The Arafah Day sermon delivered in Arabic for the 1444H/2023 Hajj season here will be broadcast live in 20 languages including Bahasa Melayu.

Undersecretary for Languages and Translation Agency of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz al-Humaidi said six new languages were added this year, namely Spanish, Portuguese, German, Filipino, Italian and Bosnian.

“More than 274 million people around the world had access to the Arafah sermon during the 1443H/2022 Hajj season last year, facilitated by the digital transformation,” he said.

Ahmad was speaking to media personnel from various countries who participated in the Media Partnerships For Hajj Season 2023 programme organised by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Media on Saturday (June 24).

A delegation from the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) invited by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), also participated in the programme.

Ahmad said the target for this year was for at least 300 million listeners to tune in globally.

“We found that people in South America did not have access to the Arafah sermon during the Hajj season last year.

“Therefore, we will facilitate the access by providing software that can be downloaded from the agency’s website as well as on all social media platforms,” he said, adding that to ensure the accuracy of the translation, there were more than 40 trained and experienced translators at the agency with a background in Islamic studies.

Among the main languages for translation are English, French, Mandarin, Bengali, Russian, Malay, Urdu, Persian, Hausa and Turkish.

For Malaysian Muslims who are not well-versed in Arabic, the translation of the sermon in Bahasa Melayu can be accessed through the portal ‘https://manaratalharamain.gov.sa’.

Malaysians Muhammad Mujahid Zaharudin and Dr Ahmad Wifaq Mokhtar as well as two fellow translators from Indonesia are responsible for translating materials such as sermons for Friday prayers, Hari Raya, Arafah Day and special prayers for occasions such as during solar and lunar eclipses.

Muhammad Mujahid when met by Bernama said they had teamed up with translators from Indonesia due to the language similarities.

“We will take turns. This year’s Arafah sermon will be done by our colleague from Indonesia.

“The Hari Raya sermon the next day will be my turn, it will be read in Bahasa Melayu. This week’s Friday sermon was done by Dr (Ahmad) Wifaq, also in Bahasa Melayu,” he said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency