Lesson video

Hello and welcome to another religious education lesson with me, Mr Green.

Today we are going to continue with some extra revision.

In particular, we are going to practise some examination style questions.

So, please make sure you've four things with you.

A pen, a different colour pen, some paper to do your work on, and of course, your wondrous theology brains.

Now, if you need to go and get any of those things, please go and do that now, and then join me back in just a moment.

So let's remind ourselves what's on the specification for this unit.

So we need to know what the five pillars are, we need to know the 10 obligatory acts, we need to know jihad, and we need to know about festivals.

Now in the last revision lesson that's on the Oak National Academy, we covered the five pillars and jihad, and in doing so, also covered half of the 10 obligatory acts.

So in this revision lesson, we're going to turn our attention towards festivals: Id-ul-Adha, Id-ul-Fitr, and Ashura.

And we're going to think about how these practises help a Muslim to submit to Allah throughout their life.

So, focusing on festivals today.

Those three festivals, Adha, Fitr, and Ashura.

Id-ul-Adha, Id-ul-Fitr, and Ashura.

The first thing that we should do is just remind ourselves of what the key definitions of these festivals are.

Now, Id-ul-Adha, is the festival of sacrifice, celebrating the sacrifice Ibrahim, Abraham, was prepared to make.

Now I've put Abraham in brackets there, just to tie these A's together, Adha and Abraham.

With two Ids, it can be helpful to have a little clue as to which Id remembers and celebrates what.

So I use the A's of Abraham and Adha to recall that Id-ul-Adha is the festival of sacrifice, because it's Abraham, Ibrahim, that was prepared to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah.

Id-ul-Fitr, the celebration of the end of fasting after Ramadan, it's also known as the festival of breaking the fast.

Again you see, I've tied the F's together there, to remind myself that Fitr is fasting, that's a good thing for you to do in your mind too, so you get them the right way around.

And then, Ashura, remember, we're going to focus mainly on the Shi'a understanding of Ashura.

For the Sunni understanding of Ashura, you may wish to go back to the festivals lesson and have a recap of that.

But in today's lesson, we're going to be focusing on Ashura as it's understood within Shi'a Islam.

And Shi'a Muslims mark the death of Imam Hussein, who was Muhammad's grandson, in the battle of Karbala.

So, we're going to just make sure we can just remember some of the key facts about these festivals.

To do this, we've got some quick fire questions.

All you need to do is point to your screens, or mentally say to yourself, which festival the statement is about.

So, let's go.

Which celebrates Ibrahim's actions? Adha, Fitr, or Ashura? Point to your screens now for me.

Well done, it's Id-ul-Adha.

Which celebrates the end of fasting? Adha, Fitr, or Ashura? Brilliant, well done.

That's Id-ul-Fitr, the F's go together, don't they? Which commemorates a death? Ashura, well done.

Which celebrates a sacrifice? Id-ul-Adha, well done.

Which is celebrated at the end of Ramadan? Think, what do the Muslims do during Ramadan? They fast, so it's Id-ul-Fitr.

The F's go together, well done.

Which involves mourning? Mourning is grieving a death.

Can you remember which one involves mourning? It's Ashura, well done.

Which is celebrated during Hajj, where an animal sacrifice is made? Which of those stories has an animal sacrifice in it? It is Abraham's story, Ibrahim, so that's Id-ul-Adha.

Which will involve recollecting the events of the battle of Karbala? Id-ul-Adha, Id-ul-Fitr, or Ashura? It's Ashura, well done.

Which celebrates an act involving Ishmael? Id-ul-Adha, Id-ul-Fitr, or Ashura? It's Id-ul-Adha, well done.

Which is linked to the fourth pillar of Islam, which is Sawm? Remember Sawm is fasting.

It's Id-ul-Adha, sorry, it's Id-ul-Fitr, well done.

Which recalls the actions of Hussein, Muhammad's grandson? Adha, Fitr, Ashura? It's Ashura, well done.

Which marks the death of Imam Hussein in the battle of Karbala? Id-ul-Adha, Id-ul-Fitr, or Ashura? It's Ashura! Which is the festival that celebrates the end of fasting, the breaking of the fast? It's Id-ul-Fitr, well done.

Which is the festival of sacrifice? It's Id-ul-Adha, well done.

So, we've done some good work there remembering what those three festivals are.

What I'd like to do next is consider and recall why these festivals are significant events within Islam.

And you can see I've put three sentence starters on your screens for you.

Id-ul-Adha is significant because, Id-ul-Fitr is significant because, and Ashura is significant because.

And beneath that there are nine pink boxes, each contain a reason which can link to one or more of these three festivals.

So your job in a moment will be to pause your screens, write those sentence starters down, and any reasons which link to Id-ul-Adha, Id-ul-Fitr, or Ashura.

Write those down for me.

So please pause the video now, then join me back in a moment for some feedback.

Good work! So let's see what we've got.

So for Id-ul-Adha, we should have that it gives a perfect example of submission to follow.

Would've been really difficult for Ibrahim and Ishmael to do that, yet they still did.

They submitted to Allah.

It reminds Muslims of the importance of following Allah's rules.

He gave them an instruction, and they were prepared to follow it, even though it was very challenging.

It reminds Muslims to stay faithful in testing times.

The instruction that Allah gave to Ibrahim wouldn't have made much sense, would've been difficult to understand, yet they put trust in God's plan.

It reminds Muslims to reject the Devil, remember the Devil tried to tempt Ibrahim not to obey Allah's instructions.

But Ibrahim rejected that.

And, it of course reminds Muslims that submitting involves sacrifices.

Submitting to Allah is not easy, it's a difficult, demanding task, and that would involve people making sacrifices.

For Id-ul-Fitr, they're celebrating their own submission, aren't they? They've just completed the fourth pillar of Islam, Sawm, so Muslims will celebrate the submission that they've demonstrated through that period.

But also, it reminds Muslims of the rewards of obeying God, and in addition to that, just opposite of Id-ul-Adha, again, a really clear reminder that submitting to Allah involves sacrifices.

Putting Allah at the top of your priority list involves making sure everything else is beneath that.

Ashura, remember we're focusing on the Shi'a Islamic understanding here, so it reminds Shi'a Muslims to stand up to evil.

Remember that the battle between Yazid and Hussein, Hussein refused to yield to Yazid, because he didn't think he was an appropriate ruler of the Islamic community.

And even though he was outnumbered and out powered by Yazid, he still refused to give in.

He wanted to stand up to what he saw as an evil ruler.

It shows the power of good over evil, remember, Hussein actually died, as did all of his followers, in this battle.

But, Shi'a Muslims will still see this as a sense of victory, because they believe that Hussein, in sacrificing his life, aptly demonstrated that Yazid was not an appropriate ruler for the Islamic community.

And it also reminds them that they need to be prepared to use force to defend the faith.

And that's one of the principles of jihad, isn't it.

Defending the faith.

And if necessary, that can include the use of force.

But obviously, it does not demand the use of force.

And, again, also it reminds Muslims that submitting involves sacrifices.

So we have there some terrific work that will help us answer this question.

Id-ul-Adha is the most important Islamic festival.

This is an exam style question.

One of the longer questions worth 12 or 15 marks.

It will have a command word, such as evaluate or discuss.

You might want to ask your teacher which exam board you are sitting.

The question above fits best with AQA and Edexcel.

And of course, you might see the word discuss for Eduqas, WJEC and OCR.

But, nevertheless, no matter which exam board this question fits best with, it's really good practise to demonstrate your knowledge for all exam boards if you're able to answer this question.

So to answer this question really well, you'll need to give developed reasons to support the claim.

And these reasons need to be supported with specific Islamic beliefs or scripture.

You then need to give developed reasons to oppose the claim.

And these reasons will again need to be supported with specific Islamic beliefs or scripture.

And then you need to try and give an evaluative conclusion.

And this means stating which argument that you've presented in your work, from those first two points, is the strongest, and telling me why you believe that's the strongest argument.

Now to do this, you can use the reasons you've just written down.

We wrote down nine reasons, didn't we? You can use those to start off your paragraph to tell me why someone would agree or disagree.

If it's a reason from the Id-ul-Adha work, then clearly that's a reason to agree with the statement.

But if it's a reason from either Id-ul-Fitr or Ashura, that would be a reason to oppose the statement.

But just writing down that reason is not enough.

You will need to develop each reason.

And that means make a case for why that makes it the most important festival.

And you can develop a reason in a number of ways.

You could say how the reason is linked to the festival.

You could say why that reason is really significant within Islam, or, perhaps how it links to other important teachings in the Qur'an.

Now, generally speaking, a good rule of thumb for these types of longer answer discussion questions, is that you spend about 15 minutes on it.

And that 15 minutes you try and address all those three points: developed reasons to support, developed reasons to oppose, and an evaluative conclusion.

So please, pause the video now, and have a go at answering that question for me.

So, let's have a look at some of the work you could've done to support that claim.

The developing a reason to support.

Firstly, you might have written this reason down from your table.

A Muslim may argue that Id-ul-Adha is the most important festival as, and this blue text is from the table, the example of Ibrahim gives a perfect example of submission to follow.

So that's the reason, but it's not yet developed.

So, some extra details you could've given to develop it.

You might have mentioned that Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, to follow God's commands.

And then, you need to link that to the question, don't you? Why does that make it the most important festival? If you were using this reason, you could've done it in this fashion.

