Component 1: The study of religions: beliefs, teachings and practice:
Islamic Beliefs and teachings Key Beliefs
• The six articles of faith in Sunni Islam and five roots of Usul ad-Din in Shi’a Islam, including key similarities and differences.
• The Oneness of God (Tawhid), Qur’an Surah 112.
• The nature of God: omnipotence, beneficence, mercy, fairness and justice (Adalat in Shi’a Islam), including different ideas about God’s relationship with the world: immanence and transcendence.
• Angels, their nature and role, including Jibril and Mika’il. • Predestination and human freedom and its relationship to the Day of Judgement.
•Life after death (Akhirah), human responsibility and accountability, resurrection, heaven and hell.
• Prophethood (Risalah) including the role and importance of Adam, Ibrahim and Muhammad.
• The holy books:
• Qur’an: revelation and authority
• the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel, the Scrolls of Abraham and their authority.
• The imamate in Shi’a Islam: its role and significance.
Islamic Practices Worship
• Five Pillars of Sunni Islam and the Ten Obligatory Acts of Shi’a Islam (students should study the Five Pillars and jihad in both Sunni and Shi’a Islam and the additional duties of Shi’a Islam).
• Shahadah: declaration of faith and its place in Muslim practice.
•Salah and its significance: how and why Muslims pray including times, directions, ablution (wudu), movements (rak’ahs) and recitations; salah in the home and mosque and elsewhere; Friday prayer (Jummah); key differences in the practice of salah in Sunni and Shi’a Islam, and different Muslim views about the importance of prayer.
Duties and festivals
• Sawm: the role and significance of fasting during the month of Ramadan including origins, duties, benefits of fasting, the exceptions and their reasons, and the Night of Power, Qur’an 96:1–5.
• Zakah: the role and significance of giving alms including origins, how and why it is given, benefits of receipt, Khums in Shi’a Islam.
• Hajj: the role and significance of the pilgrimage to Makkah including origins, how hajj is performed, the actions pilgrims perform at sites including the Ka’aba at Makkah, Mina, Arafat, Muzdalifah and their significance.
• Jihad: different understandings of jihad: the meaning and significance of greater and lesser jihad; origins, influence and conditions for the declaration of lesser jihad.
•Festivals and commemorations and their importance for Muslims in Great Britain today, including the origins and meanings of Id-ul-Adha, Id-ul-Fitr, Ashura.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|