Lesson video

Hello, my young scholars of religion.

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

Today we're going to be doing all about the 10 Obligatory Acts of Shi'a Islam.

Shi'a Islam is a branch of Islam and these 10 Obligatory Acts could be compared to the Five Pillars.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to explain what the 10 Obligatory Acts are and how they compare to the Five Pillars.

So let's start with our key terms. Forbid, do not allow or instruct or order someone not to do something.

Jihad, to strive or struggle in the way of Islam.

Khums, 1/5, an additional 20% tax paid by Shi'a Muslims. And the 10 Obligatory Acts, 10 duties followed by Shi'a Muslims which include four of the Five Pillars as well as six extra practises.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have two sections, "The 10 Obligatory Acts" and "Enjoin the good and forbid the evil." So let's start with our first section then, "The 10 Obligatory Acts." If you could encourage everyone in the world to do one thing to make it better, what would it be? If you could encourage everybody to do one thing to make the world a better place, what would that be? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

How would you actually encourage them to do this then, that thing that you think everyone should do, what could you do to actually encourage them to do it? Have another think, pause the video, and speak to the person next to you or speak to me.

Well, encouraging people to do good and to avoid evil are important parts of the 10 Obligatory Acts in Shi'a Islam, so we'll look out and see how they might encourage this later in the lesson.

So I said at the start of the lesson that Shi'a Islam is a branch of Islam, and Sunni Islam is another branch of Islam that you may have heard of.

And the majority of Muslims are part of the Sunni branch of Islam, but there is a large minority of Muslims who are part of the Shi'a branch of Islam.

And there are different estimates as to the numbers of people who are in these different groups, but a rough estimate would be that around 12% of people are Shi'a and 88% of people are Sunni within Muslim communities, and this is taken from Pew Research who did this research.

They estimate that there's between 154 and 200 million Shi'a Muslims in the world today.

That population is kind of estimated, like I said, between 11 and 13% of the Muslim population worldwide.

So as you're probably aware, we have the Five Pillars of key important practises within Islam that are important to all Muslims, but particularly within Sunni Islam they're understood as the Five Pillars of Shahadah, salah, zakah, sawm, and Hajj.

The statement of faith, prayer, charity tax, fasting and pilgrimage.

So these are super important practises and they're kind of understood as the Five Pillars, particularly within Sunni Islam.

And one of the main branches of Shi'a Islam, though, understands their obligatory acts as being the 10 Obligatory Acts, and we can see that there are four that are the same.

Salah, zakah, sawm, and Hajj.

Prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage.

But then we have these six other obligatory acts which we're going to explore in today's lesson.

So already from this we could see that four of the Five Pillars are already part of the 10 Obligatory Acts.

Now the Shahadah isn't, but that's not to say it's not important to Shi'a Muslims because the Shahadah, as you'll remember, is the statement there's no God but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God.

That is an important statement for Shi'a Muslims too.

It's just it's not seen so much as a practise, it's kind of a statement of what somebody believes and it underpins so many of the other practises that a Shi'a Muslim will do.

The Shahadah is important to Muslims in all branches of Islam, we've just said, and Zainab, who's a Shi'a Muslim, and Sarah, who's a Sunni Muslim, are gonna explain to us why.

Zainab says, "The Shahadah isn't in my 10 Obligatory Acts but it's the reason why I complete these acts.

I believe in one God and that Muhammad was God's messenger." And Sarah says, "The Shahadah is in my Five Pillars.

It's very special to me as a revert because I said this in front of witnesses when I reverted to Islam." So while it's a specific practise for Sarah, for Zainab, it kind of underpins all the practises that she does.

Let's do a quick check.

Which of the three statements are correct about the 10 Obligatory Acts and the Five Pillars? The Shahadah is part of both the 10 Obligatory Acts and the Five Pillars.

Jihad is part of the 10 Obligatory Acts but not the Five Pillars.

Khums is part of the 10 Obligatory Acts but not the Five Pillars.

And four of the Five Pillars are part of the 10 Obligatory Acts.

