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

Sikhism

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

One of the six Paper 4 options.

Waheguru and the path to liberation, the ten Gurus and the Guru Granth Sahib, the Khalsa and the five Ks, seva and miri-piri, and the Sikh experience of reform, migration and self-determination.

Sample questions from Sikhism

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

Waheguru, the Self and Liberation

What do Sikhs mean by hukam?

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Hukam is the divine order or command by which everything comes to be and is sustained. Sikhs teach that nothing falls outside it, including suffering, and that spiritual maturity shows itself in living in tune with hukam rather than resisting it.
Sikh Thought and its Indic Background

What do K E Nayar and J S Sandhu argue about Guru Nanak's dealings with the Nath yogis?

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They read his recorded discourse with the yogis as a serious engagement in which he adopted their vocabulary and their spiritual seriousness while rejecting their withdrawal from society. Their name for the resulting figure is the socially involved renunciate: inwardly detached, outwardly active in work, family and community.
Sangat, Panth and Qaum

Explain what is being claimed when the Panth is described as a qaum.

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Qaum means a people or a nation. To call the Panth a qaum claims that Sikhs are not only a religious body but a distinct community with collective political interests, a claim with obvious consequences in the twentieth century and one that other Sikhs think overstates what is essentially a spiritual fellowship.
Sikh Moral Principles, Seva and Miri-Piri

What is a manmukh?

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Someone whose life faces toward their own mind and ego rather than toward the Guru. Sikhs describe the manmukh as governed by haumai, restless, driven by lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride, and therefore still bound to rebirth.
The Guru Granth Sahib and Secondary Texts

Explain the standing of Bhai Gurdas's poetry within the tradition.

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Bhai Gurdas wrote out the first compilation of the scripture and also composed poetry expounding Sikh doctrine and recording the early community. His work is not scripture, but it may be sung in the gurdwara, and Sikhs traditionally treat it as the earliest authoritative commentary on the Gurus' teaching.
The Ten Gurus

Why do Sikhs speak of one light in ten bodies?

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Because the Gurus are held to have carried the same divine light rather than each bringing a fresh teaching, which is why hymns by different Gurus are signed with a single name in the scripture. It matters for authority, since later Gurus develop the community without contradicting the first.
The Khalsa, the Five Ks and Nam Simaran

Do women take amrit and wear the five signs?

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Yes, initiation is open to women on the same terms and they take the name Kaur, and many amritdhari women keep all five signs, some wearing a turban. Practice varies, and how far women appear among the five who conduct ceremonies remains a live question in some communities.
The Sikh Diaspora, Migration and Secularisation

What is the argument for keeping worship and study in Punjabi?

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The scripture's poetry, its metre and its musical settings are bound to the language, and a great deal is lost in translation, while learning Gurmukhi gives direct access to the shabad. Gurdwaras run classes for children on exactly that basis, and some Sikhs regard the language as inseparable from the devotion.

The 15 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Waheguru, the Self and Liberation	Recall questions on the oneness of Waheguru, sat, shabad and the Mool Mantar, nam, hukam and nadar, union with Waheguru, maya, rebirth and karma, mukti and the Guru, and the purpose of life and death.	19
Sikh Thought and its Indic Background	Recall questions on the sant movement and Guru Nanak, the Indic terms he reworked, Nayar and Sandhu on the Nath yogis, Cole and Sambhi on Sikh thought, and Sikh teaching against bhakti, Islam and Hindu liberation.	11
Sangat, Panth and Qaum	Recall questions on the sangat and its development under the Gurus, the Panth as a qaum carrying the Guru's authority, binding decisions, virtual sangat, N K Singh on the sangat and K Nayar outside Punjab.	8
Sikh Moral Principles, Seva and Miri-Piri	Recall questions on nam japna, kirt karna and vand chakna, seva, N K Singh against a martial reading, miri-piri and the sant-sipahi ideal, gurmukh and manmukh, haumai and the five failings, and Sandhu.	18
The Guru Granth Sahib and Secondary Texts	Recall questions on the Guru Granth Sahib as living Guru and its treatment and uses, its compilation, Gurinder Singh Mann and the Institute of Sikh Studies, the janamsakhis, Bhai Gurdas and the Dasam Granth.	15
The Ten Gurus	Recall questions on Guru Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 and 1708, the martyrdoms of Guru Arjun and Guru Tegh Bahadur, the middle Gurus, one light in ten bodies, the sants, and N K Singh and W O Cole.	12
The Singh Sabha Movement and Sikh Reform	Recall questions on the Singh Sabha movement and its two wings, the Anand Marriage Act, gurdwara reform, the Sikh Rehat Maryada, and Oberoi and the Institute of Sikh Studies on religious boundaries.	9
The Khalsa, the Five Ks and Nam Simaran	Recall questions on the founding in 1699, the amrit ceremony, what each of the five Ks signifies, and the practice of remembrance.	15
The Sikh Diaspora, Migration and Secularisation	Recall questions on Sikh migration, pressures on the code of conduct and assimilation, the law and the panj kakke, mixed and same-sex marriage, caste, Punjabi and English, secular values, science, and G Singh and Tatla.	12
Dharam Yudh, Social Justice and Martyrdom	Recall questions on dharam yudh and its conditions, social justice and halemi raj, shahidi and the martyrdoms of Guru Arjun and Guru Tegh Bahadur, eighteenth-century martyrs, Fenech on martyrdom, and Cole and Sambhi.	18
Khalistan and Sikh Self-Determination	Recall questions on the origins of the demand, 1984 and its aftermath, and the range of Sikh opinion on it.	11
Women and the Feminine in Sikh Teaching	Recall questions on the feminine principle and whether Waheguru is male, N K Singh and Jakobsh on women and scripture, women in Sikh history, the Gurus' reforms, and the gap between principle and practice.	13
Two Ways of Explaining the Divine	Recall questions on the analytic and the unitive ways of accounting for the divine, on nirguna and saguna, on why images are forbidden, and on what Ik Onkar establishes.	11
Religious Freedom, Pluralism and the Bhagat Bani	Recall questions on the bhagat bani in the Guru Granth Sahib, the pluralist reading of Sikh teaching, the boundary with Hindu tradition, Guru Nanak's travels and the yogis, and N K Singh and S B Singh Dalawari.	10
Sikh Views of Other Religions and Worldviews	Recall questions on knowledge of the divine as experience, the rejection of priestly speculation, N K Singh and W O Cole on revelation, reason and evidence, humanist and rationalist critiques, and worldviews that reject the divine.	10

Sikhism is 192 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.