Lesson video

Hi, I'm Miss Speakman.

We were on lesson eight of 14 of the Islamic beliefs and teachings unit.

And today we'll be looking at the lesson on the Imamate, which is a particular belief within Shi'a Islam.

And we're going to particularly be focusing on the viewpoints of what we might call the Twelver branch of Shi'a Islam, those who believe in the 12 Imams who succeeded Muhammad after his death.

So on the agenda for today is we're going to look at the emergence of the Imamate.

So where it came from, how it came about.

We're going to also learn about the attributes of the Imams. By this we mean, what do Shi'a Muslims believe the Imams are like? And we're also going to consider the difference between prophets and Imams, because there is a big difference between what a prophet and an Imam does.

There are also quite a lot of similarities, but we really need to draw out why prophets and Imams are not the same.

Let's make sure we're ready for our lesson first of all though, please.

We're going to need a pen or a pencil, a piece of paper or an exercise book, and a different coloured pen.

We also need to make sure that our desk space is clear and our working area is nice and quiet.

So TV and music off, phone to one side if you're not using it for the lesson and also making sure that we've got a nice, clear, quiet space.

If you need to get yourself set up at any point or to do anything at all, to make sure that you're ready, please pause the video now, then unpause when you are ready to start learning.

Okay, brilliant.

So ready to move on? Good.

Two key definitions to start off with then.

So Shi'a means group of Ali.

Shi'a Muslims believe Muhammad appointed his successor, Ali.

So within Shi'a Islam, they believe that Muhammad made it very clear who he wanted to lead the community after his death.

And they believe it was Ali.

Then we're going to also be looking at what an Imam is today with a capital I.

If we have the small I, then we'll be referring to someone who leads prayers in a Sunni mosque.

We're looking at Imams with a capital I, which means someone sent by Allah to be a spiritual and political leader after Muhammad, who are not prophets.

We'll make that even more clear, the more that we go through this, but Imams are not the same as prophets.

There are certain things that Imams do not do that prophets do.

What I'd like you to do please, is to copy down these two definitions on your piece of paper.

So pause the video now, please.

And then unpause when you are ready to move on, once you've got those definitions written down.

Okay, brilliant.

Ready to move on.

So a bit of a recap.

Where do these two denominations come from? Why do two denominations form? There are within Islam more than just two denominations, but these are the two main denominations, with 85% ish being Sunni of those who are Muslim.

Now, historically speaking, we could say that Mohammed wasn't entirely clear on who should lead the community after his death.

I have there for you two quotations from the Sunnah, so the words and sayings of the prophet Muhammad, which perhaps may be from a historical perspective, looks like it isn't very clear on who he said should be leading.

So first of all, we have, "If you should not find me, go to Abu Bakr." Which sounds as though Muhammed is implying, "if I can't be found and you want to ask a question "about the religion, the faith, how I should be submitting, "what should I be doing? "Then go and ask Abu Bakr, and Abu Bakr "should be able to tell you." And therefore Sunni Muslims at the time voted in Abu Bakr as the first caliph, believing that he should have been the successor.

However Shi'a Muslims will see, "Will you not be pleased that you will be like to me, "will you be to me like Aaron to Moses? "But there will be no prophet after me." A Shi'a Muslim would say he was in, Muhammad was entirely clear here, that Ali should be the caliph after Mohammed's death.

Aaron and Moses are brothers in Qur'anic and biblical texts.

And also he's clearly saying there's not going to be any prophet after me, but I want you to lead.

So a Shi'a Muslim believes that Ali should have been appointed.

And Ali does become the fourth caliph in the lineage of caliphs in terms of leading the community.

But that's why two denominations start to form because there is disagreement on whether or not Muhammad was clear and also who he was clear on that should be successor.

So what we're going to do is do some what I call quick fire questions.

Quick fire questions are a really, really good way of just testing our knowledge, making sure we're okay so far before we move on to something else.

