Six young Nigerians have emerged winners in the Hadith competition organised by the King Mohammed VI Foundation of African Oulema, Morocco.

AbdulGaniyu Tijani, one of the judges of the competition, disclosed this while speaking with journalists during the closing ceremony in Abuja on Saturday.

The first category of the competition, the winners were Fatima Turbo, Muhammad Ibrahim and Abubakar Abba, all from Borno state.

In the second category, winners are Saleh Al-Amin from Borno, Ahmed Kolawole from Kwara and Khalifah Jibril from Kaduna.

The three winners in each category won cash prizes of N250,000, N200,000 and N150,000, respectively. 

Tijani said that the main objective was to encourage the youths to know and memorise the Sunnah and the Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad.

“The main objective of this competition is not the money that they are winning, but the knowledge and making them memorise the Sunnah and the Hadiths of our beloved Prophet.

“We have six winners. In each category, we have three winners. So, the first is winning 250,000, the second is winning 200,000 and the third is winning 150,000,” he said.

According to him, this is the second edition of this competition.

“We had the first edition last year; this is the second edition. We hope that this competition does not stop here. It should continue.

“Nigeria today is regarded as number one in Africa in memorisation of the Quran. And we have not been working at all on the Hadiths of the Prophet,” he said.

He said that the competition would serve as an opportunity for the young ones to start to memorise the Hadiths of the Prophet, and to know more of the Prophet.

He said the competition comprised three different levels and three different categories.

According to him, the first category has 40 Hadiths, in which the competitors have to memorise 40 Hadiths with the Sunnah.

“And also the second category has to memorise 35 Hadiths, also with the chain of that Hadith and also with the meanings of the important words in those Hadiths.

“The third category has to memorise 25 Hadiths, with the chain and also the Islamic rulings in those Hadiths. And Alhamdulillah, we just completed it,” he said.

Mr Tijani recalled that 560 competitors participated from the beginning of the competition.

“We have been on it for the past one month, trying to see and select those that will participate on a very larger level.

“Those who won today, the six that won today, will be travelling after winning some cash,” he said.

Also speaking, Ibrahim Maqari, one of the coordinators, said that the next competition was going to be the African competition.

“We are going to prepare them. There is going to be a camp where they will be mentored on the lapses that were observed in the presentations. Inshallah, we will be overcome,” he said.

Ahmad Kolawole, one of the winners, said that the competition exposed him to some hadiths that he did not know about before.

“From this competition, I learned the second most important thing in Islam, which is the hadith of Muhammad, peace be upon him.

“I was exposed to some hadiths that I did not know about before. And from it, I know many things that are attributed to prayer and other important things in Islam.

“This competition encouraged me to be more adherent to the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad,” he said. 

(NAN)