Lesson video

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

Today, we are going to learn all about the fifth pillar of Islam, which is Hajj.

Now, before I get going, I need you to go and get four things.

They are a pen, a different colour pen, a piece of paper and most importantly, your theology brains.

So, if you need to go and collect any of those things, please, pause the video now and go and get them.

So, we are going to become fine theologians and know, all there is to know, about the ritual of Hajj over the next two lessons.

So, to start off with, in this lesson, we're going to understand what a ritual is.

Then we're going to define Hajj, then we're going to look at the story of Ibrahim and make sure we're able to explain that story, in a good amount of detail.

We need to be able to memorise that story of Ibrahim, in order to prepare, to relate that to the rituals of Hajj, which we'll look at together, in the next lesson.

So, what is a ritual? A ritual, is a set of actions or words, which have a deeper religious meaning.

For example, Wudu, Christian baptism.

We've looked at Wudu together, already.

Wudu remember, is that physical cleaning, that are Muslim undertakes before prayer and it's true to say, look, it's an action, it's a physical cleaning.

But, it's also true to say, that the action has a deeper religious meaning.

It isn't just about physically cleaning.

It's about spiritually cleaning.

It's about getting spiritually prepared, to pray to Allah and Christian baptism.

There's use of water there too, isn't there? That's about cleaning off original sin and being welcomed into the church.

So, there's two examples there, just to help us understand, what we mean by ritual.

Yes, it's an action, but really important to note, that those actions have a deeper, more significant religious meaning.

So, what's Hajj? Hajj, is a pilgrimage to Mecca.

A Pilgrimage, is a sacred spiritual journey.

Hajj, is a once in a lifetime duty for all Muslims, who are healthy and wealthy enough to go.

Whilst on Hajj, Muslims travel to different places to perform different rituals, that relates to the prophets Mohammad and Ibrahim and Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam.

So, we're going to do some quick fire questions, help you memorise what we mean by ritual and that introductory definition we've just had to Hajj.

So, all you need to do, is point at your screen, or say it to yourself in your head, true or false.

So let's get going.

A ritual is a set of actions or words, with a deeper religious meaning, true or false? Well done.

It is true! Next question.

Rituals are only about words or actions, nothing else, true or false? It's false.

Well done! Next question.

There are no rituals in Islam, true or false? It's false.

I told you about Wudu and also Hajj, which we're looking at today is a ritual.

Hajj is a ritual.

True or false? Excellent, well done! It's true! Next question.

A Muslim can take part in Hajj, anywhere in the world.

False! Next question.

Hajj has nothing to do with Islamic Prophets.

True or false? Well done, that is false.

Next question.

Hajj only focuses on the story of Ibrahim, only focuses on the story of Ibrahim.

True or false? Good job, it is false! Next question.

Hajj only focuses on the prophet Mohammad, true or false? It's false, well done! Next question.

Hajj is a yearly requirement for Muslims. True or false? Well done, that is false.

Next question.

Hajj only focuses on the prophet Mohammad.

False! So, which of these then, is the best definition of ritual? A set of actions, are the deeper religious meaning.

A set of words, for the deeper religious meaning.

A set of actions and words are the deep religious meaning, or, following the example of the prophets.

Point to screens, make your mind up! Well done, actions and words are the deeper religious meaning.

Next one, which of these is the best definition of Hajj? A holiday to Mecca, a pilgrimage to Mecca, a pillar of Islam, or visiting the Holy city? A pilgrimage to Mecca.

Next question.

In fact, these aren't questions, what you need to do here, is read the definition and see if you can remember what the missing word is.

So number one.

A ritual is a set of something, or actions, with a deep religious meaning.

What's the missing word? It's "words"! So, literally the set of words, or actions, have a deep religious meaning.

What's the missing word here? Take a moment.

"Pilgrimage", well done! What's the missing word here? "Sacred".

What's the missing word here? Number pillar is Hajj.

It is the "fifth" pillar, well done! What's the missing word here? What's the name of that other prophet? "Mohammad", excellent! What's the missing word here? How frequently do Muslims need to perform Hajj? Once in a lifetime, well done! Right, same definition, same creator, but this time with more words missing.

Let's see if we can do this one.

Have a look at that.

Explanation of ritual.

What words are missing? "Words" and "actions".

So, ritual is a set of words, or actions, with a deeper religious meaning.

Next one.

