Lesson video

Hi, my name is Miss Speakman, we're in lesson 12 of 14, of Islamic beliefs and teachings unit.

And today's lesson, we're going to be revising some of the key material.

So I said, we're going to recap the key content explored in the unit.

This will not cover everything in the unit.

We will cover Tawhid, angels and the imamate.

And let me explain why in a moment.

Let's make sure that we are ready for our lesson please.

We need a pen or a pencil, a piece of paper, or an exercise book, and a different colour pen for corrections.

You're also going to need to make sure, please, you've got a clear working space.

So TV music off, phone to one side, if you're not using it for the lesson, with notifications off.

So you're not distracted, and perhaps would be a nice clear desk.

So nice and quiet space to work.

'Cause when we can concentrate, we learn so much better.

If you need to get any of those things by pausing the video, please do so now, get yourself sorted.

Unpause when you are ready to revise.

Okay, so sometimes, think when we look at revision lessons, there's often sort of an expectation that you revise everything in one lesson.

But I think that's actually the wrong approach to take.

So why can't we revise everything in one lesson? You might say, "Surely that's going to be the most helpful thing "for me to revise everything." Well this is because also include cognitive load.

Now each of us have our own short term, and long term memory.

A long term memory is said to be infinite, it can hold an infinite amount of things, or short term memory is limited.

The more information we take on, which we aren't familiar with, the more we become, what we call cognitively overloaded.

We find it really difficult to learn, when there's so much stuff at once.

So breaking it down into small bits, doing something called retrieval practise, going over things, repetition.

And essentially going over things quite a few times, that helps things go into your long term memory.

But if we try to do too much at once, you actually would find, you won't actually remember a huge amount of it.

So focusing on three main topics, allows us to get those three topics really, really nice and clear before moving on and doing something else.

So my best recommendation is with this lesson, once you got Tawhid, angels, imamate really clear in your head, then you can go away and do your own revision, or revision with your own teacher, for those other topics within the Islamic beliefs and teachings unit.

And also the other topics will be covered in other lessons in some way.

So that will be lesson 13 and 14, exam question, practise lesson, and also what I call, deliberate practise lesson, which will help you to get the key material into your head.

So there will be some other ways in which you can revise.

You can rewatch some of the other videos in this series, of the Islamic beliefs and teachings unit.

But as I said, being able to focus only on a couple of things is much better than focusing on the whole lot, because essentially, otherwise we'd be doing a 13, 12 or 13 lessons worth of revision, which is just too much for your brain to handle at once.

Even I would struggle to revise all of that at once.

You have to it down into small parts.

So what we're going to do is I'm going to start off with asking you some quick fire questions, just to see where we are so far, what we can remember.

Then we're going to move on to looking at the six articles and the five routes.

Then I'm going to cover Tawhid.

The main points from that, the belief in angels, and the belief in the imamate, Shia Islam.

Quickfire questions work this way.

I asked you a question, there are two possible answers.

I give you a three second countdown.

Then I expect you to choose the correct answer by pointing at the screen, or saying it out loud.

Then I give you your answer, you check whether you've got it correct.

If you get it correct, you go, "Yes." If you've got it wrong, you say, "That's a shame, but I know now.

"And I will won't make that mistake again, hopefully." So are you ready for those? I think you are.

Sunni Muslims have the five roots of faith, true or false? Three, two, one.

False they do not have five roots of faith.

Sunni Muslims have the six articles of faith, true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

It is Shia Muslims have the five roots of faith, Sunni Muslims, the six articles of faith.

What we're going to do now is revise, and go over the six articles and the five routes.

You'll see there that I've got a list of the six articles of faith.

And one is missing.

What I'd like you to do, is spend about two minutes, just to pause the video now, and to write down which of the six articles of faith is missing.

So I've got Tawhid, angels, prophets, holy books, day of judgement , which one is missing? Pause the video now, and write down your answer.

Okay, you should have written down that the missing one is predestination.

