Memorizing what you don't understand

A lot of Muslims memorize the Koran, but at least one scholar claims that too many of them fail to view it as a whole. As I understand it, Islam claims that all Muslims are equal and there is no priesthood. But that isn't true. The clerics who study at the many Islamic schools of law, and the imams who deliver the weekly sermons, have assumed the power that would otherwise belong to authorized officers of the church. Religions are often founded on revelation, but they apostatize when "scholars" without any real authority assume the right to interpret scripture for everyone else. That's why it's important that people who deny current revelation not be allowed to usurp its function.