Three of those are correct, one is incorrect.

Pause the video and find it and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, the last three were correct.

The first one, it's not correct because even though the Shahadah is important to Shi'a Muslims, it's not within the 10 Obligatory Acts.

So one of those additional duties in the 10 Obligatory Acts was khums. Now this is a yearly charitable tax paid by Shi'a Muslims as a way of giving alms. So alms is when money is given to support people who are living in poverty and other different situations, charity giving.

And khums actually means 1/5 or 20%, so this is the amount that's given.

Now, this is used to support people living in poverty or who are in need of things, people who are orphans, travellers, the cause of Allah, religious leaders as representatives of the family of the Prophet and the Imamate, so the Prophet's relatives.

Let's understand why this practise happens then by going to a source of authority, and the ultimate source of authority is going to be the Qur'an.

So Shi'a Muslims pay khums to follow this instruction in the Qur'an, so let's have a read.

It's in Surah 8.

"And know that whatever spoils you gain, to God belongs its fifth, and to the Messenger, and the relatives, and the orphans, and the poor, and to the wayfarer." So in this text here, how does it relate to a charity tax then? Pause the video and reread it and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done, we've got here, "To God belongs its fifth," and khums means 1/5, doesn't it? 20%.

And this is saying the money needs to go to the Messenger and Messenger's relatives, the orphans, the poor, and the wayfarer.

We've got 1/5 of spoils belongs to God, payments to the Messenger and the relatives, the orphans, the poor, and the wayfarer.

So Izzy's asking Hassan what does it mean for him as a Shi'a Muslim to pay this khums tax then, and Hassan says, "When I pay the khums, it does feel like a large amount of money, but I know that really this belongs to Allah.

I pay this to a charity that's supported by the leaders of my religious community.

I pay my khums each year on my birthday." So for Hassan it feels like a large amount of money, but he knows this is what's mandated in the Qur'an for him to do and then he can give this to charities that support those different causes.

Let's do another check.

Khums is a yearly tax of 20% of a Shi'a Muslim's savings.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is true, isn't it? But why? It's true because khums means 1/5 which equals 20%, well done.

Another one of the 10 Obligatory Acts that was not in the Five Pillars is jihad, and this comes from Arabic, the term jihad, it has this root, ji-ha-d, jihad.

So we've got ji-ha-d.

These roots mean to make an effort or to struggle, to strive, to make an effort.

When something's hard, to still do it.

Other words in Arabic that have the same root can help us understand the meaning a bit more.

We've got a word ijtihad and that means the human effort in interpreting the teachings of Islam, that effort in understanding and interpreting the teachings of Islam.

We've got juhida, to be exhausted or strained, someone who's exerted effort, who's done something.

We've got mujahid, someone who strives, sometimes in a battle.

So we can see from this what this root word jihad means, is to do with striving and making an effort.

Striving for Allah is important for all Muslims because it says in the Qur'an, "Believe in God and His Messenger, and strive in the cause of God with your possessions and yourselves." And that's in Surah 61.

So here's another source of authority we can use to support these 10 Obligatory Acts then.

So let's have a look, how does this passage support the practise of jihad? Pause the video and reread it and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

That's right, it's the word strive, which could be translated as jihad.

So that's where if we looked at the Arabic for the text, 'cause obviously this is translation of the Qur'an from Arabic, that's where we'd see those root letters that form jihad in that word there.

Strive can be translated as jihad.

So Muslims are instructed to believe in God and His Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad, but then also strive as well with your possessions and yourselves.

So Zainab, who's a Shi'a Muslim, and Sarah, a Sunni Muslim, are from different branches of Islam, but I said that jihad is important to all branches even if it's not in the Five Pillars, and they're going to discuss what jihad means to them now.

So Zainab says, and she's a Shia' Muslim, "Jihad is one of my 10 Obligatory Acts and it reminds me that I should always strive to be the best Muslim I can be, even when it's hard to do so." 'Cause remember striving and the word jihad is to do when something's difficult, exerting an effort, and it takes some effort to do it.

