Islam | Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies (9RS0)

Islam

195 questions
15 subtopics
Paper 4: the study of one religion of six
Paper 4

One of the six Paper 4 options.

The six beliefs and the five pillars, the life of the Prophet, the Qur'an, Sunnah and Shari'ah, the Sunni and Shi'a division and its origins, Sufism, and Islam's engagement with science, gender and the modern world.

Sample questions from Islam

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

The Six Beliefs of Islam

What are the six articles of faith that Sunni Muslims traditionally list?

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Belief that Allah is one; belief in angels; belief in the revealed scriptures; belief in the prophets; belief in the Day of Judgement; and belief in divine decree, qadr. Sunni tradition calls them the pillars of faith, arkan al-iman, and summarises them in a set creedal formula that many Muslims learn by heart.
The Life of the Prophet Muhammad

Which features of Arabian society did Muhammad set himself against?

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The worship of idols; the burying of unwanted infant daughters; exploitative lending; the vendetta; and the assumption that obligation stops at the edge of one's own kin. In place of the tribe he put the community of believers, and in place of birth he put piety as the measure of a person's worth.
Hadith and Sunnah

Which collections do Sunni Muslims rely on?

Show the answer
Six books hold canonical standing. The compilations of al-Bukhari and Muslim are treated as the most rigorously sifted, followed by those of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah. Earlier works, notably Malik's Muwatta, remain in scholarly use, and legal schools also draw on their own founders' collections.
The Qur'an and Shari'ah

In what sense is the Qur'an the foundation of everything else in Islam?

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Every other authority is derivative. The Sunnah explains it, scholarly consensus and analogy extend it, and no ruling may stand against it. Muslim theology, law, ethics, art and public argument all cite it as the final court. Where Muslims disagree, they disagree about what it means, not about whether it settles the question.
The Ummah

What does ummah mean?

Show the answer
The community of those who believe, bound to one another by faith rather than by blood, territory or language. Muslims treat it first as a religious reality carrying obligations of mutual care and shared identity, and only second as a political aspiration.

The 15 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The Six Beliefs of Islam	Recall questions on the Sunni articles of faith and the Twelver Shi'a scheme, adalat, tawhid and the 99 Names, Chittick and Nasr on tawhid, angels, the books and prophets, the afterlife, and qadr and human responsibility.	18
The Life of the Prophet Muhammad	Recall questions on Muhammad's life, Khadijah, the Night of Power, the hijrah and Madinah, the farewell address, pre-Islamic Arabia and its religion, trade, poetry and society, and Armstrong's and Lings's accounts of the Prophet.	17
Hadith and Sunnah	Recall questions on the difference between the two, isnad and matn, the grading of reports, and the major collections.	9
The Qur'an and Shari'ah	Recall questions on the Qur'an's status and compilation, the opening surah and al-Baqarah, the sources of Shari'ah and fiqh, the five categories of the Ahkam, alcohol, modesty, gambling and slaughter, and Nasr and Malik on reading the tradition.	20
The Five Pillars	Recall questions on shahada, salah and Sunni and Shi'a prayer, zakat and khums, the Ramadan fast, the rites of Hajj, intention, diversity in practice, and Nasr and Mona Siddiqui on what the ritual acts accomplish.	15
The Ummah	Recall questions on the meaning, origins and spread of the ummah, whether it has ever been united, its institutions and political uses, Sunni and Shi'a understandings of the community, Watt's sociological account and Nasr on its threats.	11
Sunni and Shi'a Islam	Recall questions on the succession dispute, Ghadir Khumm, Abu Bakr and Ali, the differing sources, the caliphate and the Imamate, practical differences and distribution, and Armstrong and Nasr on the division.	11
The Rightly Guided Caliphs	Recall questions on Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, the expansion under them, and the conflicts that led to division.	9
The Martyrdom of Husain and the Rites of Muharram	Recall questions on Husain and Karbala, Ashura and the first ten days of Muharram, forms of mourning, pilgrimage and ta'ziya, Halm's historical work and N Ahmed on Karbala's significance.	11
Sufism	Recall questions on the origins of Sufism and its early figures, its acceptance in Sunni orthodoxy, the tariqas and Sufi practice, Sunni and Shi'a responses, Geaves on Sufism in Britain and Chittick's emphasis.	12
Islam and Science	Recall questions on medieval Muslim science, the philosophical conflict, al-Ghazali on the philosophers and causation, the arrival of modern science, modernist compatibility arguments, the scientific miracles approach, and Nasr's critique of modern science.	11
Jihad	Recall questions on the meaning of jihad, the greater and lesser jihad and the nafs, classical conditions and restraints on fighting, dar al-Islam and dar al-harb, Khadduri and Tariq Ramadan, the verse of the sword, and Nasr.	15
Islam and Other Religions	Recall questions on Qur'anic categories and the People of the Book, coercion in religion, classical provision for non-Muslims, tolerant traditions and restrictions, Scriptural Reasoning, views of other truths and non-religious worldviews, and T Ramadan and Madjid.	14
Gender and Islam	Recall questions on the Qur'an and hadith on men and women, women in the earliest community, the veiling debate, changing roles, Islamic feminism and the case against it, and L Ahmed and Nasr.	11
Islam, Secularisation and the Modern World	Recall questions on secularisation, Shari'ah under secular law and religious councils, literalist, traditionalist and modernist readings, the liberationist strand, migration, modesty and entertainment, and Nasr and Mona Siddiqui on the modern world.	11

Islam is 195 of the 1,694 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.