Lesson video

Hello, good morning to you all.

My name is Mr. Latif and I am a teacher of RE and I really look forward to teaching you with this unit of Islam beliefs and Islam practises.

So before we get into our learning today, I just thought, I'd let you know a bit about me.

So one of my heroes, one of my heroes, here's Malcolm X, a great thinker and I would say one of the most important thinkers of the last hundred years.

And I think all students can take two lessons from the life of Malcolm X.

So number one, that he was self disciplined and number two, that you're self motivated.

And I think by you having these qualities with your learning, you're on your way to being very successful in life.

So hopefully you get an opportunity to read this biography of Malcolm X, maybe when you're a bit older.

So today's learning, we're going to be looking at the life of Prophet Ibrahim for Muslims. And there are a few things that we will be focusing on.

So we've been looking at his life, the significance of the life of Prophet Ibrahim for Muslims today, and also some key events that occur.

So understanding and looking at how Prophet Ibrahim called people towards Tawhid and monotheism, and then looking up of the impact of his life today for Muslims. We have a main focus on the Id ul-Adha, and also that's of the pilgrimage of Hajj.

So there's five things you need for today's learning, which are the following.

You will need attentive ears, which are very important.

A curious brain.

You'll need some paper or your exercise book, a black pen or a blue pen and also a different coloured pen or a pencil for your corrections.

So let's get into our learning for today.

Okay and welcome to our first lesson.

And our first lesson today on this unit on Islam and beliefs is: How significant is the life of Prophet Ibrahim for Muslims today? So I'm really excited to be teaching all of you.

And I'm really, really interested to see your work at the end of the learning as well.

So one of the key things that we'll be looking at today, so three main key things is the life of Prophet Ibrahim.

To learn the significance of Prophet Ibrahim calling people towards Tawhid for Muslims today.

And to actually understand why the life of Prophet Ibrahim and his actions are still significant for Muslims today.

So our main focus there will be on that of the Id and that of the Hajj pilgrimage.

So just a reminder of what you need.

Hopefully you've got them already from the introduction video, but if you do not have these, please ensure that you have them available now.

And the most important thing that I'm really looking for is just a curious brain and attentive ears so that you take down your work today.

So to start off we're going to do a bit of true or false.

So there's going to be three statements on the board that you're going to be seeing.

And I'd like you to write down these statements, then next to them, write down whether you believe them to be true or false.

But also I really want us to stretch ourselves for this first task.

So I'd like for you, if you can possible to explain why you believe the statement to be true or false, okay.

So justify your reasoning, justify your thinking please.

So the following three statements here, Prophet Ibrahim also known as Abraham in other traditions is a significant individual in both Christianity and Judaism, true or false, please write down your answers.

Prophet Ibrahim is famous for calling people towards polytheism and Prophet Ibrahim was known to fail tests and commands of God.

So what I'd like you to do is to write down three statements next to them, write down whether they're true or false.

And at this part of the learning, could I please ask that you spent five minutes and to pause the video and then we will come back in a moment together and to look at our answers.

So if you just pause the video now, and we'll come back in five minutes.

Okay, so let's look up our answers for these questions.

So question one is true.

Prophet Ibrahim also known as Abraham is a significant individual in both the Christian faith and the Jewish faith.

And for this reason, these three religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, there's a title for them.

Yeah, so an umbrellic term that we use for the, these three religions is they're known as the Abrahamic faiths, yeah.

'Cause they all have Abraham or Ibrahim as a key individual, whether he is a prophet or a founder.

Okay, so these are known as a monotheistic beliefs.

So if you have that in your answer, absolutely fantastic.

Really, really proud of you.

Question two, Prophet Ibrahim is famous for calling people towards polytheism.

So that's false, that is not true and we'll be looking at as to why that is false in a moment today.

And question three, Prophet Ibrahim was known to fail tests and commands of God.

And we know this to be false because you may have learned this already with your teacher in terms of the sacrifice or the command for sacrifice by God.

So hopefully we are able to justify your reasons in your answer there.

And now we're going to continue on looking at some stories of the life of Prophet Ibrahim.

So here's your title, boys and girls: The Story of Prophet Ibrahim and the Idols.

So I would just like for you to pause it for a moment, if you haven't already to ensure that you've written down the title here and what we will be doing is having a bit of a story time.

