Deck 6: Muslim Traditions

Question 1

What does the term "Islam" mean?

A) God's people
B) Love
C) Loyalty
D) Submission
E) Strength

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following can be considered muslims?

A) Plants
B) Angels
C) Humans
D) Inanimate Objects
E) All of the above

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Whom do Muslims believe built the Ka'ba?

A) Abraham and Ishmael
B) Moses
C) Muhammad
D) Noah and his sons
E) Abraham and Isaac

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Prior to the emergence of Islam, the Arabic term hanifs referred to which of the following?

A) The name referred to "non-Arab" Meccans
B) "Pious ones" in Mecca who shared the ethical monotheism of Christianity and Judaism prior to the emergence of Islam
C) Poets who held to a polytheistic worldview
D) Priests of the neighbouring Persian Empire
E) Ruling elders within the foremost tribe of Mecca

Question 5

What was the name of the tribe into which the prophet Muhammad was born?

A) Al-Amin
B) Sassanid
C) Umayyad
D) Quraysh
E) Hanifs

Question 6

What does the term Qur'an literally mean in English?

A) Revelation
B) Submission
C) Recitation
D) Holy Book
E) Unveiling

Question 7

In the Sunni tradition, who became the khalifa (representative) or successor immediately after Muhammad's death?

A) Abu Bakr
B) Uthman
C) Umar ibn al-Khattab
D) Ali
E) Husayn

Question 8

In what year was the hijrah (migration) of Muhammad and his followers to Yathrib, marking the first year of the Islamic calendar?

A) 762
B) 500
C) 570
D) 632
E) 622

Question 9

In Islam, the qiblah (direction of prayer) was originally to which city?

A) Bethlehem
B) Mecca
C) Jerusalem
D) Medina
E) Cairo

Question 10

What are the two major branches of Islam?

A) Sufi and Shi'a
B) Sunni and Shi'a
C) Umayyad and 'Abbasid
D) Sunni and Sufi
E) Imami and Ismaili

Question 11

What does the term sunnah, from which Sunni Muslims derive their name, refer to?

A) Shari'ah or religious law
B) "Devotees" of God
C) The "traditions" of the Prophet
D) The "true" followers of the Prophet
E) "Partisans" or followers of 'Ali

Question 12

Whom do Shi'a Muslims believe Muhammad appointed as his successor?

A) No one specific; he did not designate a successor
B) His son-in-law 'Ali
C) His wife Khadijah
D) His companion Abu Bakr
E) His freed slave Zayd

Question 13

What is the name of Muhammad's heavenly ascent where he met some other prophets?

A) mi'raj
B) hijrah
C) ijtihad
D) ascension
E) assumption

Question 14

Which hereditary dynasty followed the caliphs as rulers of the Islamic empire?

A) Umayyad
B) Ming
C) 'Abbasid
D) Khan
E) Ottoman

Question 15

Which five messenger-prophets are singled out as of special significance in the Qur'an?

A) Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, Muhammad
B) Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad
C) Abraham, Shu'ayb, Hud, Salih, Muhammad
D) Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Muhammad
E) Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, Elijah, Muhammad

Question 16

What is the Islamic term for the community which Muhammad established?

A) hijrah
B) sunnah
C) iman
D) caliphate
E) ummah

Question 17

What is the name of the three day festival that marks the end of Ramadan?

A) 'Id al-Fitr
B) 'Id al-Adha
C) 'Id al-Ramadan
D) 'Id al-Mubarak
E) 'Id al-Surah

Question 18

Roughly in what order are the chapters (surahs) of the Qur'an organized?

A) Increasing order of length
B) Grouped according to topics
C) Decreasing order of importance
D) Decreasing order of length
E) The exact order in which they were revealed

Question 19

What is the name of the fixed prayer repeated within every cycle or unit (rak'ah)?

A) Fatihah
B) Rak'ah
C) Salat
D) Shema
E) Dhikr

Question 20

Which Arabic term refers to commentary on the Qur'an?

A) Midrash
B) Hadith
C) Shari'ah
D) Tafsir
E) Surah

Question 21

What does the term Arabic word iman mean?

A) Faith, trust and personal sense of well being
B) Almsgiving and caring for the poor
C) Disbelief in the existence of God
D) Ethical living as an act of obedience
E) Voluntarily praying beyond five times a day

Question 22

In Islam, what does the term kufr, the opposite of iman, refer to?

A) Unlawful or forbidden
B) Prayer
C) Knowing the truth but wilfully denying or obscuring it
D) Faith or inner conviction
E) Religious law

Question 23

In the context of Iran, the Arabic term ulama refers to what?

A) Muslim priesthood who cooperated with the secular government
B) Religious leaders who have opposed the secular government
C) Muslim mystics who opposed the secular government
D) Legal scholars who supported the secular government
E) Secular leaders prior to the Islamic revolution

Question 24

In Islam, what are the hadith texts?

