Lesson video

Hello, and welcome back students up and down the country.

Once again, my name is Mr.Latif.

And today's learning is going to continue on with our unit on Islam and beliefs.

And today's learning is very interesting, especially if you're someone who enjoys history, one of the other greats, humanity subjects up and down, many faculties in schools in this country.

So today's learning is going to be looking at the Sunni and the Shi'a's split, which is very important parts of theological and also political understanding of the history of Islam.

So today's learning were consider three main key things.

What did Islam look like, after the death of Prophet Muhammad.

How these two denominations formed, and also to look at a key differences between, that of what a Caliph is, and that's of what an Imam is in the Shi'a tradition.

So just to reminder of those five things you need to know, you should know them by heart now.

You need your book or some paper.

A black or blue pen.

You need a different colour pen, but hopefully once again you won't have to make any corrections because you're all fantastic students.

You need your attentive ears and your curious brain.

So once you've got those five things ready let's get into our learning for today.

So welcome to our learning today.

And today, we're going to consider the following, to understand what Islam looked like, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

To understand how the two denominations formed, both the Sunni and the Shi'a school of thought.

And also to look at a key differences between that of a Caliph and that of the Imams. So hopefully you've already written the title from the first screen that you saw, which is on the Sunni and the Shi'a split.

And I'm hoping that you have these five things, which are very important for learning for today.

So let's get into it straight away.

So first we need to understand, the death of the Prophet Muhammad and its impact.

So we have to remind ourselves, and go back into a bit of history.

Yeah, and we can link this to our learning from last week as well.

Now remember that Prophet Muhammad restored the belief of tawheed, within the Arab Peninsula at the time.

So one of the key things that occurred, was a changing of society.

Society went from a place of injustices to a place of justice.

There's no longer this idea that females are being killed, 'cause of the fact that, of their gender.

There's no idea of when they believe of the lack of rights for the orphans, or the lack of rights for the women, and the freeing of the slaves as well.

And also, there's a rejection of this idea of tribalism.

So we've got this collective community of believers and they're all equal before the Lord.

So in Islam, there's this idea that regardless of your race, the amount of wealth that you have.

Your age, your sex, they're all equal before God.

So this was some of the key things that are Prophet Mohammad's revelation.

Or should I say the revelation of Allah, through the Prophet Muhammad, revealed to society at the time.

Now, one of the key things which we know already, is the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

This was a very significant, and a very sad day for the Muslim community.

Yeah, and the new community that we mentioned, the Arabic term is that of the Umar.

Now remember, Muslims believe he was the final prophet of mankind.

So this is big big situation.

Who is going to lead the Muslim?.

There's no more prophets off the Prophet Muhammad.

Who is going to be the righteous leader? So this was a big question when the Prophet Mohammad died.

Who should be the successor of the prophet? And it's not necessarily true, to say that there's another prophet.

It's more so who is that successor, who is going to be the leader.

So for example, when we have a government, yeah, we may have a prime minister.

That prime minister may decide to step down, but may not be re-elected.

So it may be that someone is re-elected from their party to run the country.

So this is quite similar when we think about the death of the prophet.

Not so much who gets elected and the stuff, but actually who should be the successor.

Okay, then that's a big part of question of our learning for today.

So what did Islam look like after death of Prophet Mohammed? One of the key things as we go back to when the first revelation occurred, in 610 Common Era.

And then top the time when the Prophet Muhammad died.

632 Common Era.

So hopefully you can remember that small mistake that I made in the learning last week, and hopefully you made a correction as well.

Yes or not 623, 632.

So one of the key things that occurs is in pre-Islam, you have a society which flourishes on polytheism, inequality, drunkenness and public, stealing and murder.

This was normal.

But society changes.

Now we have a sense of equality.

Now we have a sense of the rights given to the orphans.

Now we have a sense of the rights for the women.

And we also have a sense of the unity of mankind, of worshipping God and God alone.

There is no this idea of a hierarchy in society.

There is no idea, for example that, certain gods are better than others.

'Cause those gods we remember, were the cause of idols.

They were seen as false gods.

So we would say that pre-Islam, and this is a term used, within the Muslim world, and an understanding of Islam as well.

That pre-Islam, so before Islam came in Arabia, there was the state of Jahiliyah.

So Jahiliyah means a state of ignorance.

Because of revelation, the Quran had not occurred yet.

So Mecca the main city where young merchant known of Prophet Muhammad lived.

The city and its dwellers were known to be in a state of Jahiliyah.

Yeah, which means the state of ignorance or stupidity.

And we remember from our learning last week, Prophet Muhammad will go and contemplate and ponder, you remember what I said? Those are important things that we ponder and reflect.

