The Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs honoured the scholars and intellectuals who took part in the first Annual World Conference on the Qur’an and Human Knowledge: Towards Sound Human Understanding, and the inaugural Ummah Writers’ Forum, organised by Awqaf in collaboration with Qatar University (QU).
The honorees were recognised by HE the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Mohammed bin Ghanem al-Thani, with a host of academics and researchers from QU and the Ibn Khaldun Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, in attendance, in appreciation of their scholarly and intellectual contributions.
The purpose of this initiative is to reinstate the centrality of the Holy Qur’an in shaping human and social knowledge, and to foster the integration between the Sharia and human sciences, thereby contributing to a civilisational and intellectual renaissance for the Islamic nation, said Director of the Department of Islamic Research and Studies Sheikh Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Ghanem al-Thani.
He also announced the launch of the second edition of the conference and the forum, scheduled to convene in October 2026, commending the participants and researchers who enriched the sessions with their valuable papers and interventions.
Director of the Ibn Khaldun Center at Qatar University, Dr Badran bin Lahsan, stated that the two events embodied the significance of reinstating the Holy Qur’an’s pivotal role in the production of human and social knowledge.He noted that the Holy Qur’an provides a holistic vision of existence and offers a set of values and standards that help guide thought and contribute to building humans and societies.
The conference helped open a balanced intellectual dialogue between the Sharia sciences and the modern human and social sciences, underscoring the importance of sustained collaboration among academic and intellectual institutions, in addition to the exchange of expertise among researchers from a variety of disciplines, to ensure institutional continuity and to enrich the research and intellectual experience within Islamic communities, he said. Representing the guests at the forum, Dr Abdel Majid al-Najjar emphasised that the Ummah Writers series, which spanned four decades in publication, served as a pioneering reformist school that has contributed to consolidating the civilisational identity of the Islamic nation and safeguarding the Islamic personality in its doctrinal, intellectual, and behavioural dimensions.
He further underscored the importance of constant renewal within the series to keep pace with contemporary developments and challenges, enabling the formation of a modern Muslim personality capable of addressing intellectual and social issues and benefiting from civilisational advancements without compromising deep-rooted Islamic values.