It's also absolutely fine if you don't get them all correct.

It's just a really good way of automating the knowledge that's in your head.

And you can also really easily identify them, which questions you do know, which ones you don't and perhaps maybe what material you'd go back to in the future.

So what I'm going to do is give you a question.

It will have two options.

I would like you to choose the option that you believe is the answer.

When I count down from three, you give me an answer by either pointing to the screen or saying it out loud.

Then I'll give you the answer.

We'll move on to the next one.

Ready? I think so, let's go.

Historically speaking, Muhammad was clear on who should lead after his death.

Is it true or false? Three, two, one.

False, historically speaking, we could say that Muhammad wasn't clear.

Shi'a Muslims believe the caliph should have been either Ali or Abu Bakr.

Three, two, one.

Good, it should be Ali.

Sunni Muslims believe the caliph should have been Ali or Abu Bakr.

Three, two, one.

Good, Abu Bakr, Sunni Muslims. Ali never became caliph.

Is it true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, it's false.

He becomes the fourth caliph.

The caliphs were not always Sunni.

Is it true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, it's true.

If Ali was the fourth caliph and he was Shi'a, this of course makes it true.

Shi'a means group of Ali, true or false? Three, two, one.

Brilliant, yes, it does mean group of Ali.

Shi'a Muslims believe Imams are sent by Allah.

Is it true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, yeah, it's true.

Shi'a Muslims believe that Imams are sent by Allah as part of the succession.

And we'll talk about this bit more in detail in a moment.

Don't worry if you didn't know this one.

I think this was quite a tricky question.

Imams are also prophets, is it true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, it is false.

What I think is really important is that we reiterate this a lot over and over when we go through this lesson today.

Imams are not prophets, and there's a key thing that distinguishes them, because of this.

So what we're going to do now is start to have a look at the belief in Imams, their attributes.

Well done if you got all of those correct.

If you didn't, that's absolutely fine.

As I said, it's just a really good way of picking up what we do know and what we don't know, to identify to help us later on.

So let's now move on to looking at the belief in Imams in a little bit more depth.

So what we're going to do is have a look at the key things that make Shi'a Muslims different from Sunni Muslims in reference to Imams. Now, the belief in Imams is part of the five routes of Shi'a Muslims' faith.

Remember, we've looked before in previous lessons at the six articles of Sunni faith, the five roots of Shi'a faith.

Belief in Imams is part of the belief set of Shi'a Muslims within the five roots.

So what essentially this means is that Shi'a Muslims believe that in addition to prophets, Allah has sent guides.

These guides are Imams, they're spiritual guides on religious matters, who are filled with the light and power of Allah so they don't make mistakes.

So their interpretation of the Qur'an and the teachings and the advice they give to the community is without mistake.

Shi'a Muslims will not recognise the caliphs in the Sunni tradition.

They don't believe that they are rightful leaders, the rightful caliphs or Imams, and so won't recognise them.

However, of course, they will recognise that Ali was the first Imam.

So the idea is that this Imam is there to be a spiritual and political guide after the death of Muhammad, which in some way, if we think about it in terms of what the community may have needed after Mohammed's death is they probably still would have needed guidance on how to follow the Qur'an properly, how to show submission.

And so Shi'a Muslims believe that the Imams take up this role in helping the community learn what it means to submit to Allah after Muhammad's death.

I've got a question for you though, because I think this is a really important question to ask to draw out, perhaps maybe if you've got any misconceptions with anything we don't quite understand about Imams so far.

So I want you to spend about three minutes on this question.

Does the idea of the Imamate go against the belief that Muhammad is the final prophet? I want you to explain your answer.

Don't just give me a yes or a no, give me an explain too please, because that actually really helps your understanding.

If you say yes or no, that's a 50/50 chance, isn't it? But if you explain, then of course, then you are adding to your understanding.

