BANGKOK – Saudi Arabia has donated 50,060 copies of the Quran in various sizes and translations to Thailand as a gesture of goodwill.
It is also part of the Kingdom’s efforts to deliver Saudi King Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud’s gift to Muslims around the world before the holy month of Ramadan.
Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said Prime Minister Prayuth Chan o-cha was pleased with the Saudi monarch’s kind gesture.
“The Quran will be distributed before the start of Ramadan on April 1,” Thai PBS quoted him as saying today.
Thanakorn said the copies were delivered in a ceremony at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Bangkok on Saturday in the presence of representatives from the ministries, Muslim communities, scholars and preachers.
Thailand and Saudi Arabia have resumed full diplomatic ties in January this year after a diplomatic row over a jewellery theft three decades ago.
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah and Guidance, represented by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran, handed over the 50,060 copies of Quran to Thailand, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Sheikh Abdullatif bin Abdulaziz Al-Asheikh, the minister of Islamic affairs and the general supervisor of the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran in Madinah said this gift is the Kingdom’s lofty message that emanates from its leading role in the Islamic world, which also coincides with the development and distinction of relations between the two countries.
“This gift was an extension of what Saudi Arabia has previously sent to Thailand in the past years, and coincides with the development of bilateral relations,” he said.
The Quran has been translated in more than 76 languages and millions of copies were distributed to the Muslim worldwide.
King Fahd Complex has increased its production rate by more than 100 per cent, from seven million copies to 20 million copies every year in high quality.
By the end of 2021, the complex produced more than 345 million copies, of which more than 320 million copies were distributed as a gift from the Kingdom to Muslims around the world.