We ponder and reflect upon society, and he was worried about society.

He was worried, why was his society in a state of ignorance? Why was it so godless? Why is it that the society was a bit backwards? So Muhammad, as we know already, spent a lot of his time, before he received the first revelation to ponder and reflect.

And he saw many of these injustices in society.

Now when the revelation of the Quran came, these injustices slowly stopped.

Okay, 'cause prophet Muhammad taught humanity, that God commands you not to do these things.

God commands you not to be injustice, yeah.

God is just and he commands us to be just as well.

So just a bit of a recap there, in 610 Common Era, around the age of 40, Muhammad receives this first revelation.

And this revelation comes from the Angel Jibreel, and it determined the status of Prophet Muhammad being a Prophet of God.

And we remember, Prophet Mohammed was illiterate.

So these revelations were given to him, through the Angel Jibreel, and this was one of the miracles of the Quran.

And this cannot be in the word of man, it must have been the word of God.

So these revelation occurred for 23 years, and as mentioned already in last week's lesson, in Mecca and Medina.

So these are the two most famous and sacred cities in Islam.

So Mecca is where he's born, Medina is where the Prophet Muhammad and the early Muslims have a Hijra or do the Hijra should I say.

So this is the migration, and this is when the first Muslim community exist.

So pre-revelation, Arabia and society, is known to be in a state of Jahiliyah.

A state of ignorance, 'cause it did many things which were not commanded by God.

When the revelation occurred, they're no longer in a state of ignorance.

They're now in a state of knowledge.

They now have the wisdom.

A wisdom that was given to them, through the Prophet Muhammad, to humanity.

Now what I'd like you to do now, and I know you've been having those attentive ears and that curious brain as always, been listening very well.

I'd like for you to now to pause the video, and to answer these questions.

Now I suggest that you spend 10 minutes to answer these questions, and to really reflect on what I was saying.

So three questions I like for you to answer, and please do write them down as well.

Number one, what does Jahiliyah mean? Number two, what are some examples of injustices that occurred in Mecca before the Quran was revealed? And number three, how did society improve with the Prophet Muhammad revealing the Quran that was given to him, through the Angel Jibreel? So at this part of the video, can I please ask you to pause and then we'll come back and go over the answers together.

Okay, and welcome back.

So, let's get the other colour pen out.

But as always, as I say hopefully, 'cause you're all IRE students, you won't have to make any corrections, right? So let's check our learning for today so far.

So, these should have been the answers that you've had.

Jahiliyah means a state of ignorance or stupidity.

Some of the examples of Jahiliyah, before the revelation of the Quran, is the killing of female children, the lack of rights for women Idol worship, you could have also had racism, and you could have also had a tribalism as well.

So tribalism was a key thing as well.

So how does society improve with the Prophet Muhammad, receiving the revelation of the Quran? Well society as I mentioned before, gradually changed, from a godless society, known as Jahiliyah, to then the society of equal believers, who shared and gave each other their rights.

I remember that term I used for Muslim community, the Umar.

These are the global community.

And the key thing with the Umar, is that all Muslims are equal before God.

Regardless of where you are from, regardless of your gender, regardless of your race, regardless of your wealth.

We're all equal in the eyes of God.

So far we know what Islam was like, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

But then we have this big big question.

Who is to be his successor? Who should be the person who leads the Muslim, and the growing Muslim community by the way.

And we have to remember, in the early stage of Prophet Mohammad, around 622, it's a very small population of Muslims, but now it expanded and grown.

Yeah, so you've got this big big population of Muslims, and there should be someone who is leading them.

So this is the big question.

And from this, we get two denominations.

We got the Sunni school of thought and we've got the Shi'a school of thought.

So let's look and understand what they are.

So who are the Sunnis and what do they believe? So after the 1.

5 billion Muslims in the world today, Sunnis consists of about 85% of that population.

So we can find them in the majority of middle Eastern countries, we can find them in South Asian countries as well.

Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia Singapore, and we can also find them within Europe as well.

Yes, and we've got a population of Muslims in Britain, we have a population of Muslims in Spain.

If we go to North Africa as well like Morocco and also within the Americans as well.

Yes we have a Muslim growing population actually in Cuba, which is very interesting.

So it seems to be that Islam is racing in South America.

Now back to the point yeah.

So the Sunnis, and this term derives from the term Sunnah.

So soon means the way of the Prophet.

And many of his followers and companions, elected and chose Abu Bakr, to be the first Caliph of Islam.

Now who was Abu Bakr? Abu Bakr was one of the closest companions of the Prophet Muhammad.

Abu Bakr was one of the first converts to Islam as an adult.

