Lesson video

Hello, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marx and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today we're going be doing about the foundations of faith in Shi'a Islam, often known as the roots of faith or Usul ad-Din.

We're going to get quite philosophical and theological, so when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to explain the five roots of Usul ad-Din, their importance and how they link to other key beliefs in Islam.

So let's start with our keywords then.

Adalat, God's fairness, one of the five roots of Usul ad-Din.

Imamate, the authority of the Imams as Allah's chosen guides after the prophets, starting from Ali as a member of the Prophet's household.

Resurrection, when someone's raised again after death.

Shi'a Islam, Muslim who believe in the successorship of the Imam Ali and other Imams from the Prophet Muhammad's bloodline.

Tawhid, a belief in Allah's oneness and unity.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today is going to have three sections, the five roots of Usul ad-Din, the importance and influence of the five roots, and the imamate in Shi'a Islam.

So let's start with our first section, the five roots of Usul ad-Din.

Here's Fatemeh and Hassan and they're Muslims, and they're going to explain what this means to them.

Fatemeh says, "Being a Muslim means that I can trust Allah, no matter what is going on in the world around me.

Allah has sent guidance to let us know how to live, and I try to follow this in my life." And Hassan says, "Being a Muslim means that I believe Allah created everything, including me and my mind.

I love to learn more about my religion and use reason and my intellect to understand it more fully." And I wonder how many of those are going to come up in our five roots of Usul ad-Din today.

Fatemeh and Hassan are Shi'a Muslims and the term Shi'a Islam comes from Arabic, Shi'a Islam.

Shi'a comes from a term meaning a supporter of and Islam comes from a term, aslama, meaning submitting to God.

And you might know the term salam meaning peace as well.

So Shi'a Islam is a branch of Islam which supports the succession of Ali as the leader of the Muslims after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

Shi'a Muslims follow the traditions and teachings of Islam as passed down from the Prophet Muhammad and members of his bloodline.

Now within Shi'a Islam there are five key beliefs known as the five roots of Usul ad-Din, the five roots of the religion.

And Muslims in Sunni Islam may also have some of these as part of their key beliefs, but may not call them Usul ad-Din, but they'll have very similar beliefs.

For example, tawhid, the oneness of God, justice of God, adalat, prophethood, nubuwwah, the imamate, and the day of resurrection Mi'ad.

So some of these will be ones that Sunni Muslims also believe.

So let's try and unpack these a little bit more then, the five roots of Usul ad-Din in Shi'a Islam.

The oneness of God, tawhid, there is only one God and that one God is complete and unique.

There is nothing comparable to that God, that God is not divided.

There is that one God, tawhid, the oneness of God.

The justice of God, something we can know about God's nature is that God is just and God is fair and whatever is happening will be fair and just in the end under God's guidance.

Prophethood, nubuwwah.

So prophets are sent as God's messengers.

So how do we know about this one God and that just God has sent us messengers so we can know and we can know how to follow that God and to please that God.

Also the day of resurrection, Mi'ad.

So the idea that there is life after death, bodies will be resurrected and people will be judged and there is a hereafter.

Finally, the imamate, which is a belief in the authority of the Imams as the chosen successor to the Prophet Muhammad and the Imams that have followed them.

Let's do a quick check.

Which three of the following are part of the five roots of Usul ad-Din? Holy Books, the imamate, prophethood, and the justice of God, adalat.

Which three of those are part of the five roots of Usul ad-Din? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

It was the imamate, prophethood, and the justice of God.

Holy books are important but it's not one of those five key beliefs in Usul ad-Din.

Well done.

So there are different sources of authority for these five roots of Usul ad-Din then and these sources are the Holy Qur'an as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, collections of Hadith, which are stories and narrations relating to the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and the 99 names of Allah is another source that we can look to to understand different beliefs about God and Islam.

So let's look at the Qur'an as a source of authority to see how it can help us understand the significance of the five roots of Usul ad-Din then.

We've got here in Surah 4, "O you who believe! Believe in God and his messenger." And in Surah 2, "We make no distinction between any of his messengers." So which of the five roots of Usul ad-Din could these quotes support then? Pause the video and have another read through and see which of the five roots of Usul ad-Din could be supported by these quotes.

Well done.

We've got here believe in God.

So this could be a belief in tawhid.