Well done, if you got that.

Well done, if you know the sixth article of faith is predestination.

The idea that Allah has decided, written down everything that will happen before the universe was created.

But of course that Shia Muslims still, Sunni Muslims, sorry, still believe in the idea of free will as they are able to make those choices freely within space and time.

Next, I've got the five roots of faith, Tawhid, prophets, divine justice, and day of resurrection.

I want you spend two minutes, and to write down which one is missing, please, of the Shia Muslims, five roots of faith.

Pause the video now, write it down.

Okay, hopefully you have written down, imamate.

Well done if you did.

This is the belief within Shia Muslims, that those are the imams who were the successors after Mohammed's death.

Who are political and spiritual leaders, but are not prophets.

Next one, which two are missing from six articles of faith? We've got Tawhid, prophets, holy books, day of judgement.

Two are missing.

Pause the video, two minutes, write this down, please.

Okay, we should hopefully have angels and predestination.

Those are the two that are missing.

Well done if you got those.

And the next one, which is the last set of questions I'm going to ask you for six articles and five routes.

Which of the five roots of faith is missing.

Tawhid, prophets, day of resurrection, which one is missing two minutes on this.

Pause the video now, write down your answer.

Okay, hopefully we have written down, divine justice and the imamate.

Well done, if you got that divine justice is the idea that Allah is completely fair, will always make the right decisions, and the idea of complete free will.

Imamate, of course the 12th successes after the death of Muhammad.

well done.

If you got all of those.

Now that we've revised the six articles, and the five routes, we're now going to move on to looking at Tawhid.

I think this is the most important belief that we should learn about in Islam.

'cause underpins all the rest, and therefore is important for us to revise now in this revision lesson.

So it makes sense to start with Tawhid as part of our revision.

Because tower heed is the most important belief within Islam and it underpins everything that a Muslim does, and everything else that Muslim beliefs, all comes back to this idea of Tawhid.

Now first of all, can you remember what Tawhid means? Give you a minute just to think about that.

Hopefully you said oneness of God, or you're thinking it in your head, well done.

So Tawhid, the idea of the oneness of Allah.

And as we've discussed before in previous lessons, the idea of Tawhid is much more complex than just saying that Muslims believe that Allah is one.

There are things which are contained within the idea of saying they believe in Tawhid, the idea of oneness.

Just like if I was to say, I have triangle shaped kite, you know some things already, just from that sentence.

You know that my kite must have three sides.

You know that the angles inside the client must add up to 180 degrees, just by me saying triangle shaped kite.

You know those things about my kite.

Same idea of Tawhid, just by saying, Allah is one, you can say multiple things are implied then within this idea of Tawhid.

We're going to revise that now.

So we start off with saying the idea of God is one.

We link this with the idea of Allah being first.

There are three ideas contained within Tawhid, sort of which the umbrella ideas, first, whole and greatest.

We'll start off with first.

So Muslims believe that Allah is eternal.

No beginning, no end, has always existed, always will.

Therefore is the first, the first thing ever to exist, and has no beginning, no end.

So no one was there before Allah to create him.

He was not created.

So as eternal, there was no beginning to him, no creator.

But Allah is the creator of all things, universe, everything within it.

In order to create, Allah needs to be transcendent.

Transcendent means outside of space and time.

You can't create something if you're already in it.

So you have to be outside of the universe in order to create the universe.

And we all creatures, humans who are imminent, we are within the world.

And therefore we cannot have an experience that is transcendent, outside of space and time.

So Muslims would say, we cannot have a direct experience of Allah.

in the same way that we do things within this world.

So for example, my phone, my pen, my notebook, the chair I'm sitting on, all things within this world that I can describe and tell you about, because they're right in front of me, because I can touch them, because I can see them because they're within the world, and so am I.

Muslims who would believe that since Allah is transcendent, they cannot have a direct experience of him.

Therefore he's indefinable.

You can never fully describe what he is like.

So that's the first idea contained within Tawhid, eternal.

