Cleric Outlines Five Core Rights the Quran Holds over Every Believer

IQNA – A senior Iranian cleric has said that the Quran places five essential duties upon every Muslim, beginning with faith, reverence and honouring of the holy book.

The remarks were delivered at the opening ceremony of the final round of the Islamic knowledge division of 48th National Quran Competition in Qom, attended by national and provincial officials, international students, and leading reciters and memorizers of the Quran, Nahj al-Balagha and the Sahifa Sajjadiyya.

Hojat-ol-Islam Abbas Eskandari, director-general of Endowments and Charity Affairs in Qom, named five rights of the Quran.

“The first right of the Quran on a human being is faith and honoring the Quran; the second right is its recitation; the third is reflection and remembrance; the fourth is obedience and following the Quran; and the fifth is preaching and promoting the Quran,” he said.

Eskandari said that Iran has achieved significant national and international progress in Quranic activities since the revolution, yet “in the field of Quranic knowledge we have seen shortcomings that must be addressed.”

He noted that Islamic knowledge competitions in Quran, Nahj al-Balagha and the Sahifa Sajjadiyya were held at the national level in their first three years, and expanded to the international level last year.

Eskandari added that organisers had hoped to internationalise the contests two years earlier, but regional tensions and as actions by “the usurping Zionist regime and criminal America” prevented this. Cooperation with al-Mustafa International University, he said, finally enabled global participation this year.

More than 40,000 people took part in the preliminary stages of the competition, he said, and 100 finalists have now advanced to the concluding round.

Eskandari stressed that the Quran, Nahj al-Balagha and the Sahifa Sajjadiyya each have claims upon the community. Fulfilling these duties, he said, requires attention to the spiritual essence of both scripture and hadith.

The final round of the competition runs from 1 to 7 December, with separate men’s and women’s sections at the Imamzadeh Seyed Ali Conference Hall in Qom.

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