What words are missing here? Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca.

What words missing here? A pilgrimage is a "spiritual" or "sacred" journey.

Well done! What words are missing here? Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam.

Well done! What words are missing here? Which prophets, are Muslims following in the footsteps of on Hajj? Say it to yourself.

On Hajj, Muslims perform rituals, that follow in the footsteps of "Mohammad" and "Ibrahim".

And finally, let's just do the frequency again.

So how often, is Hajj a requirement? Hajj is a "once" in a lifetime "duty", for those healthy and wealthy enough.

Right, last set, this time with even more words missing.

Let's see if you can do this one.

Say it to yourself.

A "ritual" is a set of "actions" or "words", with a deeper "religious" meaning.

Well done.

Next one.

Hajj is a "pilgrimage" to "Mecca"? Next one.

Hajj is a pilgrimage, oh, sorry, let me say that again.

A pilgrimage, is a "spiritual" or "sacred" journey.

Next one.

Hajj, is the "fifth" pillar of "Islam".

Next one.

On Hajj, Muslims perform "rituals" that follow in the footsteps of "Mohammad" and "Ibrahim".

Well done! Final one.

Hajj is a "once" in a lifetime "duty", for those "healthy" and "wealthy" enough.

Well done.

Right? So, now we've done that, we should be in a really good position, to be able to give an excellent definition, of the word Hajj.

Now to make your definition excellent, I need you to use those words in pink, that you can see there.

Ritual, Hajj, pilgrimage, Mecca, sacred, spiritual, prophets, Ibrahim, Mohammad, once, pillar.

And to get started, if you need, you can use those sentences.

"Hajj is a ritual of Islam." "A ritual is.

." "The Hajj is a pilgrimage.

." and then develop it from there.

So, please pause the video now.

Have a go at that task, unpause it and join me for feedback in just a moment.

Excellent, well done.

So, hopefully your answer looks a little bit like this.

You stated that "Hajj is the ritual of Islam".

"A ritual is a set of words, or actions, with a deeper religious meaning." "The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca." "A pilgrimage is a sacred or spiritual journey." "On Hajj, Muslims perform rituals that follow in the footsteps of the prophets, Ibrahim and Mohammad.", and, "Hajj is a once in a lifetime duty for Muslims that are healthy and wealthy enough." "Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam." So, this'll be a really good opportunity, to check your work against this and if you need to, make any corrections, amendments, or additions, to make sure that a theology work you're doing now, is as good as it can be, so that you can be, a fine, wise and noble theologian.

So pause the video now and make any corrections or amendments that you need to.

So, our next job.

We're going to look at the story of Ibrahim and the reason, that we're going to look at the story of Ibrahim together, is, because of one of the things we've been saying quite a lot throughout the lesson already.

Hajj reflect the stories of both the prophets, Ibrahim and Muhammad.

So, in order to actually understand, the rituals of Hajj, i.

e.

the significance of the actions Muslims perform on Hajj, we have to know, the story of Ibrahim, and you have to know it really well, and we have to be able to recall it.

So, our first point of call at this point now, is to go through the story of Ibrahim.

So, let's have a look.

The story you may be familiar with already.

Ibrahim, could not have a child with his wife, Sarah.

So, Sarah suggested, he have a child with their servant, Hagar, and Hagar gave birth to their son, Ishmael.

And, when Ishmael was still a baby, Allah decided to test Ibrahim.

Allah asked Ibrahim to take Hagar and Ishmael to a barren piece of land, the desert.

Ibrahim left them miles away from a home, with only one skin of water and a bag of dates.

A skin of water is a really tiny amount.

Now, when their supplies ran out, Hagar understandably became desperate and ran between two hills, seven times, looking for water, however, she couldn't find any, but suddenly, she saw an angel.

The angel, Jibril, standing next to Ishmael, and the angel dug into the ground and water came gushing out.

The angel told them that this, was the place where the house of God would be.

The well became an attraction and travellers soon began to form there and a large city grew there, a large city called Mecca.

Now, after this, Allah commanded Ibrahim to sacrifice Ishmael.

Ibrahim was willing to do anything to show his loyalty to Allah.

In the end though, Allah stopped Ibrahim, before he sacrificed Ishmael and instead provided an animal to sacrifice instead, because Ibrahim had passed his test, he had shown his faith, his submission, and his trust in Allah.

