Islam: Sources of Wisdom and Authority | AQA A-Level Religious Studies (7062)

Islam: Sources of Wisdom and Authority

77 questions
5 subtopics
Component 2: Islam, one religion of five
Component 2

Islam: the texts, teachers and institutions that carry authority.

Part of Component 2, sat only by students who take Islam as their chosen religion.

Sample questions from Islam: Sources of Wisdom and Authority

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The Revelation of the Qur'an

State how the Qur’an is divided.

Show the answer
It contains 114 surahs, each made up of verses called ayat.
The Revelation of the Qur'an

Who is traditionally said to have carried out that first collection, and under which caliph?

Show the answer
Zayd ibn Thabit, working under the first caliph Abu Bakr.
Arabic, Translation and the Hafiz

What condition is normally required before touching the Arabic text?

Show the answer
The reader should be in a state of ritual purity, having performed wudu.
Arabic, Translation and the Hafiz

Why is knowledge of the occasions of revelation important in interpretation?

Show the answer
Knowing the circumstances a verse addressed shows what it was actually about and prevents it being applied out of context.
Khatam an-Nabiyyin and the Prophets

Name three prophets Muslims believe came before Muhammad.

Show the answer
Ibrahim, Musa and Isa.
Khatam an-Nabiyyin and the Prophets

Why does the finality of prophethood lead Muslims to reject later claimants?

Show the answer
If Muhammad sealed prophethood, a claim to new prophecy after him contradicts the Qur’an, so mainstream Sunni and Shi’a Islam does not accept such claims.
The Science of Hadith

Explain the difference between a mutawatir and an ahad hadith.

Show the answer
A mutawatir report reaches us through so many independent chains that error is held to be impossible, while an ahad report comes through only one chain or a few.
The Science of Hadith

Give the main argument of Muslims who reject hadith as a source of authority.

Show the answer
They hold that only the Qur’an is guaranteed to be preserved, and that reports written down generations later cannot carry the same certainty.

The 5 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The Revelation of the Qur'an	Recall questions on what Muslims believe the Qur'an is, the angel who brought it, the period of revelation and the circumstances of the first.	15
Arabic, Translation and the Hafiz	Recall questions on why translation is interpretation, the difficulty for non-Arabic speakers, why Salah is in Arabic and what a hafiz is.	15
Khatam an-Nabiyyin and the Prophets	Recall questions on the meaning of the title, where the Qur'an gives it, what sealing prophethood implies and the difference between a nabi and a rasul.	12
The Science of Hadith	Recall questions on hadith and Sunnah, isnad and matn, grading and mutawatir and ahad reports, the Sunni and Shi'a collections, hadith qudsi and the debate over the authority of hadith.	15
Shi'a Islam and the Imamate	Recall questions on the meaning of Shi'a, who should have led after the Prophet, the doctrine of nass and the event treated as Ali's designation.	20

Islam: Sources of Wisdom and Authority is 77 of the 3,683 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.