This makes it the most important festival as Muslims need to submit to Allah.

Focusing and celebrating the submission of Ibrahim reminds Muslims of what submission is, the challenges of submission and the joys of submitting to Allah.

All of this will help a Muslim submit in their own life.

So that's one reason you could have used.

So, what I'd like you to do is pause the video here.

Now obviously, you might have used a different reason.

So you're not just checking, have I written that exact thing down? But have you followed those same principles after giving the reason? Did you develop it, did you then link it to the question to say why it is the most important festival? If you didn't, then just take a couple of minutes to find a reason and develop it.

So another reason you may have mentioned, is this: a Muslim may argue that Id-ul-Adha is the most important festival as it reminds Muslims to reject the Devil.

And then remember, the next thing is give some details to develop.

The Devil tried to tempt Ibrahim to disobey Allah, however, Ibrahim rejected the Devil and demonstrated this by throwing stones at the Devil.

And then linking that to the question, makes it the most important festival as Muslims need to submit to Allah.

And submitting to Allah means putting Him first and rejecting other temptations, particularly the temptation to do evil.

Id-ul-Adha helps Muslims to do that.

The significance of this event is also apparent by the Hajj rituals.

On Hajj, Muslims stone the Jamarat pillars to recall Ibrahim's rejection of the Devil.

So that's being developed with lots of details and lots of persuasive arguing.

So, just pause the video, and check you've done some similar things with your second reason, even though it might not be the exact same reason, but you've done the same things.

You've developed it and linked it to the question.

So, pause the video now for me, please.

Right, so now let's develop a reason to oppose the claim.

We can do this either by going to Id-ul-Fitr or Ashura.

One of the two alternative festivals that we've been talking about today.

So, let's go to Id-ul-Fitr.

Other Muslims may argue that Id-ul-Fitr is the most important festival as it celebrates their own submission throughout Sawm.

Some detail to develop that, let's talk about Sawm.

Sawm is the fourth pillar of Islam.

This requires Muslims to fast throughout the month of Ramadan during daylight hours.

And then linking that to why it's the most important.

So this makes it the most important festival as Muslims need to submit to Allah.

And Id-ul-Adha celebrates Ibrahim's submission, but Id-ul-Fitr celebrates their own submission.

Say, it is more important for Muslims to submit to Allah themselves than to celebrate the submission of others.

So again, just pause the video, check that your oppose reasons are developed in the same way as this, even if it is a slightly different reason, because obviously there were lots to choose from.

Pause the video now for me, please.

And now, let's look at another reason to oppose.

And this time, we'll go to the festival of Ashura.

Some Shi'a Muslims may argue that Ashura is the most important festival as it reminds Muslims that submitting to God involves sacrifices.

Extra details to develop, Hussein and his followers were prepared to lay down their lives in the battle of Karbala to show Yazid was not a fit ruler of the Islamic community.

Then we can link that, can't we, to the question by saying that this makes it the most important festival as Muslims need to submit to Allah.

Ashura reminds Muslims of the ultimate sacrifice, Hussein had to watch his baby son be killed before himself being beheaded.

The story of Ibrahim doesn't involve that level of sacrifice and nor, neither, does the fourth pillar Sawm.

As Ashura shows the highest level of sacrifice, and therefore submission, perhaps, it could be argued, that that is the most important festival.

So again, just pause your video again, and check that your fourth reason has a similar level of development to this.

And if not, there's an opportunity to do that now.

So please, pause now.

And now, let's have a look at an example conclusion.

Obviously, there's lots of ways you could conclude, so don't think that your conclusion has to look just like this, it just has to follow the same principles.

So we need to give a clear judgement.

The clear judgement I'm giving as an example here is, overall, I think the strongest argument is that Id-ul-Adha is the most important festival.

I'm just expressing a judgement there on that statement, given everything that has been included in the answer.

Then I'm going to give some clear reasons.

So the clear reasons.

Because it reminds Muslims of the story of Ibrahim, which demonstrates a perfect example of submission.

And this makes it more important that Id-ul-Fitr as, although Muslims celebrate their own submission in Id-ul-Fitr, the requirements of Sawm are not as high as the requirement Allah had for Abraham.

So it would be really good for you to check your own work again and just make sure that you've got clear judgement and clear reasons to support that.

Pause the video, and do that for me now.

Excellent work again today, we've recalled lots of information about the festivals, and we've had a go at constructing a really challenging, yet well constructed answer to a 12 or 15 mark question.

What I'd like you to do now please, is just check the quiz, or take the quiz, to see what you've learnt.

And if you wish to share your work with Oak National Academy, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter using the information you can see on the screen.

More good work today, well done, I look forward to seeing you again soon for some more religious education.