And then also his messenger which could link to that belief in prophethood.

Again, we make no distinction between any of his messengers.

So the idea that messengers and prophethood is very important, one of the five roots of Usul ad-Din.

Well done.

So another source of authority we can go to to understand the importance of these five roots of Usul ad-Din is the Hadith, which is stories and narrations about the life of the Prophet Muhammad and what he said and did.

And one of these narrations, it's reported the Prophet Muhammad said to the Muslim community, towards the end of his life, "I leave behind you two weighty things: the one being the Book of Allah, the second being the members of my household." So the Book of Allah would be the Qur'an, which was revealed to him as the prophet.

And then secondly, the members of my household, which refers to Fatima, his daughter, and Ali, his son-in-law, and then the members of his household going forward.

So which of the five roots of faith could this possibly support then? Pause the video and have a reread and have a think and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done, so we've got here the idea of the oneness of God, tawhid, could be known through the book, the Qur'an which can tell Muslims about this.

And then also the idea of the imamate could be supported by this, that the Prophet Muhammad is leaving behind not only the book but also the members of the household as guides, successors after him.

Well done.

And finally, I said that the 99 names of Allah is another source we can look to to understand the nature of God.

And there's 99 names because Muslims believe God is so great and unique, that God cannot be summed up in one name.

The whole of God's nature cannot be known in just one word or one name.

So the 99 names can help Muslim understand all these different parts of God's nature and how and who God is as greater than we can imagine.

And the tradition states that there's 99 names always of understanding the nature of Allah.

And one of the 99 names of Allah is Al-Adl, the Just.

Can you remember which of the five roots of faith that could support? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a minute.

Well, this could link to adalat, the justice of God.

So Izzy and Alex now are discussing how these sources of authority we've looked at can support a belief in the five roots of Usul ad-Din.

Izzy says, "The Qur'an supports a belief in the oneness of God, tawhid, and prophethood as it was revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad.

And when it says 'Believe in God and his messenger,' it supports both beliefs." And Alex says, "The Hadith can be used to support a belief in the imamate as it's reported the Prophet Muhammad said he was leaving behind the Qur'an and household members as guidance for after he died.

Ali was in the prophet's household and was his cousin." And what I really like about what Izzy and Alex have done here is they've said the source where it came from.

So well done, Izzy and Alex.

Let's do another check.

Which of the 99 names of Allah could support the belief in adalat, the justice of God? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, Al-Adl.

So time for a practise task to see what we've learned then.

Describe the five roots of Usul ad-Din in Shi'a Islam.

You're gonna write one paragraph as part of an answer to this question.

So, the suggested structure we've got is point, develop and source.

So you're just doing one part of this answer, one paragraph and the suggested sentence stems we've got are the fives roots of Usul ad-Din in Shi'a Islam are, this means, and it's supported by.

And when you bring in your source, you're gonna name the source and state what it says and then link it to the belief and you could say which shows to make that link.

So pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, some great thinking.

So I asked you to do one paragraph as part of the response to this question to describe the five roots of Usul ad-Din and Shi'a Islam.

And your answer may look something like this.

The five roots of Usul ad-Din are foundational beliefs in Shi'a Islam.

One of the beliefs of the five roots of Usul ad-Din is a belief in God's justice or adalat.

This means that Allah is fair and just no matter what is happening in the world.

This belief in the justice of God is one of the five roots of Usul ad-Din is supported by the 99 names of Allah, as one of Allah's 99 names is Al-Adl, the Just.

And here I've stated the source that I've used which is the 99 names of Allah, Al-Adl.

So onto our second section then, the importance and influence of the five roots.

Well here we've got the five roots of faith and we can think about why they're important for Shi'a Muslims in this way.

So the oneness of God and tawhid could be important because it might influence a Muslim to only worship Allah and only want to worship Allah and think about Allah as greater than any other being or any other thing.

The justice of God or adalat might be important to a Muslim because then they could trust in Allah when things seem unfair, to know that whatever is happening, Allah will be just and fair.

A belief in prophethood, nubuwwah, is very important for Shi'a Muslims because then they can learn from the stories of the prophets and they can follow their example and read the holy books that were revealed to them.

A belief in the day of resurrection or Mi'ad could be important to Shi'a Muslims because this is why Shi'a Muslims want to do the right actions in that hope of reaching paradise, in that hope of having those good deeds for the day of resurrection and that there is something in the hereafter.