So we're going to be looking at this story together.

So there's two options here regarding this story.

You can either follow with me if you'd like to read it as well or if you want, you can close your eyes and just listen to me as I read the story.

And then there's some questions for you.

So your attentive ears are very important here 'cause there's some questions for you to answer afterwards.

Prophet Ibrahim from the age of a young man was an individual who pondered upon the creation of the world and declared a belief in Allah and the oneness of Allah known as Tawhid as the sole creator of the universe.

Prophet Ibrahim was unlike his people who attributed creation to stars, to the moon, to the sun and many people worshipped these during those days.

So many people will say the moon created everything.

The sun creates everything, the stars created everything.

And many of them also would attribute the creation to idols.

So they'd say the idols are their Gods.

Yeah, that was the belief held at that time.

So there's one day when everyone had left town that Prophet Ibrahim had taken the opportunity to show to his people that actually the idols were not true Gods.

So as everyone left town for a feast, he took an axe and he destroyed all the idols except one, the largest idol and he decided to leave the axe in the hands of that larger idol.

So this was done intentionally so Prophet Ibrahim could bring his people to the truth.

So he could show them who is the true God.

Now on their return after this feast, they were shocked and furious.

"What's happened? What's happened to all of our Gods? What's happened to all the idols, yeah." Prophet Ibrahim replied, he said, "Well, the biggest statue destroyed them all and you can it." So they replied to Prophet Ibrahim, "Well the statue can't talk, it can't see, it can't move." And this is when Prophet Ibrahim really challenged their belief.

"Why are you worshipping idols?" Why are you attributing qualities such as all powerful, creator, eternal, to these idols that are, you know, not of these qualities.

So they were furious and angry at Prophet Ibrahim.

And they demanded that he was to be burned alive for insulting their idols and shaming them.

So a fire was prepared and Prophet Ibrahim was thrown into it, but there was the miracle of Allah, yeah and the miracle, definition of miracle, before we move on to it, a miracle is an event which breaks the laws of nature done by a deity.

A deity meaning God.

So in Islam, Allah is the one true God.

And the miracle of Allah that Ibrahim.

And the miracle of Allah was that Ibrahim did not burn as the Qur'an states the following.

Allah said, "O fire be coolness and safety upon Abraham." So whilst Ibrahim was put into this, into this fire, he was not touched by the fire.

So the miracle was that he walked away untouched.

This was to the amazement of so many people and it made them ponder and reflect.

And many of them rejected polytheism after this.

And they became followers of Ibrahim.

And they followed the belief of monotheism known in Arabic as Tawhid, the oneness of God.

So what I'd like for you to do now is the following.

I would like for you to write down these four questions, to pause the video and to spend 10 minutes answering these questions.

And then we will come back together to look at some answers.

So if I could ask you to pause the video now to complete your task and then resume back in 10 minutes once you've finished the task here.

Okay, so right now you'll need another coloured pen out for corrections, but hopefully we don't have to use them.

So let's look at some answers together.

Question one, what belief did Prophet Ibrahim have? He had the belief in the oneness of God, known as Tawhid.

What did Prophet Ibrahim do to all the statues except the largest when his people left for a feast? He destroyed them all with an axe except the largest to test people.

Why were they angry at first but many of them later shocked? They were angry at first 'cause Prophet Ibrahim questioned their belief in the idols being Gods that could not speak hear, see, defend or perform actions.

Later many were shocked when the true God for Muslims known as Allah saved Ibrahim from a fire, which was done by his people out of anger.

So they put him in the fire out of that.

They put them in the fire, apologies due to the anger of him destroying all the idols.

How does this link to Tawhid? Well, this story links Tawhid as Prophet Ibrahim was a caller to the oneness of God and he restored monotheism in his community who practised polytheism.

So I have an image here and as you can see, you're probably thinking, well, why are the faces covered? Well, we go over that in a moment.

But what I like you to do for this task is to write down three questions that you have about this image.

So at this point of the learning, once again, boys and girls, could I please ask that you pause the video and to spend three minutes to write down three questions that you may have.

So some of the questions that you may have, here I am, I'm back is who is in this photo? What is the man holding? Why is there an animal? Why is there a child on the floor with his hands tied? Now, going back to the point I mentioned, you're probably thinking, well, why are the faces of these two individuals covered? So for many Muslims and for the majority of Muslims, any image or drawing of the prophets is strictly forbidden.

