA: Qatar’s Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs completed a major investment project ‘Al Utrujjah’ to serve Holy Quran Learning Centers. The project comprising two buildings containing 112 apartments has been developed at a cost of about QR70m. The idea behind the project is to generate revenues by renting out the apartments to support building new centers to accommodate growing number of learners.
“Al Utrujjah project has been completed. We are preparing to open within coming days,” said General Director of General Department of Endowments at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed Al Thani while speaking at a press conference held at the headquarters of the Department yesterday. He said the number of Holy Quran Learning Centers operating across the Arab country has reached 153. They include 131 centers for boys and 22 centers. As many as 26,489 students are currently enrolled in these centers.
Dr. Khalid said: “Holy Quran Section will open a number of new centers as per the plan of the Ministry to cover the growing demand.” Regarding the reopening of centers after lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, he said many centers which were operating separately out of the mosques have reopened.
“The remaining centers will be reopened gradually following the decision from the authorities concerned in this regards to curb the spread of COVID-19,” Dr. Khalid told The Peninsula. He highlighted major achievements of the Department in 2020 and announced key projects of six endowment funds including services to Holy Quran and prophetic traditions, family and childhood care, cultural and educational development, mosque services and healthcare.
During the pandemic last year, Dr. Khalid said courses for learning and memorizing Holy Quran were offered through online platform ‘Tahud’ in which 6,256 boy students and 1,813 girl students participated. “To accommodate more people in Mosques, the endowment fund supported implementing projects for building new mosques. A total of 22 projects have been completed in 2020 and 30 projects are under construction,” said Dr. Khalid.
He said eight new makeshift mosques were also built last year and five such mosques are under construction. “The fund also granted scholarships last year to 72 university students, 204 students of 37 nationalities for Religious Institute, 438 students of eight nationalities for Al Silm School of Endowment (known as Ihsan school) and 32 disabled students of 11 nationalities,” said Dr. Khalid.
He said online portal Islamweb.net recorded over 303 million visitors. It offered 48,255 fatwas (religious verdicts) and 14,366 consultations. Over 600 articles were also posted on the website, he added. “Under Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Endowment Library, 78,500 books in Arabic and 5,700 books in English were published. The Library also published 45,000 copies of Qatar calendar,” said Dr. Khalid.
He said the courses for learning Arabic language were also held for non-Arabic speakers under education and culture development program. “A total of 435 girls and 303 boys benefitted from the courses,” he added. He said under families and childhood care program, 55 families received financial support and QR10m were also provided to support needy families in Syria. “The healthcare program helped needy people for 12,593 renal dialysis. A project for supporting organ transplantation was also launched which benefitted 72 patients,” said Dr. Khalid.
He said seasonal projects were also implemented in 2020. Under these projects, 6,533 families received food baskets. Speaking about key endowment investment projects, Dr. Khalid said: “Four projects have been completed. Three projects comprising seven residential buildings with the capacity of 266 apartments have been developed in Freej Bin Mahmoud and one project of 10 villas in Hazm Al Markhiya.” He said that other four projects are under construction and 24 projects are in the stage of designing and licensing.
[Video] Commentary of the Holy Quran 32:17