Hi there, young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marx and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

And today we're going to be looking at Muslim beliefs to do with human responsibility and accountability.

And it's going to get quite philosophical and this little guy is gonna help us.

We will be discussing the idea of Judgement Day, life after death, and the afterlife.

So if you're ready for those topics, then let's go.

So by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to explain what Muslim beliefs are about human responsibility and accountability, their importance and influence on a Muslim's life.

So let's start with our key terms then, accountability, when people have to accept responsibility for their actions, free will, being able to choose between different actions, Judgement Day, when all humans will be judged on their actions in life and sent on to the afterlife, responsibility, free will makes humans accountable for their deeds.

So today's lesson will have two sections, beliefs about accountability and responsibility and the influence of accountability and responsibility.

So let's start with our first section then, beliefs about accountability and responsibility.

Imagine we have a little robot like the one on the screen or the one I have in my hand here.

If our little robot was programmed to always help people in need, so whenever somebody needs help, our little robot goes to help them, would we reward our little robot for what it's done, oh, well done, little robot, you've helped somebody if it was programmed to always do that? What if our little robot was programmed to always hurt people who were in need, always go and hurt them even more? Should we punish our little robot, naughty little robot, for when it does that if it was programmed to do that and it had no other option? Well, Muslims believe that humans can be fairly rewarded and punished for their actions because they were a matter of choice.

So a human can choose to help somebody who's in need or choose to not help someone who's in need and therefore they can be punished for that because they made that free choice.

Our little robot will do whatever we have programmed it to do.

And an important quote from the Qur'an about free will is, "There shall be no compulsion in religion," and that's actually in Surah 2:256.

And we can break this down a little bit by looking at the word compulsion, and that comes from Latin, compulsion.

And the compel bit at the beginning comes from the word compel, which means to force someone or to make someone do something.

So we can see from this that if there's no compulsion in religion, that people can't be forced, they can't be forced to do something, it has to be done through free will.

And there's this idea with an Islam that humans have free will and are freely choosing to do these actions.

And that's really important for beliefs about accountability and responsibility on Judgement Day.

So an important part of this idea about being accountable and responsible for things you've freely chosen to do is that life is a test.

And Muslim teachings state that humans have free will to make good or bad choices in life.

So they're able to choose to do the right thing or the wrong thing in any situation.

And in fact, this life is a test to see which choices people make.

So it is to see which choice a human makes.

We are not like these robots that are programmed to only do good or only do bad, we can do either and it's up to us which we do, and life is a test to see which choice we make.

And these choices and actions will be weighed up on Judgement Day.

So it'll be decided how many good versus how many bad actions did people choose to make.

On Judgement Day, that test will be seen.

So an important lesson teaching to help us understand this is that humans are not born in a state of sin or with blame.

They're born without that.

They're not born with sin from a previous generation or from Adam, for example, from the first man.

So humans are not born in that state.

They're born without sin, without guilt, without blame.

Other religions and different approaches you might have come across or learned about might suggest that we are born with the tendency to do sin or we might be born with the sin of people in the past or our mind just might be more likely to make bad decisions.

So there are those approaches out there, but in Islam that's not a teaching.

We are not born particularly sinful or more likely to do the wrong actions.

That's not a teaching in Islam.

So it's quite important to understand that before we think about what it means to be accountable and responsible.

It's up to each person how they live and if they pass a life's test or not.

So I mentioned Judgement Date earlier on and that's a really important part to understand, human accountability and responsibility is what will happen on Judgement Day.

And the belief in Islam is that each person will be given their book of deeds.

So deeds is a word that's used for actions.

So each person is held responsible for their actions or their deeds that they freely chose to do because of their free will.

So they were responsible because they chose to do whichever action it was.

So that's what gets written in their book of deeds that they get handed on Judgement Day.

Each person is then held accountable for those actions as they'll either be rewarded or punished, depending on the weight of these deeds, good or bad.

So they're responsible because they chose to do it and then they're accountable and they will be judged on it and rewarded or punished.

Let's do a quick check, is this true or false? Muslims believe that people are born with a tendency to sin and with the blame of the actions of the Prophet Adam, who was the first man.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is false, but why? Well, because in Islam, each person has accountability and responsibility for their own sins that they freely chose to do whilst they were alive.

They're not born with original sin or the sin of people before them.

So it's quite an important distinction to know if you've looked at other religions that might have that as a teaching.