And the reason for this is that prophets are seen as Holy individuals and is to ensure that people don't start worshipping the messenger.

So the reason is that they worship the message that was delivered by the prophets, but not to worship the messengers, to not make the prophets Gods, okay.

Because historically this is what has occurred in many previous faiths, yeah.

And Muslims reject the idea of God having an image or the prophets having an image.

Now a key thing here, yeah.

Muslims do not worship the prophets.

They hold them in high regard, they're individuals that are seen as Holy and they're individuals that are seen as seekers of truth and gave the message of truth but their images are not drawn.

Yeah, 'cause they're seen us Holy.

Now we're going to be looking at the story of Ibrahim and Ishmael.

So what I'd like you to do is the following.

I would like you to just listen to my voice, as I tell you this story, and then there's going to be a question, which I'd like you to answer afterwards.

So I'm just going to show you the question now.

So you can get prepared to really think about what you need to listen closely to for this story.

So the question will be in a moment.

How were Ibrahim and his son Ishmael tested by Allah? So if you listen to this story, attentive is as always, and let's get going.

So Prophet Ibrahim, a prophet of God in Islam, he was married to someone known as Sara or Sarah, okay.

Now Sarah and Ibrahim, were hoping to have a child.

And that child they hoped would spread the message of Allah.

But as time passed, Sarah was unable to get pregnant.

So the couple relocated in Egypt and Sarah was given a female servant known as Hajar and Ibrahim married her as well, as a second wife.

Now Hajar and Ibrahim had a child.

So their child that they had, which was a big news for Ibrahim, was the son of Ishmael.

Now Ishmael and Ibrahim and this story is really significant because there is a trial, there is a command and this story is about Prophet Ibrahim's obedience to Allah.

So Allah wanted to test Ibrahim's submission.

So in a dream Prophet Ibrahim was instructed to sacrifice his son, Ishmael to Allah.

Now can you imagine, it's his first son after many, many, many years.

So Ibrahim told his son Ishmael about the dream.

And they both agreed to submit to the will of God.

Ishmael said, "Father, if this is a dream and a command by God, it is something you must fulfil." So you can imagine, it's a very scary time, but they both had a true sense of faith in God.

Now as Ibrahim is taking Ishmael to this mountain or this hill where he's about to sacrifice him with a knife during that journey, the Shaytaan or Satan is tempting him.

And he's saying, "You don't have to obey God.

You don't need to listen to God.

Why would God tell you to sacrifice your son?" And Ibrahim rejects the temptations of Shaytaan.

So they are on this mountain and Ishmael is laying, he's prostrating down with his forehead, touching the ground.

Whilst his father has a large knife, which is very sharp and is about to strike it to his neck.

At this moment, Allah called down, "Oh, Ibrahim, you have done my bidding and you will now be rewarded." And instead a large ram or a goat appeared as an alternative sacrifice and instead of killing his son, Ibrahim slaughtered the sheep to the glory of Allah.

So it was a test of faith.

And we're going to look and understand in a moment how that sacrifice is still significant for Muslims today.

So what I like you to do, just back here, you go boys and girls, is to spend five minutes to answer this question.

So the question is: How were Ibrahim and his son Ishmael tested by Allah? So at this point of the video, I'd like you to pause it for five minutes and then resume the video in a moment and we'll go over the answer.

So if you just pause the video now and to spend five minutes answering this question.

Okay.

Okay, good to see you back.

Your answer you should have had for this question was the following.

Ibrahim and Ishmael were tested by Allah through Ibrahim's dream in which he had a dream and a command of God to sacrifice his son.

So it was a test of their submission and obedience to God.

Yeah, that should have been your answer there.

So now we're going to be looking at the significance of the life Ibrahim for Muslims today.

So we've learned about some key events.

He was a caller towards Tawhid and now the impact and significance of the life of Ibrahim for Muslims today.

So this image here, maybe some of you have seen it before.

If you haven't, this is the Kaaba and Kaaba is the house of God, okay? Now all Muslims, wherever they are in the world, direct their prayer towards the Kaaba and that can be done by the use of a compass on their phone or on a prayer mat that has a compass.

So depending on where you are in the world, If this is a world map like this and Mecca is in the middle.

