250m copies of Qur’an distributed

RIYADH: The King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Qur’an distributed more than 250 million copies of the Holy Qur’an, translations and other religious books until January this year since its establishment 27 years ago, according to its report issued Thursday.

King Fahd launched the Holy Qur’an printing complex with the aim of preserving, printing and distributing sacred texts to the Muslims all over the world in Madinah in February 1985.

The complex has an annual production capacity of more than 10 million copies.

Its publications include complete mushafs (books which contains the text of Holy Qur’an), parts of the holy text, audio recordings, translations and books on the Sunnah and biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

The report said the complex distributed 224,630 copies and translations of the Holy Qur’an in 21 languages during the Hijri month of Safar (Dec.26, 2011 to Jan.23, 2012), the Saudi Press Agency reported.

“The complex distributed 174,224 copies of the full text of Holy Qur’an and 9,760 copies of parts of the text, 2,570 copies of audio recordings of recitations, 30,960 translations in other languages and 7,116 copies of the various religious books over the first two months of the new Hijri year,” the statement said.

The copies were distributed through charitable societies, the Prince Sultan bin Salman Competition for the Memorization of Holy Qur’an for Children with Special Needs, National Guard’s guidance offices in different parts of the Kingdom, the religious affairs department of the Armed Forces, the King Fahd National Library in Riyadh, Sheikh Muhammad bin Saleh Al- Othaimin Charity Foundation and the Ministry of Economy and Planning in addition to the Cairo International Book Fair and the Ministry of Endowment and Islamic Sacred Places and Affairs Ministry of Jordan. Each pilgrim is given a copy of the mushaf when returning after the Haj in line with an order of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.

The complex is supervised by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance. Sheikh Saleh Al-asheikh, minster of Islamic affairs, is the general supervisor and chief of the complex.

The complex also trains Saudis to work in different technical departments of the complex such as montage, printing, binding and maintenance.

The complex also has five manuscripts of the Holy Qur’an.