And a belief in the imamate is going to be important because then Shi'a Muslims can follow the guidance of the Imams because they know they were the infallible Imams who were guiding the faith after the Prophet Muhammad passed away.

So believe in the fives roots of Usul ad-Din is going to be important for a Shi'a Muslim and we can see this in the way that it influences their actions and what they might do in their life.

So perhaps you can see from these three images below some of the actions that somebody might take because of these five roots of faith.

Can you think of which of the five roots of faith might be influencing this Muslim to take those actions? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well here I've got that praying might be a way of seeing the importance of a belief in tawhid, worshipping only one God and praying to that one God.

Or the idea of prophethood and wanting to pray in the way that the prophets have prayed beforehand.

So here I've got praying to one God as Muhammad did.

Here we could have a belief in adalat and resurrection because somebody is serving in helping others who may be facing a difficult time.

So wanting to show that justice of God to others.

And also maybe wanting to build up those good deeds in order to have a favourable decision when it comes to judgement day.

So helping those facing injustice and hard times.

And then finally here, could a belief in the imamate influence a Shi'a Muslim because of its importance to want to take a pilgrimage to shrines related to the Imams, as well as to sites such as Mecca for Hajj pilgrimage.

So I've got here going on a pilgrimage to the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad's shrine.

So this is a site where there is a pilgrimage remembering the actions of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Husayn, who was martyred and he was also one of the Imams. So let's do a quick check.

Which of the five roots of Usul ad-Din could influence a Shi'a Muslim to take a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson? So which of these in particular might influence a Shi'a Muslim to do that? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

So, it's C, the imamate.

Yes, I think all three could contribute to it, but that really would be a significant belief, the idea that he was Imam Husayn and visiting the shrine of where he was martyred.

Well done.

So now Alex is gonna ask Fatemeh how the five roots of Usul ad-Din influenced her.

If you remember she spoke at the start of our lesson about what she believes as a Muslim.

And Fatemeh says, "A belief in the five roots of Usul ad-Din influences me because my belief in adalat means that when things are tough and don't seem fair in life, I trust that God will be just.

This links to my belief in the day of resurrection.

God will fairly judge everyone which encourages me to stay strong in my religion.

So how many of the five roots of faith can you see there then? Pause the video and have a think.

Really she's got two there, hasn't she? Adalat and the day of resurrection.

Now Izzy's gonna ask the same to Hassan who we met earlier.

"How did the five roots of Usul ad-Din influence you, Hassan?" And Hassan says, "My belief in the imamate influences me because I know they were chosen as guides to help me understand my religion more, so I follow their guidance.

I've taken a pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Husayn in remembrance for the role he played in shaping my religion.

He was one of the chosen Imams." So we've seen that there are different reasons why the five roots of Usul ad-Din are important to Shi'a Muslims. So let's together give one reason why the five roots of Usul ad-Din are important to Shi'a Muslims. Hmm.

They might feel comforted by their belief in adalat and the resurrection.

So over to you then.

Give another reason why the five roots of Usul ad-Din are important to Shi'a Muslims. Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

I've put here a belief in adalat may influence them to help other people who are facing injustice.

Well done.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned then.

You're going to explain why the five roots of Usul ad-Din are important to Shi'a Muslims but you're only going to write one paragraph as part of an answer to this question.

So you could choose one aspect of the roots of Usul ad-Din to speak about why it's important to Shi'a Muslims. And a suggested structure is a point, develop, source, and then importance 'cause remember this question is asking about the importance.

So your point could start with the five roots of Usul ad-Din are important to Shi'a Muslims because.

You could develop it with that really handy phrase this means.

Then you're going to bring your source in, it's supported by.

Make sure you state the source and state what it says and then link it to the belief with the phrase which shows.

And then explain the importance of it, the importance of this belief is.

So pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, some great thinking there.

So I asked you to do one paragraph as part of a response to this question.

Explain why the five roots of Usul ad-Din are important to Shi'a Muslims and your response might be similar to this.

The five roots of Usul ad-Din are important to Shi'a Muslims because they may influence their actions.

For example, the belief in prophethood could encourage Muslims to copy the actions of the prophets of Islam.

