According to annoorquranacademy.org, the registration for the contest began on Friday, May 31 and ends on Monday, July 31.

The competition will be held at An-Noor Quran Academy in Raleigh on Saturday, September 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time.

The goal of the contest is to encourage all Muslims to learn and memorize the Quran using proper rules of Tajweed and to make the speech of Allah near and dear to the hearts, according to the organizers.

It will be held in three levels: beginners level, advanced level for the academy’s students and Huffadh level for memorizers of the entire Quran.

A contestant can register in only one level. An-Noor Qur’an Academy students can only apply in the very advanced levels (VA) based on their teacher’s recommendation, please make a note that this rule doesn’t apply to the ones who just joined An-Noor Quran Academy.

Boys and girls will not be judged separately, there will be at least one female judge in all categories.

Younger contestants can compete in higher level according to their abilities.

Performance is based on memorization, Tarteel (rules of Tajweed) and Pronunciation.

An-Noor Quran Academy (ANQA) is a full time school operated by the Islamic Association of Raleigh (IAR) and specializes in Quran memorization and the preparation of future Muslim scholars in the United States.

It has developed a unique program, tailored to Quran memorization as well as the academic needs of students. The academic curriculum meets the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NCSOS) requirements and the National Achievement Tests criteria. Students also learn Social Studies as an additional subject.