And he's also someone who leads the prayers, when the Prophet Muhammad was ill.

So when a prophet Muhammad is coming to the end stage of his life, and remember 632, yeah, not 623.

The prophet Muhammad is too ill to lead the prayers, so Abu Bakr is the person who leads the prayer.

Now when prophet Muhammad gets up, from a state of unconsciousness, he doesn't ask, or he doesn't take over the prayers.

So this is a key thing.

For many Sunni Muslims, this is a key event, which kind of tells Muslims today, that Abu Bakr was a very special individual and close to the Prophet Muhammad.

And he also hid in the cave, yeah, Jabal Thawr, when the Quraysh tribe were sent to track down the prophet to hurt him.

And this is a very important story in the Quran.

The Quran mentions this story.

So the Sunni's 85% of the population, Sunni refers to the term Sunnah and they believe that Abu Bakr was the first Caliph.

Now Caliph means leader.

Yeah, it doesn't mean necessarily complete authority.

It doesn't necessarily mean divine authority either.

So Sunni don't believe in the divine authority.

So why Abu Bakr? What is other things as well that are very important when we look at the life of Abu Bakr.

The Prophet Muhammad had married Abu Bakr daughter Aisha, and he chose Abu Bakr to accompany him to Medina, when the migration occurred.

And he's also someone who fought alongside Prophet Muhammad in many battles, and for Sunnis, Abu Bakr was chosen and elected by the companions.

So what's a key thing here that we need to know? When the Prophet Mohammed died, you've got the Muslim community.

Yeah, and we've got the companions of the Prophet Muhammad.

Now these companions were the closest, as well as the family, Ahl al-Bayt, to the prophet Muhammad.

These companions, decided by voting that Abu Bakr should be the first leader.

Now on the counter, we have the Shi'ats, and what do they believe? So the Shi'a Muslims, come from the term Shi'at, which means the party of Ali.

So Shi'a Muslims consists of 15% of the Muslim population today.

And they could be found predominantly in countries, such as Iran which is a high majority of Shi'a Muslims. Iraq as well.

And also there's big populations in Pakistan and Syria.

And also we find that within India.

So does Shi'a Muslims believe that Ali should have been the first Caliph.

And that Ali is one of the 12 Imams of Islam.

Now Ali as we remember, from our last week's lesson, he is a very important and significant figure.

'cause Ali is the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad.

So according to Shi'a's, Ali should have been the first successor after the death of Prophet Muhammad, because he came from the bloodline of the prophet.

And Muslims of the Shi'a school of thought, believe that Prophet Muhammad during his lifetime, gave signs to the Muslim community, that emphasise the importance of Ali and his grandsons, Hassan and Hussain.

So who was Ali? Ali was a significant important figure in both the Sunni and this Shi'a tradition.

But more so for the Shi'a for many many reasons.

Ali was the cousin and the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad.

And the Shi'a believe, that Ali was one of the first to announce publicly his support for the Prophet Muhammad, when the Prophet Muhammad publicly began to preach.

So as a young child, Ali had seen the significance and importance of the Prophet Muhammad.

Now Ali is known as a member of Ahl al-Bayt, which means the People of the Household.

And this really famous event at Ghadir Khumm, which is evidence for the Shi'as, that the Prophet Muhammad had declared that Ali would be his successor.

So today we're going to be looking at some evidence, historical evidence for the Shi'a school of thought, for which they believe this is true evidence, which shows that the Prophet Muhammad had appointed a successor and Allah had pointed a successor after the death of the Prophet Mohammed.

So let's test your knowledge.

Okay, so there's a lot of history there and there's a lot of thinking.

So how good have your attentive ears and your curious brain be.

On the next slide there's going to be a number of statements.

And I'd like you to write down the questions, and next to them, to write down whether they're true or false.

So for a moment, I'm just going to disappear, there we go, and now let's look at these questions.

So, you have eight questions.

I'm back, there we go yeah.

So eight questions here, I would like you to pause the video and to spend five minutes.

To spend five minutes next to the statement to write down whether they're true or false.

So Sunnah means the way of the Prophet, then in another colour, is it true or is it false? Five minutes and let's rock and roll.

And I'll see you guys in a moment.

Okay, you can probably hear me, but you can't see me.

That's no problem.

Let's go over these answers together.

Sunnah means the way the Prophet true or false? It is true.

It means the way of the Prophet and from this we get the term Sunni.

Next question.

Shi'a believe the Abu Bakr should have been the first Caliph, true or false? We know that, this is, false.

They believe that Ali should have been the first successor.

Number three.

The Shi'a Muslims consist of around 15% of the Muslim population today, true or false? It is true.