So where can we go to look for evidence to support these Muslim teachings then? Well, the first place we're going to look is in the Qur'an, 'cause that's a super important authority within Islam.

And the idea that life is a test can be found in here in a passage relating to the creation of humanity.

And it goes like this, it's in Surah 76 in the Qur'an.

"We created man from a liquid mixture to test him and we made him hearing and seeing.

We guided him to the way, be he appreciative or unappreciative." So can we see anything in here that could support that belief in free will and the idea that life is a test? Pause the video and read through again and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or you can talk to me.

Yeah, so I picked out the word test but also guided here.

I think that's really important because it shows that the purpose of human life is as a test.

It says here, "We created man from a liquid mixture to test him." So that's as if saying, yeah, that is the point, it's to see man and see how man does in the test.

But then this second part here says, "We guided him." So it shows that Allah can guide humans but not force their actions.

So it is still up to the humans what they do and whether they pass the test or not, but they can be guided through Allah, particularly through the words of the Qur'an, well done.

But we've also got this phrase in the Qur'an, which says, "And no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another." And it's actually said five times in the Qur'an.

So that shows that it's really important.

Let's understand it a little bit more, so, "No bearer of burdens." So a burden is when you are carrying the weight of something for somebody.

And if you're bearing it, you are kind of carrying it.

And you can imagine someone holding something or holding the baggage of, and "No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another." So have a think about how this could support the idea of human accountability and responsibility that we've been thinking about so far.

Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, what's important is this bit about another.

So one person is not carrying the burdens, not carrying the baggage, not carrying the blame for another person.

Each person's deeds and punishments belong to them.

They're not judged on someone else's action.

And this is mentioned so often that it must be important if it's mentioned five times in the Qur'an, that each person is responsible and accountable for their own deeds, not for another person's.

And then we've also got this passage in the Qur'an, which is supporting human accountability.

"And on the Day of Resurrection, we will bring for him a book in which he will find spread open.

Read your book, today there will be none but yourself to call you to account." And that's in Surah 17 in the Qur'an.

So how can that passage support the idea about human accountability? What beliefs about human accountability could it support? So have a read through it again, pause the video and again, talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, this one's really bringing in the idea of the accountability happening on the Day of Judgement after resurrection.

And we've got this idea of being held to account.

So when you have to account for something, if you think of what an accountant does or if you are taking accounts, then it's to do with marking off and checking the amount of something and measuring it up and making sure everything is accounted for.

And so, there's this idea on the Day of Judgement , that those deeds and those actions will have to be accounted for.

Well, I've got here that Allah will judge people depending on their actions and people will either have a pleasant life or go to hell depending on their actions, they will be made to pay account for their actions that they freely chose to do.

So Sofia and Andeep now are discussing how these sources could support a belief in accountability and responsibility, and Sofia says, "A Muslim might believe that humans are accountable for their actions because each person's actions will be recorded in a book of deeds.

It says in the Qur'an, 'On the Day of Resurrection, each person will have to read your book and take account.

'" So that's very clear, that idea that the book will have written and the person needs to take account for each of those actions that they've done.

And what I love about Sofia's work here is she said where it's come from, she said that it's the Qur'an.

And Andeep says, "A Muslim might believe they're each responsible for their own actions because in the Qur'an it repeats the phrase, 'And no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another,' five times." So Andeep's taken that quote that we had earlier that we know is important 'cause it's repeated five times, that one person can't be responsible for another person's actions.

And again, what I like about Andeep's work here is he said it's from the Qur'an.

So well done Sofia and Andeep there.

So time for another check then.

Which of these statements is most accurate about Muslim beliefs about human accountability and responsibility? Humans can be responsible for the sins of people born after them if they're from the same family, humans have free will so they're responsible for their actions, humans are born sinful and held accountable for the sins of those who came before them.

Which of those is accurate? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, B is the only one that's accurate there to do with Muslim beliefs, the idea that humans have free will and they're responsible for their own actions, well done.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned so far.

You're going to explain two Muslim beliefs about human accountability and responsibility, you're going to refer to sacred writings or another source of Muslim belief and teaching in your answer.

And you might like to use this structure.

Point develop, point develop twice.

And for one of them, you're going to name a relevant source and explain what it teaches in relation to your point.

And it could be a quote or a general belief or teaching.

So have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Pause the video, off you go.

Well done for your hard work there.

So your answer may look something like this to the question I asked, which is to explain two Muslim beliefs about human accountability and responsibility.