A) Declarations from the community of legal scholars
B) Collections of Sufi poetry
C) Collections of sayings traced to Muhammad through oral transmission
D) Commentaries on the Qur'an
E) Important philosophical commentaries

Question 25

Which of the following terms is sacred law (law of God)?

A) shari'ah
B) sunnah
C) ijma
D) haram
E) fiqh

Question 26

In Islam, what does the term halal, in reference to law, mean?

A) Neutral
B) Reprehensible
C) Lawful
D) Forbidden
E) Commendable

Question 27

In Islam, what does the term haram, in reference to law, mean?

A) Forbidden
B) Unlawful
C) Neutral
D) Lawful
E) Commendable

Question 28

What does the term fiqh refer to in Islamic tradition?

A) Spiritual leader
B) The law of God
C) Jurisprudence
D) Mysticism
E) Prayer

Question 29

In Islam, what does the Arabic word ijtihad refer to?

A) Sayings traced to Muhammad through oral transmission
B) Declarations from the community of legal scholars
C) Holy war
D) Personal reasoning of scholars in matters of law
E) General consensus of the community in matters of law

Question 30

Legal opinions issued by the experts in religious law (muftis) are known as what?

A) ijmas
B) taqlids
C) harams
D) surahs
E) fatwas

Question 31

In Islam, what is another name for the Shi'i legal and religious system?

A) Iranian Law
B) Hanafi Law
C) Twelver Law
D) Maliki Law
E) Ja'fari Law

Question 32

Why are "Twelver" Shi'a Muslims so named?

A) Twelve is believed to be the most powerful number.
B) They pray twelve times a day.
C) They believe there were twelve official Imams descending from 'Ali.
D) They are led by an official council of twelve.
E) They believe the twelve apostles of Jesus were also prophets.

Question 33

Early Islamic philosophy was strongly influenced by which of the following?

A) Mongolian Philosophers
B) Greek Thinkers
C) Byzantine Christians
D) Indic Thinkers
E) Chinese Philosophers

Question 34

Which famous Muslim intellectual advanced the double truth theory, which asserts religion and science are both valid ways of arriving at truth?

A) Ibn Khaldun
B) Ibn Rushd (Averroës)
C) Al-Farabi (Avennasar)
D) Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
E) Al-Razi (Rhazes)

Question 35

The Iranian scholar and mystic al-Ghazali is famous for writing which book?

A) The Revivification of the Religious Sciences
B) The Canon of Medicine
C) Timaeus
D) The Book of Healing
E) The Incoherence of Incoherence

Question 36

What is the title of the Muslim who chants the call to prayer?

A) shaykhs
B) dhimmis
C) mu'adhdhin
D) mahdis
E) imamis

Question 37

Ashura commemorates the death of Muhammad's grandson Husayn, which occurred during?

A) First Crusade
B) Battle of Karbala
C) Battle of Badr
D) Battle of the Trench
E) Hijrah

Question 38

According to Imami or "Twelver" Shi'ism, what happened to the twelfth and final Imam?

A) He was killed by Sunni Muslims.
B) He died and deliberately named no successor.
C) He ascended to Heaven and now sits with Muhammad and Jesus.
D) He named his successor in secret before his death, which has passed in succession to a secret Imam ever since.
E) He went into hiding or "occultation" and will return at the end of the world.

Question 39

The term "Sufism" comes from the Arabic word meaning what?

A) Fire
B) Piety
C) Wool
D) Silk
E) Poetry

Question 40

Rabi'a al-'Adawiyah was a famous female what?

A) Mystic
B) Imam
C) Philosopher
D) Jurist (legal expert)
E) Queen

Question 41

What controversial suggestion by the Sufi al-Hallaj resulted in him being executed?

A) That God is simply a metaphor for love.
B) That there was no distinction between God and himself.
C) That he was the next prophet that has received a new message from God.
D) That women should be allowed to be part of the ulama.
E) That the ulama (community of legal scholars) were agents of Satan.

Question 42

In Islam, which Sufi wrote the masterpiece Mathnawi (Couplets)?

A) Al-Ghazali
B) Al-Hasan al-Basri
C) Rabi'a
D) Ibn 'Arabi
E) Rumi

Question 43

Sufi orders are usually founded by Sufi masters called what?

A) Caliphs
B) Imams
C) Mahdis
D) Shaykhs
E) Ulama

Question 44

For the Mevlevi (or Mawlawi) order, which practice is central to their mysticism?

A) Singing
B) Silent Prayer
C) Fasting
D) Dancing
E) Prophesying

Question 45

Protected "People of the Book" (i.e., Jews and Christians) came to be known as what?

A) Mahdis
B) Dhimmis
C) Caliphs
D) Imamis
E) Predecessors

Question 46

Who is the Muslim activist-scholar, professor, of religious studies at DePaul University?

A) Aminah Al-Deen
B) Rabi'a al-'Adawiyah
C) Ilhan Omar
D) Rashida Tlaib
E) Tawakkul Karman

Question 47

The first written references to Islam in China appear in what century?

