Peace Comrox and everyone else,
There are many reasons to learn MSA (Modern standard arabic), but studying the Quran is not one of them. Because the language of the Quran is Classical Arabic (read the quote at the bottom of this post). The language of the Quran is not MSA. Learning MSA in order to study the Quran, is like learning Greek in order to study an English book. A past member of this forum by the name tanveermd, claims that Arabic as second language plus a modern Arabic dictionary is indeed a dangerous combination (read his post here). To me, his views seem to be correct.
Although I don't think it's a good idea to learn MSA in order to study the Quran, I do believe that there are many good reasons to learn MSA. And one of them is to be able to translate articles and/or books from English to Arabic or vice versa. There are many good books for learning MSA out there, but there are only some that I would recommend. If I could recommend some books to you, these would be excellent resources
Teach yourself Arabic by Jack Smart and Frances Altolfer. Make sure to get the CD's with it as well.
The Arabic Alphabet How to read and write it by Nicholas Awde and Putros Samano. And Teach yourself beginner's Arabic scribt by John Mace.
Arabic for dummies by Amine Bouchentouf. And Intermediate Arabic for Dummies by Keith Massey.
Al Mawrid dictionary English-Arabic and Arabic-English by Munir Baalbaki and Dr. Rohi Baalbaki. And Arabic-English dictionary by Hans Wehr and J.Milton Cowan.
A new Arabic grammar of the written language by J.A. Haywood and H.M. Nahmad. And Easy Arabic grammar by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar.
In my view, the above-mentioned resources are some of the best resources out there for learning MSA. But I only recommend buying them, if you are 100 percent sure that you want to learn MSA. If you are not committed to learn MSA, then I do not recommend buying them. Because if you are not committed to learn MSA, you will quit easily and then you would have wasted your money. Personally, I am not learning Arabic. And I am not planning to learn it in the near future.
As mentioned earlier, I believe that there are many good reasons to learn MSA. And one of them is to be able to translate articles and/or books from English to Arabic or vice versa. For example, if one learns MSA, then one can translate articles and/or books from English to Arabic (e.g. articles and/or books about Quranic islam). If one translates articles and/or books about Quranic islam from English to Arabic, then one can reach a wide audience in the Arab World. It appears that translating articles and/or books from English to Arabic, is a great way to spread the message of Quranic islam. Unfortunately, there are fewer books translated into Arabic than other major languages. I'd like to share some informative paragraphs from an article here. The title of the article is "Three Middle East Myths Exploded."
From the article
Consider some of the important findings in recent Arab Human Development Reports and related studies
? The total number of books translated into Arabic in the last 1,000 years is fewer than those translated into Spanish in one year.
? Greece ? with a population of fewer than 11 million ? translates five times as many books from abroad into Greek annually as the 22 Arab countries combined, with a total population of more than 300 million, translate into Arabic.
For those who wish to read the whole article, you can read it here.
Where did you learn Quranic Arabic?
May our Lord guide us.
Peace.