Malaysian Islamic poets shine at fest

Kota Kinabalu: Poets from Malaysia and Indonesia emerged top three winners at the Asean Islamic poetry competition that was held in conjunction with the 8th Mahrajan Literature and Islamic Art Festival, this year.

Announcing this, the festival’s patron cum founder Datuk Mohd Arifin Mohd Arif said the winners to bring home cash RM1,500 are an Indonesian D. Kemalawati from Aceh with her entry titled “Tasawuf Daun” followed by a Malaysian from Selangor Dr Shamsudin Othman with his entry entitled “Lelaki dari Pohon Berembang” and a Malaysian from Sabah, Sitti Rahmah G. Ibrahim, with her entry entitled “Alif Lam Min”.

He said they were selected as winners from 227 contestants who submitted 307 entries of Islamic poems.

Five more contestants from Malaysia and Indonesia will receive consolation prizes of RM500 each. They are Indonesian Listin Wahyuni from Jawa Barat, three Sabahans – Ismail Duah, Agusliano Mohamad and Siti Alimah Kamarudin, and a Malaysian from Selangor, Amin Minhad.

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“The competition was held two months ago and the prizes would be presented during the 8th Mahrajan Literature and Islamic Art Festival during Hari Raya in Membakut in June.

“After the competition closing on March 20, the organising main committee received 307 poems from 227 poets consisting 182 entries from Malaysia, 113 from Indonesia, nine from Brunei Darussalam and three from Thailand.

“Most of the Islamic poems that we received were of high quality in writing and reflected maturity that is suitable with the structure, complying with the writing format for Islamic poems that have been set by the organiser,” he said in a press conference.

Arifin who is also Membakut Assemblyman said most of the poems elaborated the issue on relationship between humans and God and the relation between human with nature and interaction with other people.

This, he said, include issues related to oppression of Palestinians, Rohingya in Myanmar and Uighur Muslims in China as well as the recent shooting attack on Muslims at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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Arifin said the number of entries last year and this year is almost same.

He said there were some minor mistakes in the entries but it did not affect their poems.

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