Sarah says, "Jihad isn't one of the Five Pillars, but completing them takes effort and striving.

For example, when I fast for Ramadan, it takes great effort." So a little bit like how the Shahadah is not in the 10 Obligatory Acts, it is in the Five Pillars, but it is still important for Zainab and for Shi'a Muslims because the Shahadah underpins those acts.

Similarly, jihad is important to Sarah even though it's not in the Five Pillars because it's almost like it's a struggle or an effort to complete the Five Pillars, and she's used the example of Ramadan here.

So we've just seen Zainab say that jihad is an important, one of the 10 Obligatory Acts for her as a Shi'a Muslim, but how could jihad itself relate to the other acts then? Jacob's gonna ask her, "As a Shi'a Muslim, how does jihad relate to the other 10 Obligatory Acts for you, Zainab?" And Zainab says, "One form of jihad is when there's a war or a battle to protect Islam and innocent people.

But jihad also relates to the other Obligatory Acts for me as I strive or struggle to be a better Muslim.

For example, salah and sawm," so prayer and fasting, "take effort for me to complete, but I do this effort as my way of striving for Allah." Well done.

Thank you, Zainab.

So let's do another check.

Jihad means war or battle.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

That is false, isn't it? But why? Well, it's false because jihad can sometimes mean an external fight or battle, but it also refers to the internal struggle for someone to be a good Muslim.

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

You're going to give an explanation for the point Zainab and Hassan have made below and add a source of authority as a piece of evidence for why khums and jihad are part of the 10 Obligatory Acts in Shi'a Islam.

And Hassan says, "Khums means 1/5 and I pay 20% of my savings each year.

." And Zainab says, "Jihad means to strive and I strive to be a better Muslim by.

." So you're going to give an explanation for the points that they've made but also use a source of authority as evidence, and you can look back through the lesson so far and find the things that we've already talked about.

Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

So I asked you to give an explanation for the points Zainab and Hassan made but also use a source of authority as a piece of evidence, and you could have written.

Hassan, "Khums means 1/5 and I pay 20% of my savings each year.

This is because of the instruction in the Qur'an that 'whatever spoils you gain, to God belongs its fifth.

' This means I pay to the religious leaders for helping the poor, needy, representatives of the near relatives." And Zainab, you could have said, "Jihad means to strive and I strive to be a better Muslim by following the 10 Obligatory Acts.

I strive to do this as it says in the Qur'an, 'Believe in God and His Messenger and strive in the cause of God.

' And the word strive can be translated as jihad, so I strive to be a good Muslim." Well done.

So onto our second section then, "Enjoin the good and forbid evil." So this phrase is repeated nine times in the Qur'an and it's linked to two of the 10 Obligatory Acts.

The phrase is, "Enjoin the good and forbid evil." Now the Arabic for enjoin the good is amir bil maruf, and this is Arabic for encouraging good actions which is why it's translated as enjoin the good.

And the Arabic for forbid evil is nahi anril munkar, which is Arabic for discouraging bad or evil actions.

And this is repeated nine times in the Qur'an, so it's quite an important phrase for actions that Muslims should do, isn't it? To kind of encourage good things and then also discourage bad things.

The word enjoin here is to do with encouraging and helping people to do something.

So I said that appears nine times in the Qur'an and here's one example, and it's in Surah 7.

"The believing men and believing women are friends of one another.

They advocate virtue, forbid evil, perform the prayers, practise charity, and obey God and His Messenger.

O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them." So what actions does this source support and how could it link to the 10 Obligatory Acts? Pause the video and have a reread and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, here we have the idea of advocating virtue, which would be enjoining the good or encouraging good, forbidding evil, performing prayers, practising charity, and then this idea of striving.

So we have lots of the 10 Obligatory Acts in here in this one source of authority.

We've got encourage good, forbid evil, pray, give to charity, and strive against enemies, so there's five in there.

Let's do a quick check.

Which term is missing from this phrase? Enjoin the good and something evil.

Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well done, it's forbid.