This means that by praying in the way Prophet Muhammad did, for example, Shi'a Muslims are hoping to please God.

This is supported by the Qur'an quote, "O you who believe! Believe in God and His messenger," which shows that a belief in the prophets as messengers of Allah is important.

The importance of this belief can be seen when Shi'a Muslims copy the actions of prophets such as when they pray.

Well done.

So onto our third section then, the imamate and Shi'a Islam.

So the term imamate comes from Arabic and we've got a word at the start, imam, which you might have heard before, and the word imam means leader, guide, or authority in Islam.

So the term imam, when it's not capitalised, is also used in the Sunni branch of Islam.

So today we're talking about the Shi'a branch of Islam, the different beliefs that are important in Shi'a Islam.

But this word is also used in the Sunni branch and it refers to the leader of congregational prayers, local Muslim communities.

So you might have heard about an imam at a local mosque, for example.

So that's within the Sunni branch of Islam.

Within the Shi'a branch of Islam it has a slightly different but connected meaning.

Within Shi'a Islam, the Imam is a guide for the whole Muslim community as chosen by Allah and then announced by the Prophet Muhammad or the Imam before them.

And the first Imam, when it's capitalised and Shi'a Islam, was Ali, the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin.

So he was very close to the Prophet Muhammad and part of the Prophet Muhammad's household as we've said earlier from Hadith that we looked at.

And it's believed in Shi'a Islam that Allah chose Ali and Prophet Muhammad announced that he would be his successor at Ghadir Khumm, which is a little oasis between Mecca and Medina when the Prophet Muhammad is travelling with the companions and Ali too.

They stopped at the oasis and he said this.

"Whomever I am your mawla, Ali is your mawla." And this is in the Hadith, the stories and narrations about the Prophet Muhammad.

So he says, "Whomever I'm your mawla, Ali is your mawla." So how could this passage support the belief that Ali was the first Imam then? I wonder if you can think of what the term mawla might mean or how it might be interpreted here by Shi'a Muslims. And if the Prophet Muhammad is the mawla to these people, then what would it mean for Ali to be the mawla? Have a think about this.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, if the Prophet Muhammad was that leader of that Muslim community, then is he saying with this Hadith that Ali will be the leader of that Muslim community then? So for Shi'a Muslims, this is a clear indication that the Prophet Muhammad was announcing Allah's will that Ali should be the next leader of Islam, not another prophet, but the guide and the leader for when the Prophet Muhammad passes on.

So Muhammad was the leader of the Muslim community and he's stating that Ali will have this role too.

And this Hadith is accepted by Sunni Muslims too and Ali does become a leader in Sunni Islam as well, but it has the sort of special meaning for Shi'a Muslims about him being chosen by Allah to be the next leader of the Muslim community and announced by the Prophet Muhammad at Ghadir Khumm.

An important belief of other Imams in Shi'a Islam is their belief to be infallible, which means protected from error and sin.

Now this means that their guidance and their understandings of Islam, it hasn't been changed, hasn't been distorted, and it's going to be the correct interpretation of how to live out as a Muslim, how to live out the teachings of the Qur'an and follow the example of the Prophet Muhammad.

So what's a source of authority that can support this then? Well, there's this passage in the Qur'an, in Surah 33.

"God desires to remove all impurity from you, O people of the Household, and to purify you thoroughly." So how could this support a belief that the Imams are infallible within Shi'a Islam then? "O people of the Household." If you remember the people of the household include Fatima, Ali, Hasan and Husayn.

So the household or the Prophet Muhammad.

How could this passage support that those people and the Imams are infallible? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well, here we have a reminder that the Imams were born from the prophet's bloodline.

So, we've got Ali as the first Imam and we've already spoken about Husayn who was the Prophet Muhammad's grandson who's also part of the prophet's household.

So the idea is that the Imams are infallible and have been purified because to purify means to have no sin or error, it means to be infallible.

Let's do a quick check.

In which source of authority does it say that the people of the Prophet's household would be purified from sin? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

That was in the Qur'an, Surah 33, wasn't it? So all the Imams in Shi'a Islam have come from the Prophet Muhammad's bloodline.

So they have all been born from that bloodline, the Prophet Muhammad's daughter was Fatima, and then she was married to Ali who was the Prophet Muhammad's cousin.