So what I'd like you to do is to pause the video now for me, answer that question, unpause when you're ready to discuss the answer.

Okay, have you got an answer? So hopefully you should have answered, no, it does not go against the belief that Muhammad is the final prophet.

The belief in Imamate is not saying that the Shi'a Muslims disagree with Muhammad being the final prophet.

Why is that? Let's hopefully have the answer written down, but if you didn't, that's fine.

Well, of course we know that Imams are not prophets and therefore it doesn't go against the idea of Muhammad being the final prophet, because there are certain things that Imams don't do that prophets do.

And that is all to do with revelation.

Imams do not receive a new revelation and therefore are not receiving a message in the same way that a prophet does, that they're expected to communicate with the community.

Whereas of course, Muhammad received the revelation of the Qur'an, which he preached to other people.

The Imams are there to interpret and help people understand what's written in the Qur'an.

Well done if you got that.

If you didn't, that's absolutely fine, but I hope now you understand that key difference between an Imam and a prophet.

So let's have a think about what the attributes of an Imam are.

So what sort of qualities do Shi'a Muslims believe an Imam has? Firstly, Shi'a Muslims believe that they are divinely inspired designated.

What this means is that Shi'a Muslims believe that Allah chooses the next Imam and inspires the current Imam to name them the successor.

So essentially what it might look like from an outsider's point of view might be that the Imam appoints the next one, but Shi'a Muslims would believe that Allah has divinely inspired that Imam to announce that Imam as the next successor.

Shi'a Muslims believe that Imams are free of sin and this is done by the power of Allah so that they don't make mistakes when they are interpreting the Qur'an and its teachings.

This also means that Shi'a Muslims can trust that any guidance they were given from an Imam would be the correct guidance.

They're said to also be role models to the community.

So they show in their lives, what perfect submission looks like.

And they would also have perfect knowledge of the faith.

So essentially anyone can trust that they know what they are talking about when they give advice on the Qur'an, its teachings, its interpretation.

So it's a really, so for essentially for Shi'a Muslims, they are a perfect guide that is left after Muhammad's death, who doesn't receive any new revelation, who doesn't, isn't expected to give out new messages, but essentially to be there, to clarify the message of the Qur'an, to be a role model, to continue helping lead the community fairly.

So what we're going to do now, is I'm just going to sort of recap that with you, but I'm getting you first, to see how much you can remember of what I've just said.

So I want you to spend about four minutes on this question where I ask you, what do Shi'a Muslims believe about the attributes of the Imams? There are four main ideas.

Can you jot down bullet points? What are the four things, key things that Shi'a Muslims believe about the attributes of the Imams? So I'm going to get you to pause now, spend about four minutes on this and see how you do.

It's okay if you can't get them all, but let's see how you do.

Pause now, have a go.

Okay, have you written something? If you've found that really tricky, that's fine.

What I think is a really good way is if we're doing things like this, we are training our brain to try and recall things, and then when we try, then correct, it's actually a really good way of embedding that in our heads.

So you should have got firstly that they are divinely inspiredly designated.

I feel like that doesn't quite work as a sentence.

They are designated by divine inspiration.

So what this means is Allah inspires the current Imam to appoint the successor.

Secondly, that they are free of sin.

They don't make mistakes.

Role models to the community.

So they always live in a perfect way to show submission and four, they have perfect knowledge of the faith.

So they understand the writings in the Qur'an and understand its interpretation.

Well done if you got all four of those.

If you didn't, that's absolutely fine.

Or if you wrote something that said something similar, but wasn't my exact wording, that's also fine because it's actually really good if you can put something into your own words, it means you explained it, you understand it really well.

Being able to explain something to somebody means you yourself are confident with that knowledge.

If you're still working on it though, that's absolutely fine.

So I would understand if you got maybe one or two or found that really tricky, but hopefully you'll be able to practise a little bit more throughout the lesson.

So we've looked at attributes.

