S16 E15: The One About GCSE RE Islam Practices: Five Pillars, Ten Obligatory Acts, Shahadah

4-markers

Explain two ways the shahada is used by Muslims. 

One way is to recite it if someone wishes to become a Muslim                             

They are expected to verbally say the Shahada to declare their faith.             

Another way is to try to make the shahada their final words before death.          

This is so that their faith is strong before they die

6 markers

Explain two reasons why the five pillars of Islam are important to Muslims. You must refer to sacred writings or another source of belief and teaching in your answer.

One reason is because the five pillars express Muslim beliefs.
The pillars of Islam express the belief in tawhid since they are acts of worship towards Allah.
Prophet Muhammad says Islam is built upon 5 things.
This shows that without the pillars the beliefs would be weak.
Another reason is that they give Muslim structure.
The pillars of Islam clearly guide Muslims on the duties they have to perform.

Explain two reasons why the shahada is important to Muslims. Refer to sacred writing or another source of belief and teaching in your answer.

One reason is because it is the first pillar of Islam and all the other pillars come from the Shahadah
Therefore, without believing in it a Muslim wouldn't perform the other pillars.
Another reason is that it emphasises two key Islamic beliefs.                                  

The Shahada says there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.
This shows that the Shahadah includes belief in tawhid and prophethood which is the foundation of Islam because all other beliefs come from these.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Before we get started, I'd like to thank Reimagining Education for sponsoring the RE podcast. They share our passion for making learning exciting, meaningful, and accessible to everyone. It's so good to have their support so we can keep bringing you more conversations about religion, ethics, and philosophy. To learn more, just head to reimaginingeduc.uk. Welcome to the RE Podcast, the first dedicated RE podcast for students and teachers. My name is Louisa Jane Smith, and this is the RE Podcast. The podcast for those of you who think RE is boring. Which it is, and I'll prove it to you. In this series, I am taking you through GCSE RE, focusing on AQA, Islam, and Christianity. We are looking at key content and key exam skills you need to be successful in maybe teaching GCSERE or sitting an exam in it. So if you are a teacher of GCSERE or a student of GCSERE, I hope that this episode is helpful to you. As a teacher, you might be new to teaching GCSE or new to this spec. You might be returning after a break. You might just need a little bit of a refresh or reinvigoration. Or maybe you are a teacher from a different subject and you want to feel more confident. As a student, you might use it to consolidate what you have learnt in lessons or prepare for some upcoming exams. Or maybe you've moved schools or had some absence and want to catch up with what you've missed. Maybe you're a parent and want to help support your child in their revision. Whatever your reason for listening, I hope this is helpful for you. I've already done a series on Christian beliefs, a series on Christian practices, and a series on Islam beliefs. If you have listened to the general introduction to paper one, you will know you will have to do an entire question on each of these that will involve a multiple choice question, a one marker, a four marker, a six marker, and a twelve marker. Now we are moving on to Islam practices and you will have to do an entire question on that as well. This episode is going to focus on the five pillars in Sunni Islam, the ten obligatory acts in Shia Islam, and the Shahada. And it is part of the Islam practices unit on the AQARE specification. I'm going to cover these very briefly because I will do an episode on each of them. So let's start with the five pillars of Islam. What are they? So firstly we have to remember that the five pillars of Islam are in reference to Sunni Islam who practice the five pillars. They are important duties for Sunni Muslims which support their main beliefs in Islam. If you think of the word pillars, pillars hold up the beliefs. You've got the main beliefs, which are the six articles of faith. Again, go check out the episode on the six articles of faith if you haven't already listened to that. The five pillars support these beliefs in Sunni Islam. So they are a way to show those beliefs. The six articles of faith are the beliefs, the five pillars of Islam are the practices. So what are the five pillars? First, there is the shahada, which is the statement of faith. Second, you've got Sallah, which is prayer. Third you've got Solm, which is fasting. Fourth you've got zakah, which is almsgiving or charity, and fifth you've got Hajj, which is pilgrimage. There's gonna be a detailed episode for each one of these with more information. And then you've got the ten obligatory acts. Obligatory means compulsory things you have to do, and this is part of Shia Islam. So Shia Muslims refer to their practices as the ten obligatory acts, the ten requirements of Shia Muslims. They don't call them the five pillars of Islam, that's the Sunni perception of the actions that Muslims do. Shias have the ten obligatory acts. You will notice that the first four of the ten obligatory acts are the same as the four pillars of Sunni Islam. And when I do the episodes of those four pillars, I will look at them from a Sunni and a Shia perspective. But Shia Muslims have other acts that they're obligated to do. They've got something called khums, which you can check out in the episode on charity or almsgiving. You've got jihad, which also has a separate episode. And then you've got the last four, which are kind of in two pairs. Enjoying good and forbidding evil. So enjoying good is to encourage