Well, along with the Qur'an as a source of authority for Muslim practises, we've also got the Hadith, which is narrations about how the Prophet Muhammad lived, what he said and what he did, so Muslims can know how to follow his example.

So here's a Hadith that helps us understand some of these 10 Obligatory Acts a bit more then.

We've got, in Hadith from Sunan an-Nasa'i, "Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand.

If he cannot, then with his tongue.

If he cannot, then with his heart." So how could this Hadith support these different acts in the 10 Obligatory Acts then to do with enjoining the good and forbidding evil? Pause the video and have a reread.

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

Well done, we've got this idea of seeing an evil and then changing it, so forbidding evil and then encouraging people to do good.

It says that when Muslims see evil, they should try to stop it.

So Izzy and Jacob are discussing how these sources of authority support enjoining the good and forbidding evil then, how could we use those sources of authority to support these different practises? Jacob says, "Enjoining the good and forbidding the evil is really important in Islam, as the Qur'an has that phrase many times.

This shows that encouraging good actions and discouraging bad is important." And Izzy says, "Yes, and also in the Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad said Muslims should try to stop evil when they see it.

And if they can't stop it with their hands or their tongue, they should with their heart.

This shows Muslims should forbid and avoid evil actions." Thank you, Jacob and Izzy.

And what I really like is they said the source where it came from, the Qur'an or the Hadith, well done.

So actions which may be seen as enjoining the good and forbidding evil may include, and here we have three examples for what could be seen as enjoining the good or encouraging the good.

Encouraging others to complete their prayers, teaching younger children about what's right and wrong, supporting a friend fasting for the first time.

So encouraging people to do right actions and also to do good deeds.

And actions which could be seen as forbidding evil could be reporting or speaking out against hate speech online.

It could be telling a younger sibling not to lie or cheat in games.

It could be protesting against injustices in the world.

So not only encouraging good things, but also taking a stand when there's evil or bad things happening.

So let's see how some Shi'a Muslims might do this then.

So Fatemeh is a Shi'a Muslim and Izzy's asking her, "How do you enjoin the good and forbid the evil, Fatemeh?" And Fatemeh says, "As a mother, I'm raising my children to know about Islam as a religion and what the right and wrong actions are within Islam.

I show them how to pray with me and I read stories about the prophets and imams so they can do good and avoid evil." So Fatemeh's just said that she reads stories to her children about the prophets and imams. How could those stories help the children know what's right or wrong actions in Islam? Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, many of the stories of the prophets and imams contain where they've had to make choices about doing right or wrong actions and we see that they did the right thing, so perhaps that could encourage young children too to know the difference between right and wrong.

And here we have Hassan.

Jacob asks him, "How do you enjoin the good and forbid evil, Hassan?" And Hassan says, "I enjoin the good by supporting my Muslim friends with their other obligatory acts, for example, salah.

I have a Muslim friend at work and we encourage one another by praying together.

I often give them a lift to Jummah prayer on a Friday.

As an older brother, I also forbid evil when I remind my little brothers not to lie." And we have Zainab, who's also a Shi'a Muslim.

"Have you done anything special to forbid evil, Zainab?" Jacob asks.

And Zainab says, "Ashura is a very special date for me and the Shi'a community, and last year I took part in a protest in my town as part of marking the date.

We held a protest against terrorism as all human life is sacred and it's evil to threaten lives through terrorism.

And I see this as part of my completion of the obligatory act to forbid evil." Thank you, Zainab.

So let's do another check.

The instruction to enjoin the good and forbid evil is found in the Qur'an nine times.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done, that is true, isn't it? So the final two of the 10 Obligatory Acts then, they are tawallah, which is to show love and loyalty to Allah, Prophet Muhammad and the Imams; and tabarra, which is to disassociate from the enemies of Allah, the Prophet, and the Imams. So anyone who's an enemy to those people, disassociating from them.

And again we can look to the Qur'an as the ultimate source of authority in Islam to support these practises.

So for tawallah, this ayah in the Qur'an is often used.

"I ask of you no wage for it, except affection among the near of kin." So this is Prophet Muhammad speaking about his near and close family.

