The Role of Digital Platforms in Studying the Holy Qur’an: A Case Study based on the Voices of Students from Diverse Cultures at the Prophet’s Mosque

Abstract

All through the past few years, digital platforms have witnessed a widespread and a significant increase in their popularity, coinciding with the increasing dependence on modern technologies and the increasing need for communication and distance education. Digital platforms have proven their efficiency in various educational fields, but few studies have addressed the role of digital platforms in improving the study of the Qur’an. The Prophet’s Mosque is one of the biggest mosques that provides the service of studying the Holy Qur’an relying on multiple methods, including digital platforms which are used in a specific context for teaching the Qur’an to students from various cultural backgrounds from different countries. Accordingly, the current study aims to study the case of digital platforms used in teaching the Holy Qur’an in the Prophet’s Mosque by relying on listening to (7) voices of students studying the Qur’an from different cultural backgrounds. To implement this study, the qualitative case study approach was adapted through interviews and qualitative observation of participating students. According to the outputs of the objective analysis, the results of the study showed that the roles of digital platforms in teaching the Holy Qur’an to students from diverse cultural backgrounds are based on four main topics: educational flexibility, educational efficiency, educational satisfaction, interaction, and participation. These results showed the possibility of expanding the generalization of the experience of the Prophet's Mosque in teaching the Holy Qur’an via digital platforms, as this experience showed that teaching in this way contributes to creating positive attitudes towards digital platforms, enhancing participation in Qur’anic circles, facilitating communication between teachers and students, providing assistance, ease of access, and flexibility of study, which contributes to the continuation of education.