Dr Sultan Al Qasimi Centre commemorates the King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Dr. Sultan Al Qasimi Centre in Sharjah is commemorating the 20th anniversary of the prestigious King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam that was conferred on His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, in 2002, as part of its project of the month. The 24th King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam had been conferred on Sheikh Sultan in 2002, recognising and appreciating his monumental efforts in establishing networks of educational institutions and health infrastructure projects in many parts of the world.

SHARJAH: HRH Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and Aviation of Saudi Arabia, had honoured His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah in a grand ceremony that was held at the time at the headquarters of the Faisal Charitable Foundation in Riyadh, urging the whole world to draw inspiration from the values of Islamic civilisation that celebrate excellence in science, honour scholars and pursuit of knowledge, and value culture and urbanisation.

 A close-up of the award.

Sheikh Sultan, in his speech during the award ceremony, underlined the importance of remaining loyal to the values and principles that are derived from the true faith, stressing that all our efforts ought to be purely for the sake of God Almighty. He thanked the leadership in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for the prestigious honour conferred on him, wishing them success in all their endeavour for what is good and righteous. xxxxxxxx Early this year, Dr. Sultan Al-Qasimi Centre launched the "Piece of the Month" project to shed light, on a monthly basis, on one of the distinctive pieces from the collection of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan, which represents exceptional achievements in various scientific and cultural fields.

 A view of the prestigious award conferred on Sheikh Sultan.

The month's piece was Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance in its eleventh session, which was awarded to Sheikh Sultan in 2009, as the distinguished personality of the year during the closing ceremony of the award, in recognition of the keenness of His Highness on educating future generations, and expanding the frontiers of knowledge for generations to come.

In a recent development, Sheikh Sultan, who is also Supreme President of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah, met the heads and senior officials of the Arabic language academies in the Arab world, at Dr. Sultan Al Qasimi Centre. At the beginning of the meeting, Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed welcomed the delegation, praising the efforts they make in paying attention to the language of the Quran.

The meeting dealt with friendly conversations on topics of common interest in the fields of the Arabic language, and plans to advance and spread it in the right way, and ways to inculcate it among the younger generations. The meeting also included a talk about the progress of work in the historical lexicon of the Arabic language, and the efforts of all Arab academies through linguists and specialists in the careful investigation of Arabic language vocabulary.

For their part, the heads and senior officials of the linguistic academies valued the role of Sheikh Sultan in supporting all language activities, most notably the largest knowledge and historical project, which is the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language. Recently, under the patronage of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan, Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah, attended a ceremony honouring the winners of the 4th edition of ALECSO-Sharjah Award for Language and Lexical Studies at Dr. Sultan Al Qasimi Centre.

Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi delivered the speech of the Ruler of Sharjah, in which he praised God and sent blessings to Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), his kin, and kith. "We started this award four years ago in coordination with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation to say ‘thank you’ to researchers in the matter of the Arabic language, and Arab academics and university professors in the Arabic language departments."