Trip to Quran factory...

On the 16th of March, I joined other Petronita members in a trip to the Quran factory somewhere in Khartoum. When we arrived there was a bit of a confusion because the Sudanese guide kept asking about Mdm Siti, so I sort of very happily pointed out Kak Siti to him. Unfortunately, he actually wanted to speak to Ustazah Siti because obviously she could communicate in Arabic while we just 'open our mouths wide' aka terlopong...hehehe

While waiting for Ustazah Siti...

Sakinah...hehehe

When Ustazah Siti arrived, we were promptly whisked away to the first section of the printing factory. We were told that it was the second biggest Quran factory in the world after the one in Madinah (I was a bit skeptical because it looked quite small to me...wallahualam). If I'm not mistaken they produced about 8000 Quran a day. The first section was the designing area where they made the layout and the films for the printing section. We didn't miss the opportunity to have a photo op...hehehe

The whole group...

The Ustaz aka guide...

Ustazah Siti explaining that it was written by hand...

The particular design for Sudan...

The lay out...

After that, we went down to see the printing area. There were several machines in operation. It acutely reminded me of MPM actually...hehehe. I could understand the explanation because I've been to a similar printing facilities before... So, sometimes, I acted as the guide also...hehehe. Anyway, we went round the various stages of printing.

How they're made into films for printing...

This is like the newspaper kind of printing...

This is the photocopy kind of printing...

Those with mistakes are burned...

After that we were shown the binding section where the various parts were put together. I could see the spine mark on each part as another form of precaution. They used thread to put them together. The factory also produced or printed Quran for the Kuwaitis. It was beautiful and used better paper (very smooth and shiny).

Can slightly see the spinemark...

Good thread...

Stapling machine...

Kak Nor - The professional photographer for the day...hehehe

After that we were shown the showroom, well sort of...because they did not have a proper showroom or a shop where we could get the quran... a pity that. I did order, just for the sake of ordering as a momento actually of my visit there.

I was glad that I came because now I know that in producing the Quran, very stringent measures were taken to make sure that there's no printing mistakes. At the design stage, the first copy was written by an imam in Syria. Then it would be proof-read by tahfiz before it was scanned into the computer. Here there would be another proof reading.

During printing and after printing, there's other proof reading sessions by tahfiz. I was happy to see the careful steps in place because it's the Quran we're talking about here. And because of that, I'm confident with the end result. Now I wish I could go and see the Quran factory in Madinah, insyaallah.