And then Ali and Fatima's childrens become the next Imams and then so on and so forth.

Now, not all Shi'a Muslims agree on the exact number of these Imam.

So there are twelver Shi'a Muslims who believe there've been 12 Imams and then there are other groups of Shi'a Muslims who believe there've been different numbers of Imam.

And two of these Imams that have influenced Shi'a Muslim beliefs and practises are Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Prophet Muhammad, and he was the first Imam, and Husayn who was the youngest son of Ali and Fatima who was the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and he was the third Imam.

So, beliefs and practises related to Ali can be connected to the fact that he was appointed, announced by the Prophet Muhammad that Allah had chosen him to be the successor and that this was announced at Ghadir Khumm.

And so, within Shi'a Islam, many Shi'a Muslims celebrate Eid al-Ghadeer, which is a reminder of that announcing that the Prophet Muhammad did of Allah's will that Ali would be the successor.

So, Shi'a Muslims may celebrate Eid al-Ghadeer along with other Eids.

And Husayn, the youngest son of Ali, who was the third Imam.

We saw that Hassan took a pilgrimage to the site where he was martyred and that's remembered by an annual commemoration as well of Ashura, a sort of remembrance of what he did when he was martyred.

So Zainab, Rasool, and Fatemeh are going to explain to us what a belief in the imamate means to them.

All three of them are Shi'a Muslims. Zainab says, "They're a sign of Allah's justice that the community was not left without guidance and support." If you remember, adalat, the justice of God, is one of the five roots of faith.

And so, the idea is that the Imams are a sign of that justice that people aren't left without guidance and knowing how to live out this faith.

Rasool says, "They were given authority from Allah to help us understand Islam more and to follow it." So it's not about a new revelation or a new version of Islam, it's to fully understand the Islam that has been given by Allah to all of the prophets, including the Prophet Muhammad and as written about in the Qur'an.

And Fatemeh says, "They're worthy of my respect, along with the Prophets of Allah, as they lead me to Allah in my life." So Fatemeh wants to pay respect perhaps by doing pilgrimages, perhaps by taking part in the Ashura commemorations.

Let's do a quick check.

All Shi'a Muslims believe there've been 12 Imams. Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

That is false, isn't it? Because yes, twelver Shi'a Muslims believe there've been 12 Imams, but there are other branches of Shi'a Islam such as sevener Shi'a Muslims, who believe there've been other numbers of them.

Well done.

So let's do another practise task to see what we've learned then.

Izzy has started to answer the question, explain Shi'a Muslim beliefs about the imamate, but has not included any sources of authority in her response.

Look at Izzy's points below and add a source of authority to support each point.

And Izzy says, "Ali was the first Imam." She's developed this with, "Allah chose Ali to be the successor to the Prophet Muhammad, and Prophet Muhammad announced this before his death." And then her second point is the Imams are infallible.

She's developed this with, "Allah has protected the Imams from sin and error, and they're all born from the Prophet Muhammad's bloodline." So which sources of authority could Izzy use to support these points? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

So, we were answering a question, explain Shi'a Muslim beliefs about the imamate and we had Izzy's points here, she's made two points.

And I asked you to add to her development of the points with a source of authority.

And you could have said for point one, Ali was the first Imam.

Developed by Allah chose Ali to be the successor to the Prophet Muhammad and Muhammad announced this before his death.

The source of authority you could have used is at Ghadir Khumm, the Prophet Muhammad said, "Whomever I am your mawla, Ali is your mawla." And the second point is that Imams are infallible, could be developed by Allah has protected the Imams from sin and error, and they're all born from the Prophet's bloodline.

And the source of authority you could have used is in the Qur'an, it says, "God desires to remove all impurity from you, O people of the Household, and to purify you thoroughly." Well done.

So let's summarise what we've learned today then.

Foundations of faith: Shi'a Islam.

The term Shi'a Islam refers to a branch of Islam.

Shi'a Muslims have the five roots of Usul ad-Din as their foundational beliefs.

These beliefs are tawhid, prophethood, adalat, the imamate, and Mi'ad, the day of Resurrection.

Sources of authority which support these beliefs include the Qur'an, collections of Hadith, and the 99 names of Allah.

And these beliefs are important to and will influence the life of a Shi'a Muslim in a variety of ways.

So well done for your hard work today and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye-bye.