In brief
The Prince Naif Quran Memorization Competition’s preliminary rounds began in Medina on November 6, 2026. The Ministry of Interior organized the event for civil and security staff, offering a total prize pool of three million riyals and employing an electronic scoring system overseen by a scientific committee. The competition honors the memory of Prince Naif and aims to promote religious knowledge and moral values among participants.
The preliminary rounds of the Prince Naif Quran Memorization Competition began on Sunday, November 6, 2026, at the Medina region office for the Ministry of Interior, according to a press release from the Saudi Press Agency.
The competition is the inaugural edition of its kind, organised by the Ministry of Interior for civil and security personnel, the Ministry’s first effort in the country to encourage memorisation of the holy book among its staff.
In addition to Ministry employees, the event also invited emirs of the regions and members of the different security sectors, so the competition can reach a wide audience of officers and staff across the kingdom.
The press release notes that the competition is a continuation of efforts to promote the memorisation of the Quran in the form of a competitive format, where participants are divided into five groups and the best students will receive awards and recognition.
Those groups will ultimately compete for a total amount of prize money that adds up to three million riyals.
All assessments will rely on a specialised electronic platform that is supervised by a scientific committee, a committee appointed by the ministry to monitor the accuracy of the evaluation and the fairness of the scoring.
According to the release, the event honours the memory of Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz – who passed away in 1978 – by acknowledging his dedication to the Quran and his focus on protecting the country through the ministry’s years of leadership in the ministry of interior.
The release also cites the importance of prince Naif’s commitment to the memorisation study and the role of the Quran on building a moral society.
During the opening ceremony, the governor of the Medina region, Prince Salman bin Sultan Abdulaziz, launched the examinations on behalf of the ministry governor, while the deputy governor of the region, Prince Saud bin Nahar Abdulaziz, attended the ceremony in his capacity as a representative of the governor’s office.
It was a gesture of the governor’s appreciation at the start of the event and also a sign of solidarity with the ministry’s initiative for public engagement in the memorisation of the Quran among its personnel.
The competition is, for the first time in the kingdom, aimed at civil and security staff who unlike previous contests are requiring a requirement for complete memorisation of the entire Qur’an as a task that will reward the participants for their efforts reported by the ministerial press release.
The competition includes a survey on people’s awareness of the values Religious science and thanks to the chance for participants to demonstrate which certain willingness to learn and to preserve the book they memorize in a competitive format that will encourage them at all stages.
Over the course of a week, the competition will run surveys, audio tests, and evaluations which have identical measures as a top system of school awards that is previously employed in the local Umrah and Jordanian contest that will confirm transparency based on the set standards set.”
The Saudi Press Agency’s description of the event stresses the need for the Islamic instruction for staff to create the moral value and emotional continuation of the job to connect with sacred quotations for all responsibilities.