We've looked at generally what are Imams. We're now going to move onto their roles.

So their main jobs, what they physically do.

So the roles of the Imams, these are a couple of things.

There are many more things as well that Shi'a Muslims believe an Imam does as part of their role.

Firstly, it's giving legal advice, which in Islam is called Shari'ah.

And we'll talk about this in later lessons as well.

Shari'ah law is the idea of Islamic law, so they can give legal advice to people.

They can give perfect advice on the meaning of the Qur'an and the accepted hadiths.

So they can give perfect advice on religious matters, spiritual matters too.

They can lead prayers.

So they would be responsible for leading prayers to the community and would also receive and distribute khums, which are taxes.

So they're also in charge of collecting up that money, distributing it out fairly.

So this is just a number of roles that a Shi'a Muslim would have, a Shi'a Muslim would believe that Imams have, sorry.

But of course there would be lots of other things that a Shi'a Muslim believes an Imam does as part of their role.

So next up, we're going to do some multiple choice questions again, just to see how much we can remember.

Again, I want you to say out loud or point to your screen.

A really good way of embedding key information.

So shall we get started? Good.

Imams are also prophets.

True or false? Three, two, one.

False, of course Imams are not prophets, 'cause they do not receive revelation.

Imams receive new revelations.

True or false? Three, two, one.

False, good, I think I sort of gave that one away, didn't I? But hopefully it just continues to reiterate the message.

Imams give perfect guidance on religious matters, true or false? Three, two, one.

True, yes, Shi'a Muslims of course believe that Imams have God's power on earth, God's light to be able to give perfect guidance on religious matters because they are without sin.

And lastly, Imams only give advice.

True or false? Three, two, one.

False, as well as giving advice, they would also have very important practical roles like leading prayers, collecting and distributing khums, taxes.

So well done if you got all of those correct.

What we're now going to do is continue with this sort of understanding of what Imams do in their roles.

Just to again, think about the important things an Imam will do and won't do.

So I've got a table here of nine things, and I want you to tell me which of the following are true, according to Shi'a Muslims. I'll read them out for you.

Imams are prophets.

Imams receive new revelations.

Imams don't receive new revelation.

Imams are perfect role models.

Imams can sin.

Imams are free from sin.

The previous Imam chooses the next.

Allah appoints the Imams. And Imams can give legal advice, Shari'ah.

I want you to pause the video please, and to write down the numbers of the boxes which are true according to Shi'a Muslims, please.

And then unpause when you are ready.

Okay, I'm going to go through the answers now.

Well done if you've written something down.

If you haven't written it down yet, pause again, write them down and then unpause, 'cause I'm about to go through the answers.

So you should have written down that three, four, six, eight, and nine are the statements which are true.

The other ones are incorrect.

They are not what Shi'a Muslims believe.

Well done if you got all of those.

I'd be really, really impressed if you have.

If there are a couple that you didn't get, then can you please make sure you've written that down by writing corrections? So pause if you need to make corrections.

Okay, ready to move on.

So just wait for my camera to appear.

Takes a while.

There we go.

So I think it would be a really good idea now to have a look about what the Qur'an says about Imams, because Shi'a Muslims will believe that this is supported by scripture, the belief in Imams. There are two that I've chosen to have a look at, to show you what Shi'a Muslims would believe.

The first one says, "Oh, you who have believed, "obey Allah, obey the messenger, "and those in authority among you." Let's break that down a bit.

That's saying those who believe, so Muslims, obey Allah, God, obey the messenger, Muhammad, obey those in authority among you, a Shi'a Muslim would interpret those as having authority being Imams. So they'd say this is clearly saying you obey Allah, you obey the prophet, you also obey the Imams who are in authority.

Second one says, "And we made them leaders guiding by our command.

"And we inspired to them the doing of good deeds, "establishment of prayer and giving of zakah.