Everyone is praying towards the Kaaba, if they are Muslim of course, yeah.

So the life of Ibrahim is significant and important for Muslims today, as Allah chose Ibrahim as a prophet to call people towards Tawhid known as monotheism.

In his life Ibrahim and his son Ishmael, went through many tests and with each they were successful.

They successful servants for God.

Ibrahim called people towards Tawhid through the story of the idols, which showed people towards the true God, being Allah.

Ibrahim and Ishmael were true servants of Allah through the tests and command of Ibrahim sacrificing his son.

And also Ibrahim and Ishmael were commanded by God to build a Kaaba, to spread the message of worship, okay.

So these are really significant today 'cause they're significant when we look at something like the Hajj and Id ul-Adha.

So a good way, I teach my students to remember Id ul-Adha because there's two, there's Id ul-Adha and Id ul-Fitr I'm going to learn about them in Islam practises.

Id ul-Adha look closely, yeah.

It says A at the end, the way I remember it A for Abraham.

Yeah, so the pilgrimage of Hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam, it reminds Muslims of the life of Ibrahim.

There's many events that occur there, which signifies some key events of the life of Ibrahim.

They go to visit the Kaaba, they worship it.

Apologies their worship Allah, but the Kaaba signifies the unity and oneness of God, okay.

So just to clarify that again, they worship Allah, but the Kaaba signifies the oneness of God.

Now when they go there, that's the Tawaf.

They go around the Kaaba, yeah.

There's the running of the mountains, yeah.

From Mountain Safa to Marwa and that reminds them when Ibrahim's wife was running from one place to another to seek water for the young son, Ishmael, and then by the decree of God, when Ishmael's ankle or achilles hit the floor, the gushing of the Zamzam water came.

Which was seen as God, God being close to his believers.

They called upon him and God gave them, you know, the blessing of water.

There's also the ritual of collecting stones at Mina and this reminds Muslims of Ibrahim's trust and obedience in Allah and rejecting the temptations of Shaytaan.

So when Muslim's go to the Hajj today at Mina there this is long, long pillar and it's meant to represent the devil and they throw stones to remember and to signify that Prophet Ibrahim did not give into the temptations of Shaytaan and that he was someone who followed the command of Allah.

The Tawaf around the Kaaba which I've already mentioned.

They go round and round and round and also the Qurbani.

So the Qurbani is this sacrifice, okay.

So as the story suggests, the sacrifice of a goat or a ram was done instead.

And then at the end of Id, there is a sacrifice which all able Muslims do.

So if they can or can afford to do so, they sacrifice an animal.

And the meat is given, well one third is given to the poor and this remembers or reminds them of the story of Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ishmael, and the sacrifice that he was about to make and God declaring that it was a test and a command instead.

So a lot of information there, wasn't it? So what I like you to do now, final tasks that we have here today is a question.

And I would like you to answer this question in two paragraphs.

So the question is quite long, but it's about considering the impact and considering the links of historically, the life of Prophet Ibrahim with Muslim actions and rituals today.

So can you please write down this question, explain why Prophet Ibrahim is significant for Muslims today and the links that his life has to the Hajj pilgrimage and Id ul-Adha.

Now, if you're thinking Mr. Latif, wow, that was a lot of information to take in and you went very quick, well then do the following.

Why don't you go back to the video for a bit, listen up again and come back to this part of the video.

And at this part, you should be pausing it and answering this question.

So I will give you an opportunity now just to pause the task and for you to write down your answers.

Okay and that is our learning for today.

So I really hope you enjoyed your first lesson on Islam beliefs and looking at the life of Prophet Ibrahim.

And if you get an opportunity to do so, please share your work with Oak National, with the #LearnwithOak, and it gives me an opportunity to see your work as well on Twitter.

So just a quick one, just to summarise as well.

If we just go back to this question here to go over it.

Why is the life of Prophet Ibrahim significant for Muslims today, or is still significant for Muslims today 'cause many rituals and events that occur at the Hajj and of Id remind Muslims of the trials and tests of Ibrahim.

And it also is important today because it reminds them that Ibrahim was a messenger that called people towards Tawhid and the worship of God and God alone.

So I really hope you've enjoyed your learning today.

It's absolutely fantastic that you've been able to be in the learning with me and the final thing for you to do have an opportunity to do the exit quiz.

And I really look forward to seeing you soon and take care.