people to do good actions. Forbidding evil is to discourage people doing bad actions. So for example, if a Shia Muslim is going to do a good action like prayer, they might encourage their friend or family members to pray with them. However, if they see their friend or family member doing something wrong, it is their duty as a Muslim to forbid that, to stop them doing it. Now, they can't force them to stop, but they should advise them. Say something like, you know what, that's not a good thing you're about to do. And then you've got the last two, Tawallah and Tabara. Tawallah is the idea of showing love and devotion towards Prophet Muhammad and his family. And Tabara is disassociating from the opponents of Prophet Muhammad and his family. So Tawallah is the idea of a Shia Muslim to show love and show respect towards Prophet Muhammad and his family. So if you remember in the episode on the Imamate, that also comes under Tawalah of showing the Imam's love, devotion, and respect because they are from the bloodline of Muhammad. They are from Muhammad's family. And likewise, any people who disrespect or show hatred towards Prophet Muhammad and his family, a Shia Muslim would disassociate themselves from them, meaning that they'd not be their friend, they would not associate themselves with them at all. Because obviously, if someone is disrespected, someone that you love, you're not going to be cool with that person. You're not really going to be their friend. So these are the ten obligatory acts in Shia Islam. So if we were to put the five pillars of Sunni Islam and the ten Shia obligatory acts side by side, what would they look like in terms of what is similar and what is different? So in the middle, you've got the terms that are shared. You've got Sullah, prayer, Summ, fasting, zakr, almsgiving, and Hajj, pilgrimage. So in that middle section you can find all four of these because they belong to the Sunni Five Pillars of Islam and the Shia Obligatory Acts. But Shahada you're only going to find in the Sunni Pillars of Islam. Now of course, Shia Muslims do believe in the Shahada. It's something they definitely, definitely believe in, but they see it more of a belief rather than a practice. And then you've got the other four that are remaining, and these are just going to be in the Shia obligatory acts. But again, just because they're not in the five pillars of Sunni Islam does not mean that Sunni Muslims do not believe in them or practice them. They do. It's just not on their list. So that's what the lists look like side by side in terms of what is shared and what is different. So how could this topic come up in a four mark question on Islam practices? Well, it could simply ask you to explain two ways in which the five pillars of Islam or ten obligatory acts are practiced by Muslims. Essentially, all you have to do here is pick two of the five pillars of Islam or pick two of the obligatory acts and explain how they're done by Muslims or how they're practiced by Muslims. Now these will be covered in the other episodes in detail, so before you can answer these questions, you need to listen to the other episodes to see how these could be practiced. Now, with six smart questions, what you're going to find is that they're going to ask you two reasons why the practice is important to Muslims. So in this case, you could be asked why the five pillars of Islam are important to Muslims or why the ten obligatory acts are important to Muslims. Obviously, the second question is more specific to Shia Islam, whereas the first question is more specific to Sunni Islam. So do have a go at one or both of these, giving yourself a time limit of four to five minutes, so you can pause the episode now. Remember, it's always a really good idea to have two or three reasons why any of the five pillars or ten obligatory acts are important to Muslims. And I think the three best ones to use are number one, it supports a belief in tuwheed. Number two, it helps to practice self-discipline. And three, it supports the Ummah, the community of Muslims. So you can use those three reasons for any of the six markers in Islam practices. So let's have a look at a model answer to the five pillars question. So explain two reasons why the five pillars are important to Muslims. Refer to sacred writing or another source of belief and teaching in your answer. And this could be our model answer. One reason is because the five pillars express the Muslim belief in Tawheed. This is because they are acts of worship towards Allah. So I'm gonna get two marks there for a developed point. Now we need to have a source of authority. Prophet Muhammad says Islam is built upon five things. That's another mark there. So you've got your source of authority, Prophet Muhammad, and he said, and you've got his quote. Now you just need the application. This shows that without the five pillars, the Islam religion would be weak. So in that first paragraph, I'm getting four marks. Let's start our second paragraph. Another reason they are important is because they give Muslims a structure. The pillars of Islam clearly guide Muslims on the duties they have to perform. I get two marks for that as a developed point, and so altogether I will get six marks out of six, because I've hit the criteria for the six mark question. Now if you wanted to, you could just talk about two of the specific pillars and write about why they're important. That would also work as well. But in this answer, what I have done is I've talked about the pillars in general. But you can by all means pick any of the two pillars and explain why each of them are important in their own way. As long as you hit the criteria, you will get six out of six marks. The next thing we're going to look at is the shahada. So the shahada is the Muslim declaration of faith.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

In Sunni Islam, it states, there is one God Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