So first, he's therefore the creator of all things.

To be the creator, you must be transcendent.

If he's transcendent, we cannot fully describe him, and he's indefinable.

So next part Tawhid, is the idea of Allah being whole? The idea of him being whole, comes from this idea again of Allah being eternal.

No beginning, no end.

If he was never created, he must be one whole part, because if things were made of parts that have to be put together by someone or something.

So the desk I'm using to film today, it came in parts, and I had to put it together.

So I had to get all the screws, get the hammer, put it together, but it needed me to be there first.

Otherwise it wouldn't be in this state is today.

Muslims believe that Allah is not made of parts.

He's completely whole, he's eternal, no beginning, no end, nothing created him.

So he has no parts to put together.

If he's one complete whole with no parts, he must be indivisible.

Can't break him down into any parts.

So for example, my desk, if I really wanted to, it would be silly.

But if I really wanted to, I could take the top off.

I could take the sides off.

I could take the drawer out.

I can remove those parts.

It might take a little bit of time, but I can still remove those parts.

And therefore that desk would be divisible, and Muslim say, "Well, Allah has got no parts.

"Therefore he's indivisible." Then this must mean that he is omnipotent, all powerful.

Because things with parts would always have weak spots.

So for example, here on my desk, where it joins together, the bit that holds up, and the top of it, there's a joint there.

And when I knock that with my chair, some of it's worn away a little bit.

It's not as strong as it used to be.

If I tried really hard, I could smash this desk up.

It might take a little bit of time, but I could do it.

And therefore it's got weak parts.

There were weaknesses to it.

Though if Allah is one hole, no parts.

There's no weakness.

There's no joins, there's no bits which will be slightly weaker than the others.

So therefore again, second idea within Tawhid, God is whole, eternal being, made of no parts, so he must be indivisible.

When he's indivisible, there's no parts to break down.

So he must be completely omnipotent.

has all the power.

That idea contained within Tawhid is that God is greatest.

This idea, there's nothing else comparable to him, no other God, no son of God, nothing that is even comparable what so ever to Allah, and therefore he is unique.

Nothing else like him at all.

No equivalent, no one even close.

And therefore his will must be supreme.

What we mean by this is, if he's the greatest, it's not nothing else like him, what Allah wants, he must be able to get.

What he wants must be followed.

He's worthy of worship.

There's nothing else worthy of worship, nothing else comparable.

So why would you even want to compare him, or even to worship anything else? So Muslims said that God is greatest, and therefore any action which essentially puts something level to Allah, or suggest something is just as important, or just as worthy of worship, would be considered what we call shirk within Islam, equating something else to God.

So for example, worshipping idols, saying that God had a son would all be going against the idea that Allah is greatest, and is considered shirk.

So Muslims would say Allah is greatest, nothing else like him.

He must therefore be unique.

And therefore his will is supreme, what Allah wants, he must be able to get.

If he's the greatest, he can never be frustrated.

So hopefully Tawhid is making a lot more sense to you.

Perhaps, maybe at first you found it a little bit tricky, perhaps, maybe still you find a little bit tricky.

There's a lot of ideas contained within that.

What we're going to do is to do some questions, to help us practise this even further.

Even if you feel set, like fairly confident with the material we've just looked at.

Away of checking the understanding is by doing questions, writing things in our own words.

If you could not turn around and explain this, what I've just explained to you in the same way I have, or perhaps maybe you could do it even better, I don't know.

But if you can't explain it to somebody, pass it in your household, perhaps at your school, to your teacher, without confidence, and you think, "I'm not quite sure on that." Then you don't know well enough yourself, the best way of checking our knowledge, is going on and writing it in our own words, and tell it to somebody else.

So what we're going to do, is we're going to do some questions to test our knowledge, to revise that content, okay? What I'd like you to do, is to pause the video on the next slide to complete this task.

It will be all to do on Tawhid, to test all knowledge.

So you have got five questions here.

