Developments in Islamic Thought

What Developments in Islamic Thought covers

Component 04, one of the five Developments in Religious Thought options. Revelation and the Prophet, the sources of Sunni and Shi'a Islam, the oneness of God and human destiny, the Shari'a in practice, Sufism, and Islam's engagement with science, gender, tolerance, justice, the state and life in Europe.

The 12 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Prophecy and revelation in IslamRecall questions on nubuwwa and wahy, the angel of revelation, nabi and rasul, Ibrahim, Musa and Isa, the Prophet Muhammad as seal of the prophets, tahrif, the inimitability of the Qur'an, revelation in ritual and festivals, and Islam's relationship to Judaism and Christianity.Open →
• Hadith, Sira and the formation of Sunni and Shi'a IslamRecall questions on Hadith and Sira and their limits as sources, the first revelation in al-Bukhari and Ibn Hisham, the Sunni and Shi'a accounts of the succession, the Imams and ahl al-bayt, the salaf and consensus, religious authority, and whether the division is political or theological.Open →
• The oneness of God (tawhid)Recall questions on tawhid, the Qur'an on God's unity and incomparability, the kalam cosmological argument, the Qur'anic arguments from design and against more than one God, the Mu'tazilite, Ash'arite and Hanbali approaches to anthropomorphic descriptions of God, and why speculative theology has been distrusted.Open →
• Human destiny, the afterlife and divine willRecall questions on the purposes of human existence, Adam, the barzakh and the Day of Resurrection, divine justice and mercy, heaven and hell, Mu'tazilite free will and the Ash'arite doctrine of kasb, Ghazali on free will and omnipotence, and life as a test.Open →
• The Shari'a and Islamic law in practiceRecall questions on Shari'a and fiqh, the scriptural and non-scriptural sources of law, ijtihad and taqlid, the madhhabs, rulings on intoxicants, riba and tobacco, the aims of the law, Shari'a in daily life, and whether Islamic law can answer new problems.Open →
• Sufism and Islamic spiritualityRecall questions on ihsan, dhikr and tazkiyat al-nafs, fana' and baqa' in drunken and sober Sufism, shatahat, states and stations, wilaya, master and disciple, the tariqa, Rumi's Song of the Reed, whether Sufism is authentic to Islam, and reformist criticism of it.Open →
• Islam, science and philosophyRecall questions on the Qur'an and the study of nature, medieval Muslim medicine, mathematics and astronomy, Ghazali's crises and his judgement of the philosophers and causation, Ibn Rushd on philosophy and religious law, levels of knowledge and his reply to Ghazali, and their lasting influence.Open →
• Gender in Islam: equality, law and feminismRecall questions on the spiritual and legal equality of women and men, significant women of early Islam, local culture, awra and modesty, family law, feminist rereadings of scripture and their critics, the headscarf and the veil, and Muslim women's religious scholarship.Open →
• Tolerance, religious freedom and apostasyRecall questions on the Qur'an on compulsion in religion, ahl al-kitab, the dhimma contract, the treatment of minorities in medieval and modern Muslim societies, Ghazali on unbelief, classical and modern positions on apostasy, and whether Islam is a tolerant religion.Open →
• Justice, jihad and liberationRecall questions on justice in the Qur'an, enjoining right and forbidding wrong, greater and lesser jihad and the conditions on armed jihad, terrorism, mercy, qisas, diya and maslaha, Ali Shari'ati and the Iranian revolution, and Abdal Hakim Murad's critique of Islamist revivalism.Open →
• Islam and the stateRecall questions on the contractual Sunni state, ruler and ulama, rebellion, the Shi'a Imam, the occultation and wilayat al-faqih, secularism, Western legal codes and reactions to them, religion and state in pre-modern thought, and whether democracy and the nation-state are compatible with Islam.Open →
• Islam in EuropeRecall questions on hijra and the classical categories of territory, da'wa, minority jurisprudence and its critics, European Islam and Mustafa Ceric's declaration, Bosnia, multiculturalism and French laicite, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hostility, and integration and coexistence.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Tawhid vs Shirk

  Tawhid: the absolute oneness of God. Shirk: associating any partner with God, the gravest sin.