One Muslim belief about human accountability and responsibility is that humans are responsible for their own actions and they'll be accountable for them when judged by Allah.

Muslims believe this because it says in the Qur'an, "We created man to test him," meaning that the test is to see if people make the right choices in life or not.

Secondly, another Muslim belief about human accountability and responsibility is that humans can be fairly judged because they've made these choices freely, it's because there can be no compulsion in religion.

So what I've done in the first part of this answer is brought in my source, which is the Qur'an, using the quote, "We created man to test him," showing that this is related to the idea of life being a test and those free choices being made, people being held accountable and responsible for them, well done.

So on to our second section then, the influence of accountability and responsibility.

So the belief that life is a test and that each person will be judged fairly on their actions is a very important one in Islam just as we've been thinking about, so this idea that life is a test.

When it looks to the idea that Allah is just and fair and one of the 99 names of Allah is al-Adl, and it's a very important idea, particularly within Shia Islam of al-Adl, the justice of God.

It also links to the idea of the punishment of Judgement Day being fair.

So the idea that people have freely chosen to do different actions, meaning they can be tested on that and therefore judged on that for Judgement Day.

Also the idea that life is a test is that each person will be held accountable for their own actions is each individual's test and they are the ones who are going to hold their book of deeds at the end on Judgement Day.

You're not going to be there paying for the deeds of someone else.

And finally it means that Muslims can help to guide other people but they can't make people do certain actions.

It's their own responsibility.

Muslims can show the way and lead the way for different people, but ultimately it's up to them because of no compulsion in religion.

So an example of a Muslim who's doing just that is Abdi.

Abdi is a Muslim prison chaplain and he's influenced by these beliefs of accountability and responsibility in his work.

So let's hear what he says.

"I'm a Muslim prison chaplain.

It means I support prisoners in their spiritual journey as they spend time in prison.

I may work with people who've done terrible crimes, but I don't believe anyone is born sinful.

Everyone can change their ways and do good deeds with the right guidance and support." So whilst Abdi working with people in prison who may have done terrible crimes, he doesn't believe that they were born sinful and had to do those things but it was their choice.

So they can choose not to do those things again in the future.

And that's what he wants to help guide them with, but he can't force them 'cause it's down to them.

How do these beliefs about accountability and responsibility influence Abdi in his work then? Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done, some great ideas there.

So more broadly then, how could beliefs about human responsibility and human accountability influence a Muslim's beliefs, thoughts and actions? Because influence can be any way that it really impacts the life of a Muslim, a bit like we saw with Abdi in his work as a prison chaplain there, and these can be impacting beliefs, thoughts and actions of Muslims. And in what way could accountability and responsibility do this? While the idea of human accountability could cause someone to believe yeah, that some actions are sinful, some actions are sinful, some actions are not sinful.

And that's a belief that somebody could have due to the idea of human accountability.

Someone could have a thought or a desire that they want to avoid doing sin.

So a belief in human accountability that they will be held accountable for what they've done can lead to a thought as a desire wanting to avoid sinning.

Human accountability could also lead to actions where a Muslim prays for strength to make the right good choices or they're praying each day to remember that they should be making the right choices and asking for that help and strength to do the right thing because they will be held accountable for the actions that they do.

What about human responsibility then? Well, a belief that humans have responsibility for their actions could lead to a belief that all humans have free will, 'cause how can I be responsible for something that I haven't freely chosen to do? A belief in human responsibility could also lead to thoughts that while everyone can be good if they try, we are not born bad or sinful and we can help people to try and do good.

And we could have that thought that while everyone could be doing good if they try and they're shown the right way, a bit like Abdi working in the prison there.

So then that can lead to actions of wanting to help people who are struggling to do good.

So a Muslim won't believe that they can do those good actions for the other person and help them get rewarded for that in the afterlife, but what they can do is help guide them and show them the way.

Let's do another check, is this true or false? A belief in human responsibility and accountability could influence a Muslim to want to help those who make the wrong choices in life.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is true, but why? Well, it is true because Muslims may want to help others make the right choices as all people will be held accountable and responsible for their actions, they want to help them so that those people can have more good deeds when they're held accountable and they are responsible for their own good deeds, but they can be encouraged by Muslims, well done.

So let's hear now from some more Muslims about how this belief in human accountability and responsibility might influence them, remembering that that can be beliefs, thoughts, and actions.