What does Tawhid mean? What are the three types of oneness contained within Tawhid? What does it mean if Allah is indefinable? What does it mean if Allah is indivisible? And what does it mean if Allah is unique? You're to pause the video, please, and write answers in full sentences to these five questions, and unpause when you are ready.

If you can see this slide, I'm going to assume that you are ready for corrections.

If you already for corrections, please have a different coloured pen out ready for your corrections.

If you're not, then you can rewind the video, carry on with your questions, and then return to us when you're ready to go through the answers.

So answers, what does Tawhid mean? What it means is the oneness of God.

The three types of oneness contained within Tawhid are first, whole and greatest.

When we say that Allah is indefinable within Islam, it means he cannot be defined.

He's beyond human understanding.

When Muslims say Allah is indivisible, it means he cannot be broken down into parts.

He is one whole.

And what does it mean if Allah is unique? Well, there's nothing else like him.

There's nothing to compare him to.

If you need to make any corrections, can you please do so now.

It's really important to make corrections if we need to, especially with revision, 'cause it really highlights to us which bits we do know, and which bits we need to go back to.

So please pause and make corrections.

So let's wait until my video pops up again, it's taking a while.

There we go.

So we're now going to move on.

Now we've looked at Tawhid, we're now going to move on to the second article of faith within Sunni Islam.

Remember Tawhid is the first article of faith for Sunni Muslims, and also the first of the five roots of faith within Shia Islam.

We're going to move on to look at angels now.

So while Sunni and Shia Muslims both believe in angels, it's the second article of faith for a Sunni Muslim, but both Sunni and Shia Muslims will refer to angels, and believe that they play a very important roles in creation.

So I'm going to test your knowledge on the names of the angels within Islam.

And I'm going to say, let's even test yourself.

Let's go a bit further.

If you can remember the names of some angels, can you also remember the roles, the jobs they have too.

So I'd like you to pause the video, and spend about three minutes on this.

I'd like you to write down as many names of the angels in Islam, as you can remember, and even stretch yourself, can you name their role? So pause the video now please, write those down.

Let's see how we get on.

Okay, written down as many as you can.

Well done if you have.

If you're still a little unsure, and you've maybe you've put a name, and think, "Is that spelled correctly? "Is that the right role?" Don't worry, we're going to go through it, so don't panic.

So these are the names of the angels that we have looked at within our lesson on angels.

Jibril, Raqib and Atid, Azrael, Israfil, Maalik, Mika'il.

I wonder if you could remember the roles too.

Jibril reveals the Qur'an to Muhammad, gives revelations to prophets.

Raqib and Atid, writes the good and the bad deeds, Raqib on the right, Atid on the left.

Recording the good and the bad deed, which then used for judgement date, when the date of judgement , when Allah decides whether you go to Jannah or Jahannam.

Of course alongside, writing down the good and bad deeds, intentions go with that too.

So why you did something.

Azreal, the angel of death, takes the lost soul, or takes the last breath, sorry, or the soul of every human at moment of death.

Israfil is responsible for blowing the trumpet once, to signal the end of the world, and twice to signal the day of judgement.

And therefore many Muslims refer to Izrafil as the overseer of the day of judgement.

Maalik is the angel that patrols hell, guards those people from those living in hell, or who are residing in hell.

And Mika'il is the angel that is responsible for the forces of nature, for nourishment, for seasons, for weather.

Hopefully you've got some of the names, at least at those angels.

It's very common for people to get confused between which angel does which role.

So that's absolutely fine if that is what happened with you, but well done if you can remember at least some of the names of the angels.

And of course more practise will have to be done if you're still a little bit unsure on what the roles are, but that's part of revision, is going over things, making mistakes and going, "Okay, I've made a mistake.

"I'll go back over that again." Revision is a really good way of highlighting what we've got to still to do.

It's not the expectation that in revision you're supposed to get everything correct straight away.

It highlights from those things from a whole unit of work, which still need a little bit of time.

So let's do some more work on angels.