"And they were worshipers of us." To break that down a little bit more, okay, so it talks about some people being inspired to do good deeds, to show people how to pray, the giving of charity, zakah, and worshipping God.

And it says, "We made them leaders." And so Muslims would say, this is referring to the Imams, the them, so made them leaders, this is referring to the Imams within Islam, in Shi'a Islam.

So in both of these verses you'd find a Shi'a Muslim saying, this is clearly referencing the Imams as political and spiritual leaders.

Though of course a Sunni Muslim may not quite agree with that and say it's not referring to the Imams. Now the last thing we're going to have a look at before we start looking at sort of bringing all of this together is I said that we were looking specifically a branch within Shi'a Islam called the Twelvers.

The Twelvers are a group who believe within Shi'a Islam, that there are 12 Imams and that the last one, Muhammad Al-Mahdi is in occultation, which essentially means he's alive.

But he has been hidden by Allah.

Now, Muslims, Shi'a Muslims believe that this essentially means he did live at one point, but was hidden and will return before the day of judgement to help and establish an age of peace and aid with the day of judgement.

So this essentially means for Shi'a Muslims, they do not believe there'll be any further Imams until Muhammad Al-Mahdi returns.

He's the current Imam, but is not able to communicate with people at this present moment.

Instead, Shi'a Muslims will have a number of people in high authority to give legal and spiritual advice on these matters.

But essentially there is the current idea of the 12th Imam for the Twelver group of Shi'a Islam believe that he's in occultation, which means alive, but hidden and will return before the day of judgement.

So as I said, we want to bring this all together and do some sort of, some questions that bring this, essentially, this learning that we've done so far to light, hopefully perhaps it might highlight for you some bits that you find tricky, but it also is a really good way of recapping what we've done in the lesson.

So what we're going to do is do an exam style question, and I'll talk through the essentially what I need from you to do, and I'll also give you a little bit of help on what, how to structure it and give you a little bit of context about how we answer these questions, what it will look like for different exam boards.

But before we do that, I would quite like just to, just to test what you, whether you were listening to me before I then said, "Oh no, we're going to do an exam question." You thought, "Oh no, an exam question." So what makes the 12th Imam different to the previous 11 Imams? I want you to pause the video and spend about four minutes on this.

You might not need that long, but I want you to explain to me what's different from the 12th Imam to the previous 11.

So pause the video now, please.

Okay, hopefully you've got an answer.

Hopefully you've told me that the 12th Imam is alive, but hidden and will return before the day of judgement , which it makes him different from the previous 11 who did die and then a successor happened, and was appointed.

So the 12th Imam is alive, but hidden in occultation.

Well done if you got that.

Let's now move on to having a look at the exam question, which I know you've really been looking forward to.

But as I said, it's a really, really good way to practise what we've done so far.

And I think even more important when the Imamate is often something that people find tricky within Islam.

So up there we've got a question, explain two beliefs that the Imamate refer to scripture or sacred writing in your answer.

Now explain questions will be slightly different for each exam board, so it's really important that if you're doing this without your teacher, that you ask your teacher which exam board you are sitting so that you know whether it is a really good fit for what you are doing within your own schools.

This question that I've got up there best fits with the AQA and the Edexcel specification, but it will also look very similar in other exam boards.

However, in other exam boards, they might be worth different marks and you may be required to write a longer answer for example.

So you might be expected for Eduqas and WJEC to write longer explain answers.

And the question style might look a little bit different for OCR.

So it's always best idea to check with your teacher to see whether it fits.

If it doesn't quite fit with your exam board, then still writing an answer to this will be really good practise for testing yourself on the knowledge and recapping the knowledge.

So there's always merit in doing a task like this.

You're going to need to make sure that you include a couple of really key things.

So briefly naming a belief Shi'a Muslims have about Imams and inclusion of a scripture verse.

So perhaps maybe one of those ones I mentioned earlier.

And an explanation of how this verse shows that belief or a full explanation of the belief.

