Ashraf AboArafe
The number of visitors to the Manarat Al-Haramain platform of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, on the day of Arafah, reached more than (500) million visits; With the aim of listening to the translation of the sermon on the day of Arafa, which was broadcast on the platform into more than (20) languages.
The Under-Secretary General for Technology, Digital Transformations and Artificial Intelligence, Engineer Wissam bin Muhammad Makadmi, confirmed that the Arafa sermon translation project aims to enable Muslims to use the digital world and listen and watch the Arafa sermon through the Manarat Al-Haramain platform, whether on the website or the relevant application.
For his part, the Director General of the General Department of Information Technology, Engineer Wahib Al-Matrafi, stated that the number of listeners exceeded more than (322) million, including (65.3) million from the Republic of Indonesia, (39.5) million from the Republic of India, and (33.4) million from the Republic of India. Republic of China, (29.3) million from the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, (26.1) million from the Republic of Pakistan, (22.4) million from the Republic of Tanzania, (19.4) million from Algeria, (14.3) million from Nigeria, and (9) (11) million from Afghanistan, (5.95) million from Sudan, (5.75) million from the United States of America, (5.64) million from Malaysia, (4.81) million from Egypt, and (4.83) million From Ethiopia, and (3.96) million from Iran, and the rest of the number came distributed among other countries, and the percentage of listeners to the sermon from computers reached (98%) through the digital platform, (2%) percent from smart phones through the application.
The percentage of listening to languages was distributed as follows: (21.69%) for the English language, (17.27%) for the Malay language, (13.77%) for the Urdu language, (12.48%) for the Bengali language, (8.62%) for the Chinese language, and (8.62%) for the Chinese language. 5.37% Swahili, (3.37%) Persian, (1.9%) Hausa, French (1.68%), Amharic (1.32%), and the remaining percentages are distributed among the other languages.
And the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque had announced at the beginning of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah an increase in the number of languages used in the project of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to translate the Arafa sermon for this year’s Hajj season (1444 AH), from (14) languages to (20). Language, and it aims to reach (500) million people worldwide.
On the other hand, the Assistant Undersecretary for Technical Affairs, Digital Transformations and Artificial Intelligence, Eng. Raed Al-Matrafi, affirmed that these efforts and the works carried out by the agency came to fulfill the aspirations of the honorable rulers – may God protect them – in harnessing technology and electronic applications in all services provided in the Two Holy Mosques and the guests of Rahman. According to the Presidency Development Plan 2024 emanating from Saudi Vision 2030.