And we're going to do that by doing some multiple choice questions.

I'm going to test you on whether you can remember names, roles, and interchangeable, can remember if I give you a role, which angel it is.

If I give you angel, which role it is.

Or perhaps maybe if I give you a role, what's the name? Okay, so multiple choice questions, let's go.

Who revealed the Qu'ran to Muhammad? Is it Malik or Jibril? Three, two, one.

Good, it is Jibril.

Who writes down bad deeds.

Is it Raqib or Atid? Three, two, one.

Good, it is Atid.

Who takes the soul from bodies at death? Is it Azreal, or Israfil? Three, two, one.

Good, it is Azrael.

Who is responsible for the forces of nature? Is it Mika'il or Maalik? Three, two, one.

Good, it is Mika'il.

Who blows the trumpet to signal the day of judgement ? Is it Azreal, or Israfil? Three, two, one.

Good is is Israfil.

Who guards Jahannam, or hell? Is it Maalik, or Mika'il? Three, two, one.

Good, it is Maalik.

Well done if you got all of those.

As I said, it's still common to get these things confused, get around the wrong way.

If that's the case, absolutely fine.

We're now going to move on, and do even more, to try and test our knowledge, to get our knowledge really built up about angels, and their roles.

So I'm going to ask you to do, is to pause the video on the next task please.

And I'm then going to give you the instructions for the task, and then hopefully we will be able to get started, and get them all correct.

So I've got six questions for you.

These are sentences which have not been completed.

I want you to complete the sentence by writing out the sentence, and then finish it off to check your understanding of the angels and their jobs.

You've got the angel Jibril's job.

The angels who write down the good and bad deeds.

the angel Azrael's job.

The angel Israfil's job.

The garden of Jahannam is? And the angel Mika'il's job.

So I want you to write out the sentence, and complete them with the correct answers please.

Give it your best shot.

If you need to go back and watch the video again, then feel free to rewind, and do so.

And then unpause, when you are ready to go through corrections.

Okay, if you can see the slide, I'm assuming that you are ready for corrections.

If so, please have your different coloured pen out.

If not, then rewind, and then carry on with your questions, and come back to us when you are ready.

So answers, the angel Jibril's job is to give revelations to prophets.

If you'd written to also reveal the Qur'an to Muhammad, you're absolutely correct.

The angels who write down the good and bad deeds of humans are Raqib and Atid.

The angel Azreal's job is to take souls from their bodies at death.

If you need to make any corrections to these first three, can you please do so now, by pausing the video, and writing them down in different colour pen.

Second set of answers.

The angel Israfil's job is to blow a trumpet to signal the day of judgement.

The garden of Johannam, hell, is Maalik.

And the angel Mika'il's job, is to be responsible for the forces of nature.

Again, if you need to make any corrections, can you please do so now by pausing the video, and then unpause when you are ready to move on.

Where we will be revising the idea of the imamate within Shia Islam.

Okay, so the next bit we're going to revise, is the idea of the imamate within Shia Islam, which is one of the five routes of faith.

I want us, first of all, just to consider this question, which is on the slide.

I want you to spend about three minutes on this please.

What is the difference between an Imam and a prophet? So what is the main thing which distinguishes an Imam from a prophet? I'd like you to pause the video now for me please, write something down, and unpause when you're ready to move on.

Okay, brilliant, if you've got an answer written down, hopefully you've written down, the difference between Imam and a prophet, is that a prophet receives new revelation, and an Imam does not.

They only help to interpret the revelation, which has been given to the prophet Muhammad within the Qur'an.

Well done if you got that.

So to very briefly go over what the imamate is, before we do some multiple choice questioning.

One of the five routes of faith, the inmate is the belief in the 12 successes after the death of death of Muhammad, starting with Imam Ali.

Ali being being the cousin and son in law of Muhammad.

Shia Muslims believe that the Imam should be within Muhammed's family.

And therefore it should beat within his bloodline.

They believe that they are divinely designated by Allah.