Kin is a word that could be used for close family.

And tabarra, "Do not incline towards those who do wrong." So tabarra, this idea of not associating with people who do wrong but disassociating from them.

So how could these support tawallah and tabarra then? Pause the video and have a reread and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So let's see how these final two acts could be completed then.

We could have saying "Peace be upon Him" after saying the name of Prophet Muhammad.

This is something that many Muslims do as a sign of respect for the Prophet Muhammad.

And for Shi'a Muslims, they would say this as a sign of them showing love towards the Prophet Muhammad.

We could have visiting shrines of the family of the Prophet and paying respect there.

So many Shi'a Muslims will go to the shrines of the Imams who've passed away and then pay respect to them there as a sign of showing love towards them.

Also retelling those important stories relating to the Prophet Muhammad and the Imams as a way of showing love and respect towards them and remembering those stories of those important people.

And then in terms of disassociating from the enemies of Allah, it could be not being friends with someone who's Islamophobic or someone who spreads hatred about the Prophet Muhammad or someone who's spreading a lot of hatred online, maybe not associating with them and separating yourself from them.

And in terms of disassociating from the enemies of Allah, we could have not being friends with one who's Islamophobic or spreads hatred about the Prophet Muhammad.

Maybe if you think about some of the things online and wanting to disassociate yourself from those people.

Not praising or respecting those who've harmed or opposed the Prophet Muhammad or his family.

So in the retelling of those stories about the Prophet Muhammad and the Imams, making sure that no respect or honour or glory is really given to those who were the enemies of Muhammad and his family.

So let's see how Rasool performs those final two obligatory acts then in connection to the practise of commemorating Ashura.

Jacob asks him, "How does Ashura link to the Obligatory Acts of tawallah and tabarra for you, Rasool?" And Rasool says, "Each year when I commemorate Ashura, I'm showing love towards the family of the Prophet Muhammad as it was his grandson, Imam Hussein, who was martyred.

I remember how courageous he was at Karbala.

To show my love, last year I donated blood.

As he shed his blood for me at Karbala, I shed blood to help others.

I do not pay respect to those who fought against him as a form of disassociating from the enemies." Thank you, Rasool.

Let's do another check.

For Shi'a Muslims, what yearly event commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done, it's Ashura.

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

You're going to complete the table below with a reason why each of these acts are important and then an example of how it could be completed today.

So a reminder of the four acts that we are going to do this on.

Amr bil maruf, which is enjoining the good.

Nahil anril munkar, which is forbidding evil.

Tawallah, love for Allah, the Prophet, and his family.

Tabarra, disassociation from the enemies of Allah, the Prophet and his family.

So for each of them, why is it important and how could it be completed? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, some really good thinking there.

So for each of the final four of the 10 Obligatory Acts, I asked you to say why it's important and how it could be completed, and your table might look something like this.

Enjoining the good.

Why is it important? To encourage more people to do good actions.

How could it be completed? Offering to drive a coworker to Jummah prayer.

Forbidding evil.

Why is it important? To discourage people from doing bad actions.

How could it be completed? Telling a younger sibling not to lie.

Love for Allah, the Prophet, and his family.

Why is that important? To show love to God, Muhammad, and the family, the Imams. And how could it be completed? By saying "Peace be upon Him" after saying the Prophet Muhammad's name.

And disassociation from the enemies of Allah, the Prophet and the family.

Why is that important? To not support or be associated with those enemies.

And how could that be completed? Not being friends with people who are Islamophobic and spread hatred, well done.

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

The 10 Obligatory Acts are within Shi'a Islam.

The 10 Obligatory Acts include four of the Five Pillars.

Jihad means to strive, struggle, or fight, and is in the 10 Obligatory Acts.

Khums means 1/5 and is a 20% charitable tax paid by Shi'a Muslims. The 10 Obligatory Acts relate to enjoining the good and forbidding evil.

This includes encouraging good actions and discouraging evil actions, and this also includes showing love for Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, his family, and disassociating from the enemies of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad and his family.

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