Can the Quran be studied in group? So far, people say no

I don’t think studying the Quran personally or in groups is a “Muslim thing.” And that’s unfortunate.

I once suggested let’s get a group of 3-4 men together, and we can talk about what the surahs mean to us personally, what we learned about the surah, then each member can later look up a commentary or study a surah before the group meets to lead the discussion next meeting.

Suggesting a small group, you would have thought I suggested we should get a group together to burn the Qurans. I was told that studying the Quran in small group is: “Not allowed.” “You’re not an expert.” “That isn’t needed.” “You should do that privately.” The Quran was viewed as an elite document that needed experts to understand or even decipher it, at least in the views of these people.

For Christians, reading the Bible with commentaries, word dictionaries, cross references, the Bible would lead you to Christ. For Jews, studying the Bible with sources and commentary would deepen your faith. For Muslims, at least based on what some have told me, studying the Quran alone would lead you to apostasy and astray.

Later I discussed taking the hadiths that relate to Mohammad and leadership and talk about the traits, lessons, and applications these can have to today’s leadership challenges - how to motivate teams, deciding how to act, measuring productivity versus mission, etc maybe an informal discussion group for anyone going into activism, communal service, or leadership.

And that was even worse. I heard, “The hadiths are serious, you can’t do that. You must be an expert.” Etc etc

When I first said I wanted to learn the Quran, I was offered Quranic classes that focused on the pronunciations of the Arabic. It’s sad the only outlet to engaging the Quran is limited to memorizing. It’s like attempting to get the joy of math by memorizing multiplication tables alone.

Let me illustrate better with a story:

When a friend of mine traveled to Pakistan to study the Quran and Islam, he was on the front lawn of a friend’s house studying the Quran, but also reciting verses. His friend kept getting phone calls and tells his friend, the Quranic reciter, “Bro, can you stop reciting the Quran outside my house? We’re getting phone calls asking if someone is sick or has died.”

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