ABU DHABI 5 September,2018: The General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments has announced an initiative to translate the content of the Friday Sermon into several languages available for listening and reading on the authority’s mobile application.
The initiative is a result of fruitful collaboration among many entities and institutions, namely the Department of Community Development, the Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi, Etisalat and Du.
First Phase
The first phase will include providing the content in English and Urdu. The initiative originates from the wise leadership’s vision in cementing the true understanding of our religious teachings among the expatriate Muslim communities, promoting the values of tolerance and cohesion and spreading love and harmony among all segments of society and communicating the weekly, purposeful Friday sermon to them, said Wam.
The initiative also aims to fulfil the needs of a non-Arabic speaking community and to help them understand the messages and meanings of the Friday sermon irrespective of their languages and backgrounds, as one of the most significant means of guidance and influence to promote virtues and the tolerant values of Islam in society. The translation of the Friday sermon in many languages stems from the significance in fostering Islamic values and raising awareness about the most critical social issues and disseminating the positive messages that contribute to building a cooperative, tolerant community.
The new service will enable non-Arabic speakers to listen to the Friday Sermon in English and Urdu through the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments’ mobile application.
Today, the application has around half a million users.
The application will have a new feature to listen to the content of the Friday Sermon in English and Urdu via the Authority’s official application, based on a recent survey’s findings.
As part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, the Abu Dhabi Media Company, Etisalat and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company ‘Du’ have together played a prominent role in the success of the initiative.
Free Data
Etisalat and Du are offering free data packages for the Friday sermon translation service users via the ‘Awqaf’ mobile application during the Friday prayer so that they can access to the application and listen to the translated sermon. The service will encourage the use of the service amongst the targeted audience where they will be provided with free data packages and will be exempt from payment of using the service.
Urdu Most Popular
According to findings of the survey, Urdu language took the lead, where 55 percent of respondents preferred the translation of the Friday Sermon into Urdu. Additionally, 92 per cent of the respondents were smartphone users.
The Statistics Centre will conduct another survey during the coming months to measure the extent to which the public has benefited from the service and to obtain their feedback and recommendations and verify the extent to which the initiative has achieved its objectives.