Note: Your answers do not need to be long and detailed. I will accept short answers of one to two lines as well.

1. What was the first sect in Islam and what did it dispute about?

1. What do you understand by the phenomenon of Islam and what approaches/methods are adopted to study that?

Three major historical-critical approaches will be resorted to:

1. Source Critical Approach:

Trying to understand the very origins/background of a phenomenon

Form-Critical Approach:

Looking at the current and existing form of a phenomenon

3. Reception:

Looking at how a phenomenon is received and understood

1. Does religion have any relationship with the beginning of human civilisation; which one emerged first?
2. How do you view the disputes among the early Muslim community? Were they all wrong?
3. Define ‘civilisation’?

– In easy terms, civilisation refers to the norms and conventions with which human society has learnt to live.

– The more a society is regulated the more civilised it is considered.

1. The idea of monotheism is closely connected with religion and society. Explain.
2. In which century Uthman was assassinated and what triggered that?
3. What is the relationship between religion and politics? Answer in the light of what you have learnt about the Islamic history and civilization so far.