A) Sixteenth Century
B) Seventeenth Century
C) Eighteenth Century
D) Fifteenth Century
E) Fourteenth Century

Question 48

What ancient Byzantine symbol became the imperial emblem of the Ottomans and then became a symbol for Islam?

A) Minaret
B) Qiblah
C) Buraq
D) Crescent
E) Calligraphy

Question 49

In Islam, what does the Arabic word shahadah refer to?

A) Bearing Witness
B) Almsgiving
C) Daily Prayer
D) Ramadan Fast
E) Pilgrimage to Mecca

Question 50

In Islam, how many times a day must salat prayers be performed?

A) Three
B) Two
C) One
D) Ten
E) Five

Question 51

What day is designated in Islam for congregational assembly and prayer?

A) Monday
B) Sunday
C) Friday
D) Saturday
E) Thursday

Question 52

In Islam, what does the Arabic word zakat refer to?

A) The pilgrimage undertaken once in a lifetime
B) Daily prayer
C) An obligatory tax collected for the needy
D) The declaration of faith
E) The month of fasting

Question 53

During the month of Ramadan, what are Muslims required to do?

A) Fast from dawn until dusk
B) Abstain from smoking and sex
C) Stay at home
D) Both A and B
E) All of the above

Question 54

In Islam, most of the ritual elements of the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) are understood as re-enacting the experiences of which prophet?

A) Abraham
B) Moses
C) Jesus
D) Noah
E) Muhammad

Question 55

Which Muslim won Emmy Awards for Master of None?

A) Aziz Ansari
B) Mahershala Ali
C) Kumail Nanjiani
D) Amina Wadud
E) Muhammad Alexander Webb

Question 56

Who is the most celebrated calligrapher in the United States?

A) Ibn Taymiyyah
B) Muhammad 'Al Sa'ud
C) Ahmad Sirhindi
D) Mohamed Zakariya
E) Sayyid Ahmad Khan

Question 57

The contemporary kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the result of what Islamic revivalist movement?

A) Ahmadi
B) Muslim Brothers
C) Wahhabi
D) Taymiyyah
E) Sanusi

Question 58

In Islam, what does the Arabic term jihad mean?

A) Submission
B) Reason
C) Holy war
D) Struggle
E) Peace

Question 59

What is the name of the prophet revered by the Ahmadis as the Mahdi, the tenth incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, and the returning Messiah of Christianity?

A) Abu Nasr al-Farabi
B) Jalal al-Din Rumi
C) Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
D) Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab
E) Abd al-Muttalib

Question 60

Which modern reformer, author of Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, argued that Western science and philosophy were rightfully part of the Islamic heritage?

A) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
B) Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab
C) Muhammad Iqbal
D) Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
E) Ahmad Barelwi

Question 61

Who transformed the Turkish state from an Islamic domain into a modern secular republic?

A) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
B) Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab
C) Hosni Mubarak
D) Hasan al-Banna
E) Imam Ruhollah Khomeini

Question 62

What Muslim country experienced secular rule from 1501-1979?

A) Iraq
B) Pakistan
C) Iran
D) Afghanistan
E) Turkey

Question 63

What group, founded in the United States, saw Islam as a religion of Black people only?

A) The Nation of Islam
B) Ahmadiyah
C) The Islamic Society
D) The Society of Muslim Brothers
E) The Muslim World

Question 64

Who wrote the hit comedy movie titled The Big Sick?

A) Kumail Nanjiani
B) Aziz Ansari
C) Dave Chapelle
D) Mahershala Ali
E) Ibn Taymiyya

Question 65

Islam means "submission" in Arabic.

Question 66

The shahadah is the forbidden act of denying the existence of God.

Question 67

The Qur'an refers to the period before Islam as the age of "polytheism" and "disbelief."

Question 68

Inanimate things, plants, animals, and angels can all be considered muslims.

Question 69

The Ka'ba is an ancient structure believed to have been built by Muhammad.

Question 70

Muhammad was raised by his uncle Abu Talib.

Question 71

According to tradition, Muhammad was illiterate.

Question 72

The first person to adopt the new faith spread by Muhammad was his friend Abu Bakr.

Question 73

Muhammad first received his call to the prophethood and the first revelation of the Qur'an when on a pilgrimage.

Question 74

The archangel Michael revealed to Muhammad that he was called to be a messenger of God.

Question 75

The word qiblah refers to Muhammad's migration to Yathrib.

Question 76

Muhammad and the Muslims won the Battle of Badr because of their far superior army.

Question 77

The prophet Muhammad immediately expelled Jews from Medina upon its conversion into a Muslim commonwealth.

Question 78

The prophet Muhammad was a military leader in addition to being a spiritual one.

Question 79

The Umayyads established their capital in Baghdad in 661.

Question 80

Moses and Jesus are considered "prophets of power" in Islam.