Russian Holy Quran distribution in Russia, April 1999

In April this year, Sister Samina, incharge publications at the A.A.I.I.L. (U.S.A.) in Columbus, Ohio, travelled to Russia to arrange for the distribution of the Russian translation of the Holy Quran. This is the Russian version of Maulana Muhammad Ali's English Translation and Commentary of the Holy Quran with Introduction, rendered by Dr. Alexander Sadetsky, published in July 1997. (See here further details of the Russian translation.) Dr. Sadetsky and his wife Dr. Tania Sadetsky were also with Sister Samina during this visit.

Nine thousand copies which had been sent to Russia were awaiting customs clearance in St. Petersburg, and there were many administrative steps to be gone through for clearance. However, Sister Samina's perseverance with the customs officials, her prayers, and her appeals to the Director of Customs, explaining our cause of the spread of the Holy Quran, had a remarkable effect. The Qurans were released within 2 hours instead of the weeks that it would have otherwise taken, and no duty was charged as was earlier feared.

These copies were then despatched to Moscow, where on Friday 30 April 1999 a special meeting had been arranged to be held after the Friday prayers at the Hilal Foundation Mosque. People had gathered for the meeting eager to receive their copy of the Russian Quran. Some 630 copies were immediately snapped up by those present, and the rest of the 9000 copies were allocated to various mosques. People were overjoyed and overwhelmed with emotion at receiving the Quran in Russian, something they had not seen before but had longed for. All this distribution was free of charge by our Organization because, due to economic conditions, people cannot afford to buy books.

These 9000 copies were described as only a drop in the ocean of demand for the Russian Quran. We are now raising funds for the printing and free distribution of a further 50,000 copies.

Consignment of the Russian Quran in storage at the Hilal Foundation, Moscow. Dr. Alexander Sadetsky is on the left. Riffat Osmanov, Vice-President of the Hilal Foundation is on the right. Sister Samina is 2nd from right.