al-Zain Muhammad Ahmad

Al-Zain Muhammad Ahmad al-Zain (born 1982) is a Sudanese reciter and imam, imam since 2001 of the Sayyida Sanhouri Mosque in Khartoum, to which thousands come from the capital's three cities for the tarawih and tahajjud prayers. ^{1 2}

He was born in North Kordofan in 1982; the article's lead names al-Buniya village in Umm Dam locality, its body Tendelti, in July 1982. He grew up in a religious household and was named after his grandfather, al-Faki al-Zain, a jurist and hafiz. ¹

After primary school at al-Buniya he went to the Khursi khalwa in Bara locality, beginning to memorise at ten and a half under Hasan Hamid and Ahmad Babikr 'Hamdan', and completed the Qur'an by heart, with tajwid, in the Duri and Hafs transmissions — in 1996 in one passage, at seventeen in another. He then studied at the al-Faki institute (2003) and graduated from the University of the Holy Qur'an. ¹

He received a reading licence from the University of the Holy Qur'an and Islamic Sciences, and in 2008 an ijaza from al-Azhar through Ahmad Isa al-Ma'sarawi, head of Egypt's reciters. He has two murattal recordings of the Qur'an, one in the studio and one broadcast from the tarawih prayers. ¹

In 2001, through his cousin al-Hadi al-Tijani, imam of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may God be pleased with him) Mosque in Bahri, he was nominated with several others to lead the Sayyida Sanhouri Mosque and was chosen. Thousands come there from Khartoum, Khartoum Bahri and Omdurman, although the two night prayers are held in most of the capital's mosques. ¹

He took first place in Sudan at the 25th national Qur'an festival in Gedaref in 1998; representing Sudan in Malaysia and Dubai he won third prize in a contest of 83 countries; he came second for the King Abdulaziz prize in Saudi Arabia in 2005, and second in Libya in 2006 among 66 countries. ¹

Wikidata listed an article on him in Arabic Wikipedia only on 6 November 2026. ²

• Arabic Wikipedia article, revision of 17 April 2026. ¹

• Wikidata item Q28715915. ²