The Annual Ramadan Lectures began as Annual Ramadan Tafsir in English first ever in the history of Muslims in Ghana in 1998. This was necessitated by the growing need for the interpretation and exegesis of the Glorious Qur’an to be done in the lingua franca of the country, the English Language. Hitherto, Tafsir was done in only Hausa cutting off many Muslims in Ghana who do not speak and understand Hausa.

 

The unique nature of our “Tafsir” at the time was that firstly, it was topic-based. What this means is that a topic was chosen by a Scholar and Qur’anic injunctions were used to explain and expatiate it. Secondly, the audience after listening to the speaker was allowed to debate the speaker on his stand on the topic as well as allowing for other scholars to also contribute to the discussion. This really generated a lot of interest in the annual Tafsir.

 

In 2002, the Academy decided to convert the annual Tafsir into an Annual Public Lecture Series delivered once a week throughout the Holy Month of Ramadan. The reflective mood of the Islamic month of Ramadan affords us the unique opportunity to reflect on local and global issues affecting the life of Ghanaians particularly Muslims.

 

 

In 2005 the Academy named the lectures after our founder, the late Bro. Muhammad Ali Mujahid popularly known as Toure whose demise occurred in September 2004.