Amendment To Printing Of Qur'anic Text Act Benefits The Industry, Society

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 8 (Bernama) -- The amendment to the Printing of the Qur’anic Text Act benefits both the industry and society through control over the printing, importing, selling, publishing, and distribution of Qur’anic texts and materials in the country.

Nik Yusaimi Yussof, the secretary of the Enforcement and Control Division at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA), said that the amended Act which came into effect Sept 1 last year, aimed to preserve the sanctity of Qur’anic verses and had been well received by the Qur’an publishing and printing industry.

"The public is often confused by choosing the Qur'an that has Romanised text, which is considered easier to read.

"However, this Romanised Qur'an is not endorsed because it is feared to result in pronunciation and reading errors that may lead to inaccurate meanings," he said in a statement here today.

Nik Yusaimi said there were five main highlights of the amendment to the Act, including control over Braille copies under the Act to ensure accuracy, as well as increasing the maximum fine for offences to RM50,000 and jail term to five years.

He said that Qur’anic texts and materials that needed to be certified by the MOHA were those containing one ‘juz’ or section - out of 30 - or more.

He stated that the characteristics of Qur’anic texts certified by the MOHA included writing approved by LPPPQ (Uthmani Script), being free from errors, having the LPPPQ certification mark, and the ‘KDN’ (ministry’s) hologram sticker.

"MOHA and the industry will work more closely to safeguard the sanctity and purity of the Qur’an. The industry is a strategic partner of the MOHA in encouraging the public to own Qur’anic texts certified by the MOHA and to achieve the mission of having ‘Zero Uncertified Qur’anic Texts'," he said.

The industry consists of Al-Qur’an publishers and Al-Qur'an Printing Machine License holders (LMCQ) and as of now, there are 965 types of certified Qur’anic texts and 45 LMCQ holders in Malaysia.

Nik Yusaimi said MOHA also called on the public to cooperate in channeling information related to Al-Qur'an texts or materials that did not have MOHA certification and were contrary to the Printing of the Qur’anic Text Act (Amendment) 2023.

The public can contact MOHA at 03-8000 8000 / 8889 3145, email aduanpk@moha.gov.my or visit the website, www.moha.gov.my.

-- BERNAMA