But, throughout this ordeal, Ibrahim had to confront the devil.

The devil was trying to tempt Ibrahim, to tempt Ibrahim, not to follow Allah's instructions, but Ibrahim refused.

He pelted the devil with stones to show his refusal, because he knew the most important thing of all, the most important thing of all, is always to follow Allah's rules, to submit, perfectly to Allah.

So, that is the story of Ibrahim.

And remember, that's a story, or one of the stories, I should say.

That's one of the stories, which are reflected in the rituals of Hajj.

So, really crucially important, that you know the story of Ibrahim, and you're able to recall the story of Ibrahim, which I know, you'll be able to do, because you're fine theologians.

So, I'd like you please, to pause the video in just a moment and read through the statements, you can see on your screens and think really carefully.

Are they true or false? Now, if they are true, I'd like you to write "True" and then copy out the statement.

If they are false, wright "False" and then write a corrected version of the statement.

So please pause the video now.

Have a go at that and then join me for some feedback in a moment.

Good work! So, what we're going to do now, is just a little bit of feedback and after we've gone through the feedback, again, a really good opportunity for you to check, amend, correct your work, to make sure that your theology, is as amazing as it can be.

So, the first thing was true.

So, you just needs to write that down.

"Ibrahim had his first son, Ishmael, with his servant, Hagar." The second statement, was also true.

So, that just needed writing down as well.

"Allah tested Ibrahim's faith by sending Hagar and Ishmael into the desert." The third one was false.

So, you needed to correct it and hopefully you corrected it, like this.

"Ibrahim left Hagar and Ishmael, with a tiny amount of water and a few dates." The fourth one, false as well.

So, it needed correcting and hopefully you corrected something like this.

"Hagar was worried when the water run out, she dashed between two hills, seven times." The next one is true.

So, you just needed to write out.

"An angel help Hagar to find water." Next one was false, so it did need correcting.

And hopefully you did so like this, "Allah tested Ibrahim by asking him to sacrifice his son, Ishmael.

Ibrahim was willing to do this.

Allah stopped him, just before he was going to do it." And the last one was also false.

"The devil tried to tempt Ibrahim, not to obey Allah's commands.

Ibrahim rejected the devil by throwing stones at him." So, if you need to correct, amend or check your work, please pause the video now, use a different colour pen, go through, and make those corrections for me.

We've got another task here then now, and this task is to really embed it.

Make sure we can recall it.

Now, as we went through the story, each of these pictures came up at the appropriate time of the story and we've also just consolidated it, by doing those true or false questions.

So, these pictures now, are hopefully triggering you to remember the different parts of the story of Ibrahim.

Now, to make sure we are able to recall it and explain it accurately from memory, I'd like you please to use the picture clues, to summarise the story of Ibrahim in 10 short bullet points.

Pause the video, have a go at it.

Then unpause the video, once you've finished it.

Good work.

Let's see, how you got on.

So, to start off with, hopefully you noted down that Ibrahim and Sarah struggled to have a child, but Ibrahim had a child Ishmael, with Hagar and Allah tested Ibrahim.

He had to take Hagar and Ishmael to the desert.

When they ran out of water, Hagar ran between two mountains seven times.

An angel appeared and dug into the ground and water came gushing out.

The angel told them that this would be the place for the first house of God.

Allah tested Ibrahim again, asking him to sacrifice Ishmael.

Ibrahim was willing to do that.

The devil tempted Ibrahim to disobey God.

Ibrahim rejected the devil, by throwing stones and Allah saw Ibrahim was willing to follow his commands, so provided an animal to be sacrificed instead.

Again, please do pause the video.

Check your work really carefully, against this work here on the board, on your screens and make any corrections or amendments that you need to, to again make sure that your theology work is as good as it possibly can be.

Unpause the video, once you've had an opportunity to do that for me.

So, you've done some really good work there today.

Looking at a ritual, looking at Hajj and looking at the story behind Hajj.

You've learned a lot and to prove to yourself that you've learned a lot, go and take that quiz to check what you've learned.

If you wish to share your work with Oak National Academy, please ask your parent or carer to share it on Instagram and Facebook or Twitter, using the information you can see on the slides there.

Thank you very much for joining me today and for joining us to learn all about Ibrahim, Hajj and rituals.

I look forward to seeing you very shortly, where we can pick this lesson up and learn even more about Hajj together.

Goodbye.