Winners emerge at Irfan Quiz competition on Islamic science

To motivate Muslim youths towards the deen, Irfan Centre for Research and Human Development recently engaged youths, aged 15 to 25, in an Islamic science competition to evaluate their knowledge of Islam.

At the grand finale of the competition, AbdulQuadir Ademola came first, Akorede Zubayr was second and Muhammad Barakat emerged in the third position.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Director of the centre, Mr Nurudeen Ibrahim, said the competition was necessary to engage young Muslims, as it is observed that there is no concrete plan for them.

“These are people that will be in charge of Islamic affairs tomorrow and yet we don’t have any plan for them now or in future. It becomes necessary to have a programme for them, especially what is related to academics and also reward them handsomely.”

He added that the centre decided to organise the quiz competition to engage the youths and reward them handsomely. “Initially, our plan was to compensate the first to third positions with the sum of one million, N750,000 and N500,000 respectively but the centre lacks the financial capacity.

“So, we reduced it to the little amount of money we can afford and we gave each winner the sum of N100,000, N75,000 and N50,000. Though we tried to reach out to prominent people to sponsor the programme, we were ignored but never felt bad, as we know, the reactions of our people towards appreciating and compensating education. We ensured that we got the money within our means and gave the winners.”

He noted that 61 young Muslims applied for the competition, 21 qualified for the quarter-final, eight qualified for the semi-final and just four qualified for the final while three were winners.

The guest speaker, a Lecturer at the Lagos State University, Dr Mustapha Bello, emphasised the role of early Muslims in science, saying, that they contributed significantly to modern-day science and discoveries, which are still very useful and that Muslims of today should emulate them.

Chairman of the occasion, Sherif Daramola urged Muslim Scholars to ensure that Islam is well represented by exhibiting good conduct in society.

He urged Muslims in general to promote education and reward those that are excelling in the field of knowledge.