Wide Participation in The Young Fasting Festival

The Department of Da`wah and Religious Guidance at the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs organized The Young Fasting Festival for students of the centers of teaching the Holy Qur’an and its sciences, with the wide participation of children and their parents, who are visitors to the Children's Theater at the Ramadan Book Fair in Souq Waqif.

The festival included many educational activities, competitions, kinetic and recreational games, to emphasize the pillar of fasting, its virtues and etiquette, and aims to consolidate the values of Ramadan in the minds of the rising generation.

Mr. Mal Allah Al-Jaber, Director of the Department of Call and Religious Guidance, said: “The aim of the The Young Fasting Festival is to motivate and encourage children to fast, introduce them to the pillars, duties and invalidities of fasting, take care of it as one of the pillars of Islam, and reinforce the teachings and values of Islam in their souls, such as patience, honesty, and others.

This year, the festival targeted 400 children, including 100 students from the Holy Quran learning centers, after they were followed up by the heads of the centers and nominated for children aged between 8 to 12 years.

Mr. Moaz Al Qasimi, Head of the Department of the Noble Qur’an and its Sciences, also mentioned that this festival is an annual interactive program within the Ministry’s plan aimed at consolidating the pillars and principles of Islam, and it is considered part of the educational curriculum in the Holy Qur’an learning centers that take into account the educational, psychological aspects of their children, in addition to motivating participants to participate in religious competitions that show some provisions of fasting.

Al Qasimi also mentioned that the participants enjoyed the festival program, which took them to educational stories, cultural competitions, various kinetic games, and dramatic stories through the Boys and Girls website on Islamweb, and an educational speech by Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Al-Farjabi, in which he welcomed the buds and their families and urged them to benefit from the memorization centers and join them in memorizing the Book of God. He thanked the parents for their interest in the festival and for encouraging their children to attend and benefit from its activities.

And he stressed that the participation of their children in such activities contributes greatly to raising them on good morals.

Some of the students expressed the overwhelming joy that a childhood smile drew on their faces, and their desire to participate in all the competitions conducted for them by a group of experienced sheiks and preachers.

After the festival ended, the organizing committee distributed more than 100 Ramadan invitation bags and 200 gifts to the little ones, and many gifts for guests from visitors and parents, in addition to encouraging prizes and entertainment games for the participating buds.