Can you remember any of the countries? If you can definitely write them down, next to your answer now.

Number four.

Sunni's believe that Abu Bakr was the first elected Caliph? True.

Remember he was elected and chosen by their companion.

Sunni Muslims are known as Ahl Al Bayt, true or false? It is false.

Remember, for the Shi'a Muslims, Ahl Al Bayt refers to the People of the Household which refers to People of the Bloodline, of the Prophet Muhammad.

Shi'a comes from the term Shi'at, which means party of Ali, true or false? It is true.

There was a famous event for the Shi'a in which the Prophet Muhammad declared his next successor.

According to the Shi'a is, drum roll.

It is true.

And Sunni and Shi'a Muslims believe that the elected leader was a next Prophet.

Of course.

We know that this is, false.

This is not true 'cause the Prophet Mohammad was the final messenger for all of humans.

So here's another task for you.

It's just quite simple to ask.

We've done our first part of our learning.

We've got this true and false questions, got a bit of a building block there.

So let's use that building block to then start writing some full sentences.

So what I'd like for you to do here is we have this filling the gap task here.

So at the bottom we have a number of different terms. Bloodline, choice, Abu Bakr, Ali, Ahl Al Bayt and elected.

And you have this small paragraph which I'd like for you to write.

So this part of your learning could I please ask you to do the following? Could you please fill in the gaps for this, and can you pause the video, and then we'll come back together.

So for this task, I'm going to give you seven minutes.

So after seven minutes, come back, I will see if you've got those answers right, and hopefully we won't have to use any of our pens that we need for corrections.

Okay, so here are some of the answers.

So Sunni Muslims believe the first Caliph was Abu Bakr.

Sunni Muslims believe that the first successor of Prophet Muhammad to lead the Muslim community was a choice by the majority of the companions who elected Abu Bakr.

Shi'a Muslims however believe that Allah, and the Prophet Muhammad appointed those from Ahl Al Bayt to be the leader of Islam after his death.

They believe that Ali, who was a cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad was the divinely appointed leader and that leaders should remain in the bloodline.

So hopefully you got all of those answers right, and if you did fantastic, if you didn't no problem whatsoever, just make sure you've done your corrections, and you've checked the corrections from this task.

This task where are you going? There we go.

This task just hit.

Now we're going to look at and focus and really just to finish off the differences between that of a Caliph and that of the Imams. And we'll be touching upon this as well, next week when we do our lesson on what is Imamat in Shi'a Islam.

So just move me just here at the top.

Here we go.

So Caliphs and the Imams. So Caliphs means a successor, a leader of the Muslim community.

It can be chosen by voting to democratically.

And it doesn't have to be a blood relative of the Prophet Muhammad.

But in the past it has.

So for example, one of the Caliphs is Caliph Ali.

He was the fourth Caliph, according to Sunnis, okay? Now they're not infallible.

Infallible means that they cannot err.

They cannot make a mistake and they cannot fall.

So according to the Sunni school of thought, Caliphs, they are not infallible.

They can make mistakes.

Now the Imams in Shi'a Islam.

The Imams are leaders that are chosen by Allah, to have authority after the Prophet Muhammad.

And this is found in Imamat which is one of the five roots of Shi'a Islam.

And we're going to be focusing on that next week.

Now this belief holds that Imams are divinely appointed successors of the Prophet Muhammad.

Now within Imamat as well, there's a belief that the right power Imams who all come from the bloodline of the Prophet Muhammad and that they are infallible.

So they cannot err and they cannot make a mistake.

They can perform miracles and use knowledge bestowed upon Allah, bestowed upon them by Allah apologies.

And also there are the individuals that should guide humanity.

So it's the belief within Shi'a Islam.

God will not leave society or leave humanity without a successor and without a God.

And this is the key thing that we find with the Imams in Shi'a Islam.

So the Sunni and Shi'a split just to summarise yeah.

It mainly occurs after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, we have this big question.

Who should be the leader after the death of Prophet Muhammad? So on one side, we've got the Sunnis, who believe it should have been an elected leader.

There's Abu Bakr.

What's on the other side, we have the Shi'a school of thought, who believed that it should come from the bloodline of the Prophet, and it should have been Ali, who was a closest blood relative of the Prophet Muhammad.

Now, next week, we're going to be looking at some scripture evidence of that.

So we're going to be joining, guideline it together.

We're going to be solidating our learning over the course of this unit.

So, that is the end of our learnings today on the Sunni and the Shi'a split.

I really hope you enjoyed it, as much as I enjoyed having you here with me.

Just to remind us always, there is a exit quiz to test the knowledge piece ensure that you do that.