In Shia Islam, it starts the same, there is one God Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. And then they add, and Ali is a friend of Allah. And Ali was the first Imam. So this references a belief in the Imamate and the practice of Tabalah, showing respect and love to the family of Prophet Muhammad. So let's have a look at two ways Muslims may use the Shahada. So the first way is through conversion. So if someone wants to convert to Islam, they recite the Shahada and they become a Muslim. Obviously, when they recite the Shahada, they have to know what it means and they have to know what it implies. You can't just do it for the sake of it without knowing what you're getting into. Because you have to know that if you say the Shahada, you are joining the religion of Islam. The second way the Shahada is used is at birth and at death. So for example, when a baby is born, it is tradition for someone in the family to recite the call to prayer in the ear of the baby. And part of the call to prayer involves the shahada. It is also used at the end of life, so again, if someone knows that they're coming towards the end of their life, particularly those people that are terminally ill, then they'd want to say the shahada as one of their final statements before they die. Or if they die suddenly, you'll find the shahada being recited and repeated and chanted quite often at a Muslim funeral. Also reminding. Now, when a Muslim goes to the grave, they have to remember two key beliefs of Islam, belief in Allah and belief in the Prophet Muhammad. This is also a helpful piece of information for the Islam belief section on Akira, life after death. It's always really helpful when you can use bits of information in different parts of the exam and link beliefs and practices together, because it gives you more to say. So why is the shahada important? Well you could say that every other Muslim practice comes from the shahada, because the shahada emphasizes the two key Muslim beliefs, belief in Allah and belief in the Prophet Muhammad as the messenger. If a Muslim does not believe in those two things, then obviously the other practices aren't going to work. Because a Muslim prays because they believe in Allah, and they pray like the Prophet Muhammad taught them. They fast because they believe in Allah, and they fast the way the Prophet Muhammad taught. So the Shahada is something that underpins all the other practices of Islam. So it's a very important thing because it summarizes two key beliefs of Muslims, belief in Allah and belief in Prophet Muhammad as a messenger. The Shahada itself is a source of authority, so you can say the Shahada says there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger, because that's what the Shahada means in English. And you can see it's quite a simple phrase. Now it can be translated in different ways, so some translate it as there is no one worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is a messenger. But regardless of how you translate it, it kind of means the same thing. It emphasizes the fact that there is one God, and that's obviously Tawid, and it emphasizes the fact that Prophet Muhammad is a source of authority for Muslims because he is a prophet. So that is what the Shahada is, how it's used, and why it's important. So let's have a look at some exam questions. So in a four mark question in the practices section, usually the four mark exam question will be about two ways that something is practiced. So for this topic, the question is going to be explain two ways the shahada is used by Muslims. Do pause this episode and have a go at answering this question, giving yourself a time limit of around three to four minutes. Here's how you might want to answer this question. So one way is to recite it if someone wishes to become a Muslim. You'll get one mark for stating the way it's used by Muslims. Now you develop that answer. Muslims are expected to verbally say the shahadah to declare their faith, two marks. Another way is to try to make the shahada their final words before death, three marks. This is so that their faith is strong before they die. And that becomes four out of four marks, two clear ways the shahada is used by Muslims, both developed, so four out of four. Now for a six-mark question for this topic. There's really only one way they may ask about this. Explain two ways why the shahada is important to Muslims. Refer to sacred writings or another source of belief and teaching in your answer. So again, in this answer, I'm not expected to write about how they use the shahada. It's more about why it's important, making sure I hit the criteria of two developed points, and in one of the points we have to have a quote with a source as well as an application. So explaining that quote and linking it back to the question. Again, if you want to have a go at this question, feel free to pause the episode and give yourself around five minutes to have a go. If you want to look at a model answer for this question, here's what that answer might look like. One reason is because it is the first pillar of Islam and all the other pillars come from the shahada. Therefore, without believing in it, a Muslim wouldn't perform the other pillars. So that would get two marks there for a developed point. What I'm trying to say here is that without the shahada, you're not going to do the other pillars like prayer or fasting or charity or hajj, because you have to believe in Prophet Muhammad and Allah to do those duties. Let's move on to our second paragraph, and that's going to have to be the one where I'm using a source and application because I haven't done it in my first paragraph. So another reason is that it emphasizes two key Islamic beliefs. The Shahada says there is no God except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger. So notice there I've used the Shahada as a source for the quote, which is absolutely allowed because the Shahada is a source of authority for Muslims. This shows that the Shahada itself includes belief in Tawhid and Prophethood, which is the foundation of Islam because all other beliefs come from these. So you can notice in the last two lines I've got the application and development there in kind of one sentence, which again is absolutely allowed. So again, this would get six out of six marks. The first paragraph gets two marks because I've got a developed point, and the second paragraph gets four marks. I've got two marks from the developed point, one mark for the source, and one mark for the application, which makes four, so therefore six out of six altogether. The kind of 12 marker you might get on this topic is to say that one of the pillars is more important than another. I think this episode might help you argue that the shahada is the most important pillar, because it is the basis of all of the other pillars, and reflects the most important belief in Islam, which is toheed. But on the other hand, you could argue that the shahada is not a practice in Shia Islam, so you could develop that to help form your different point of view. Hopefully, this gives you a little bit of a grounding in the five pillars, the ten obligatory acts, and the shahada, as well as how to answer four and six mark questions. Take some time now if you haven't already set a timer and have a go at some of those four and six mark questions. Take your answers into school for your teachers to mark. Next episode, we're gonna look at two more of the practices, Sullah and Sorm, prayer and fasting. And they are in both the five pillars and the ten obligatory acts. So we're gonna look at how both Sunni and Shia Muslims practice them. So I hope you can join me. This podcast is supported by reimaginingeducation at reimaginingeducation.uk. My name is Louisa Jane Smith and this has been the RE Podcast. The podcast for those of you who think RE is boring, which it is, I just proved it to you. But thank you so much for letting me help you get an even better grade in GCSD RE.