• Shari'a vs Fiqh

  Shari'a: the divine law itself. Fiqh: the scholarly understanding and elaboration of that law.

• Sunni Islam vs Shi'a Islam

  Sunni Islam: the tradition accepting the succession of the elected caliphs. Shi'a Islam: the tradition holding leadership passed through the Prophet's family.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What do Muslims mean by nubuwwa, and how is it different from wahy?

   Model answer

   Nubuwwa is prophethood: God's selection of particular human beings to carry His guidance to a people. Wahy is the revelation itself, the communication God sends down to the one He has chosen. Muslims hold that prophethood is a divine appointment rather than a human achievement, that prophets remain human and are never divine, and that what they deliver is not their own invention. The two ideas are linked, because a prophet is defined by receiving wahy and passing it on faithfully.

2. 2

   Which angel do Muslims believe carried revelation to the prophets, and why does that matter?

   Model answer

   Jibril, known in English as Gabriel. Muslims believe Jibril is the medium through whom God's words reached the human recipient, so scripture is not the prophet's own composition. Muslims hold that Jibril brought the Qur'an to Muhammad in instalments across roughly twenty-three years. Because an angel mediates, Muslims can affirm at once that God is utterly beyond creation and that He has genuinely spoken to humanity.

3. 3

   What is the difference between a nabi and a rasul in Muslim thought?

   Model answer

   Both terms name prophets, but most Muslim scholars distinguish them. A rasul, a messenger, is sent with a revealed book and a dispensation for a community. A nabi conveys God's guidance without bringing a new sacred law, usually confirming what an earlier messenger delivered. On this account every messenger is also a prophet, but not every prophet is a messenger. Ibrahim, Musa, Isa and Muhammad are all counted among the messengers.

4. 4

   Why is Ibrahim (Abraham) significant in Muslim belief and practice?

   Model answer

   Muslims regard Ibrahim as the pattern of unmixed monotheism, a hanif who broke with idolatry and gave himself wholly to God, and the Qur'an presents him as belonging to no later community but simply submitting to God. He is a founding figure shared with Jews and Christians, and Muslim tradition credits him and his son Isma'il with raising the sanctuary at Mecca. His readiness to surrender his son is recalled each year at Eid al-Adha, which makes him a moral exemplar as much as a link in the chain of revelation.

5. 5

   Why is Musa (Moses) significant in Muslim belief and practice?

   Model answer

   Musa is the prophet named most often in the Qur'an. Muslims hold that he received the Tawrat, spoke directly with God, confronted Pharaoh and led the Israelites out of bondage, which makes him both a bearer of revealed law and a model of courage before tyranny. Muslim commentators treat his story as the great scriptural case of God siding with the oppressed. His fasting is also linked to the voluntary fast of Ashura, so his example enters Muslim practice as well as belief.

6. 6

   How do Muslims understand Isa (Jesus), and where does this differ from Christian teaching?

   Model answer

   Muslims honour Isa as one of the greatest messengers, born of the virgin Maryam, given the Injil, and empowered by God to heal and to raise the dead. Muslim teaching holds that these were signs granted by God rather than evidence of divinity. Islam therefore rejects the claims that Isa is the son of God, that he is part of a Trinity, and, on the mainstream reading, that he died on the cross, holding instead that God raised him. Many Muslims also expect his return before the end of time.

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Developments in Islamic Thought revision questions

What does Developments in Islamic Thought cover in OCR A-Level Religious Studies?

12 subtopics: prophecy and revelation in islam, hadith, sira and the formation of sunni and shi'a islam, the oneness of god (tawhid), human destiny, the afterlife and divine will, the shari'a and islamic law in practice, sufism and islamic spirituality, islam, science and philosophy, gender in islam: equality, law and feminism, tolerance, religious freedom and apostasy, justice, jihad and liberation, islam and the state and islam in europe. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Developments in Islamic Thought organised?

By the OCR H573 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.