So Sofia asks Hassan, "How does a belief in human accountability and responsibility influence you, Hassan?" And Hassan says, "My belief in human accountability and responsibility influences me as I think it's up to me what actions I do and the choices I make.

On Judgement Day, when I get handed that book of deeds, I know they were all my own choices and actions.

This helps me to take more responsibility in my own life.

I can't blame anyone else.

I pray to Allah for the strength to make the right choices every day." So here we've got some thoughts and some actions that Hassan is doing.

He's thinking more about the actions he does because he knows it's really just basically up to him on that final day when he gets his book of deeds, but then also that's causing him to take more responsibility for his actions and to pray more to God, to have strength to do the right choices.

And what I really like is this phrase here about not being able to blame anyone else, and that reminds me of the part of the Qur'an that we said is said five times about not being able to bear the burden of another.

What other Muslim beliefs may be influencing Hassan to do and think these things? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

You can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So you might have said things to do with beliefs about life after death, beliefs about God, beliefs about prayer, fantastic.

So now we're gonna hear from Nadia.

Andeep asks, "How does a belief in human accountability and responsibility influence you, Nadia?" And Nadia says, "My belief in human accountability and responsibility influences me daily because as a mum, I know I can guide my children the right actions of our religion, but I can't force them.

On the Day of Judgement , each of them will be accountable for their own actions.

I guide them in Islam, but I can't take the rewards or punishments for them." So Nadia here is influenced by belief of human accountability and responsibility to think that she can be a guide for her children and that leads to actions where she is guiding them.

I can imagine her teaching them about Islam, talking to them about Islam, but she can't force them in what they're doing.

And that reminds me of the passage in the Qur'an we had earlier, that there is no compulsion in religion.

And what other beliefs may be influencing Nadia to do and think this? Pause the video and have a think.

You can talk to the person next you or talk to me.

So again here we could have ideas around Judgement Day and the afterlife as well as the nature of Allah, well done.

So Hassan and Nadia have just shown us there's often more than one way that beliefs can influence believers.

So together, let's give a way that a belief in human accountability and responsibility might influence a Muslim.

What could we say? Well, we could say that they are going to pray for strength to make the right choices because they know that the choice they make is down to them because life is a test and they're not forced to do it either way.

So they're praying from the strength to make the right choice and pass that test.

So now over to you.

Give one way that a belief in human accountability and responsibility might influence or a Muslim.

Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, I've got guiding others here as a suggestion for how a belief in human accountability and responsibility might influence a Muslim.

So onto another practise task to see what we've learned then.

You're going to explain two ways that a belief about human accountability and responsibility influences Muslims today.

And for this you're going to give a point and develop it twice.

And remember, we don't need to have a source of authority for this question, it hasn't asked for it.

What's important is that you explain that influence, and that would be how it impacts the life of a Muslim, it could be their beliefs, thoughts, and actions.

So guidance for how you can do this, you're going to give one way that beliefs about human accountability and responsibility could influence Muslims, then develop it, so you explain how and why this would impact the life of a Muslim.

Then give another way beliefs about human accountability and responsibility can influence Muslims, and then explain how and why this could impact the life of a Muslim.

So pause the video and off you go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, some really good work there.

So I asked you to explain two ways that a belief about human accountability and responsibility influences Muslims today.

Your response might be similar to this.

Beliefs about human responsibility and accountability can influence Muslims by encouraging Muslims to pray for the strength to make good choices in life.

This is because they believe they will be personally responsible and accountable for the actions they have taken.

And I've used that phrase, say this is because to show that I'm developing the point that I've made.

Secondly, beliefs about human responsibility and accountability can also influence Muslims to want to help others who struggle to make good choices in life.

This is because they believe each person has free will and can make the right choice, no one is born evil or bad.

So here I brought in that key term of free will as well.

And again, I've used the phrase, this is because, to show that I'm developing on my point.

Well done for your hard work there.

So let's summarise what we've learned today then.

Human responsibility and accountability.

Muslim teachings state that all humans will be held responsible and accountable for their actions on Judgement Day.

Allah is a fair and just judge, and so these actions must have been chosen through using free will.

The actions of each person will be recorded in a book of deeds and will not include deeds or actions from other people, past, present, or future.

People are not born sinful or bad in Islam, but have the capacity to do good or evil depending on their free will.

A belief in human accountability and responsibility is supported by the Qur'an and will influenced a Muslim in many ways.

So well done for your hard work today and I'll see you soon, bye-bye.