So Allah inspires the current imam to a point to the next imam, And that they are political and spiritual leaders, can give perfect guidance on religious matters, can give advice on how to follow the Qur'an properly.

It's a perfect role model of submission, but does not receive new revelation.

They only help people to understand the revelation after the death of Muhammad.

What we're going to do then is, do some multiple choice, quick fire questions again.

So just to really make sure we are clear what the imamate is, then I'm going to ask you to do a task, which is related to the idea of the imamate.

So are you ready? Historically speaking Muhammad was clear on who should lead after his death.

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

Good, it's false.

Many Muslims would say from, depending on which domination you're talking about, that Muhammad was clear.

So for example, Sunni Muslims say, "Well, Abu Bakr was his closest companion.

"And so they voted him in." Shia Muslims believe that it was clear that it was Ali, but historically speaking, we have a lots of different ideas that show us, perhaps, maybe Mohammad wasn't entirely clear on who should lead after his death.

Shia Muslims believe the caliph should have been? It's Ali, or Abu Bakr.

Three, two, one.

Good, it is Ali.

Sunni Muslims believes the caliph should have been? Ali or Abu Bakr? Three, two, one.

Good, Abu Bakr.

Ali never became caliph.

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

False, he does become caliph, he is the fourth in line.

And Shia Muslims believe he was the first imam.

The caliphs were not always Sunnis, is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, true.

If we know that Imam Ali was it the fourth caliph, then of course he is a Shia.

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

Good, that is true.

Well done, if you remembered that.

Shia Muslims believe Imams moms are sent by Allah, is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, they believe they are sent by Allah, but it's divinely inspired, for the current Imam to then appoint the next one.

But inspired of course by Allah.

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

False of course, Imams do not receive new revelations, and therefore not prophets.

Well done, if you've got all of those correct.

We're now going to do a task together, which is to do with making sure we're really clear on the roles of the Imams. So I've got a table here, of nine things, and I need you to tell me which of the following are true, according to Shia Muslims. What I'd like you to do, is to pause the video, and to write down which of these nine, are true statements according to a Shia Muslim.

I want you to make sure you're writing down both the number and the words, please.

You've got this nice and clearly on your piece of paper.

So pause the video now, write down the letter, the number, sorry, and the words of which ones are true, according to Shia Muslims, and unpause when you're ready for corrections.

Okay, so the correct answers are, three, four, six, eight, and nine.

So the true ones are that, Imams don't receive new revelation.

That Imams are perfect role models.

That imams are free from sin, according to Shia Muslims. That Allah appoints the Imams, and the Imams can give legal advice, Sharia law.

So well done if you've got all of those.

Can you please make corrections if you didn't, by writing out which ones you got incorrect, by pausing now, then unpausing when you're ready to move on.

So to say a huge thank you for taking part in the lesson today.

As I said, when we do revision, it's actually not helpful to try and revise everything at once.

Which is why I chose Tawhid, angels and imamate to talk about, and to revise with you today.

It will, of course be needed for any type of exam, whether it's to do with your GCSE, or whether it's a smaller assessment task, that you do revise everything.

And so that could be done in very similar ways to what we did today, by going over material, doing quick fire questions, doing questions that like test your understanding.

It could be doing practise exam questions, which is our next lesson, the lesson after this.

So lesson 13 of 14.

And it could be of course, making your own revision notes, and using materials that you've studied in school.

And it might even be returning to some of the other videos that I have done, which might be useful for you to redo, as part of your revision.

I hope you found this really useful, and I hope it's given you some ideas of the ways in which you can revise.

But of course, it's really important to ask your teacher too, as to what other ways they believe are good for revision too? Because they might have some things they would like you to do as well to help you revise.

So again, I'll say a huge thank you for taking part, for working so hard.

And I hope this has been really helpful for you in starting to get you to revise Islamic beliefs and teachings unit.

So hopefully I will see you again soon for another lesson.

Thank you, goodbye.