And again, I will help you with a little bit of structure for that.

So I will really think it would be a good idea if I gave you some sentence starters.

So you need to be starting off with, you're going to need to have two paragraphs.

First paragraph starts off with one belief about Imams in Shi'a Islam is.

The second would be another belief about Imams is.

I think sometimes just giving those words can help you get started.

It's really difficult sometimes when you've got like a blank sheet of paper in front of you and you think I've got to do an exam question, how do I start? Start nice and simple.

One belief about Imams in Shi'a Islam is, and that actually gets you started.

So what I'm going to need you to do now is to pause the video on the next slide, which is where I'm going to give you a full sort of explanation of what you need to be doing, how do you need to be writing your answer so that we can then write a really good exam question answer.

So you need to explain two beliefs about the Imamate referring to scripture or sacred writing in your answer.

For one of your paragraphs, I want you to include a reference to scripture, which I've put there on the slide.

"O you who have believed, obey Allah "and obey the messenger and those in authority among you." Then explain further about what this shows about Imams. And then for the paragraph with the verse, you need to fully explain the belief about Imams. Remember, you're going to need to have two paragraphs for this question.

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

Get started on your answer, unpause when you're ready to go through corrections to check how amazing your answer is, which I'm sure it will be great.

Give it your best shot.

Pause now, please.

Okay, if you can see this screen, I'm going to go through corrections in a moment.

So please have your different coloured pen out ready for corrections.

If, of course you're not ready, you can rewind the video a little bit, go back to the question and then come back to me when you're ready to move on to the answers.

Okay, so here is my model answer.

One belief about Imams in Shi'a Islam is that Imams are perfect role models of submission to Allah.

The Qur'an says, "Oh, you have believed, "obey Allah and obey the messenger, "and those in authority among you." This shows that Shi'a Muslims must obey the advice given by an Imam as they are of authority.

Another belief about Imams is that Imams are free from sin or error.

This means that the advice of an Imam, advice that an Imam gives can always be trusted as the correct one, as they do not make mistakes.

And that would get, if this is an AQA answer, five out of five.

And so if you've got something along those lines, if you've got the inclusion of the scripture verse, you've given two beliefs and you've explained them, then I think too, that that would be worth five marks.

If you think, for example, I'm not quite sure that what I've written is correct.

'Cause obviously I can't be there to check it for you, I'm afraid.

But if you want to get it checked, then feel free to show it to someone at your school, whether it's a teacher or perhaps maybe someone you know, who would be able to mark it for you, to have a look for you.

And I'm sure they'll be able to give you advice on how great your answer is.

But I know that it will be great, okay? So well done if you got an answer like that written.

It could have been that you included some of the other beliefs about Imams too and that's absolutely fine.

It's really, really good though, for you to have at least had a go at answering exam style questions.

So really impressed.

If you need to make any sort of corrections, or you want to add something to your answer, then can you please pause the video now and then make those corrections and then unpause when you are ready.

Okay, let me just pop up again.

Takes ages.

There we go.

Okay, so I just want to say a huge thank you for working so hard today.

The Imamate within Shi'a Islam, specifically looking at the Twelvers is often something that I find that my students struggle with at my own school.

I'm not quite sure why that is.

I think it's just because it is fairly tricky in some ways to talk about the roles of an Imam and why it's different from a prophet and also to get our head around the idea of Muhammad Al-Mahdi and the idea that he's alive, but hidden.

So I really want to say, well done.

I think you've worked super, super hard today.

I'm so impressed that you've had a go at one of those exam questions.

It's always really good practise regardless of whether it fits exactly with our own exam boards or not, you have used it as a way to revise content, which is always helpful because it helps to get it stuck in here in your brain.

I really hope that I get to see you again for another lesson soon.

Of course, we're going to be moving on forwards into the Islamic beliefs and teachings unit.

So thank you again for working so hard and I hope to see you again soon.

Goodbye.