O Level Islamiyat Paper 2: Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They follow the paper’s published structure and mark tariffs, but they are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: O Level Islamiyat: Paper 2 study guide

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Paper format. Cambridge O Level Islamiyat 2058, Paper 2: 1 hour 30 minutes, 50 marks. The paper has five questions. Answer Question 1, Question 2 and two other questions. Every question has a knowledge part (a) and an understanding part (b): Question 1 is marked 4 + 4, and Questions 2–5 are marked 10 + 4 (8 + 14 + 14 + 14 = 50). Question 1 is always set on four of the Hadiths in the syllabus appendix, printed in Arabic and English; Question 2 is on the history and importance of the Hadiths; Questions 3–5 are on the Rightly Guided Caliphs and on the Articles of Faith and the Pillars of Islam, with one or two questions on each.

You must answer Question 1, Question 2 and two other questions.

Question 1

1 Choose any two of the following Hadiths.

(a) Describe their teachings about what Muslims believe. [4]

(b) Explain how Muslims can put these teachings into action. [4]

(i)

‘الدِّينُ النَّصِيحَةُ.’ قُلْنَا: لِمَنْ؟ قَالَ: ‘لِلهِ وَلِكِتَابِهِ، وَلِرَسُولِهِ، وَلأَئِمَّةِ المُسْلِمِينَ وَعَامَّتِهِمْ.’

‘Religion is sincerity.’ We said: ‘To whom?’ The Prophet said: ‘To Allah, his Book, his Messenger, the leaders of the Muslims and to their common people.’

(ii)

‘أَنَا وَكَافِلُ اليَتِيمِ فِي الجَنَّةِ هَكَذَا.’ وَقَالَ بِإِصْبَعَيْهِ السَّبَّابَةِ وَالوُسْطَى.

‘I and the man who brings up an orphan will be in paradise like this.’ And he pointed with his two fingers, the index finger and the middle finger.

(iii)

رَحِمَ اللهُ رَجُلاً سَمْحًا إِذَا بَاعَ، وَإِذَا اشْتَرَى، وَإِذَا اقْتَضَى.

May God show mercy to a man who is kindly when he sells, when he buys, and when he demands his money back.

(iv)

المُؤْمِنُونَ كَرَجُلٍ وَاحِدٍ، إِنِ اشْتَكَى عَيْنُهُ اشْتَكَى كُلُّهُ، وَإِنِ اشْتَكَى رَأْسُهُ اشْتَكَى كُلُّهُ.

The believers are like a single man; if his eye is affected he is affected, and if his head is affected he is all affected.

The English texts are those printed in the syllabus appendix (Hadiths 1, 11, 14 and 16). The Arabic follows the appendix word for word; its vowel marks are given in standard form where the appendix’s marking is partial or non-standard.

Question 2

2 (a) Write about the compilers and main features of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. [10]

(b) Explain why the Hadiths are important in Muslim legal thinking, alongside the Qur’an, consensus (ijma’) and analogy (qiyas). [4]

Question 3

3 (a) Give an account of the expansion of the Muslim state during the caliphate of Umar. [10]

(b) What can Muslim countries today learn from the way Umar treated the peoples of the lands that came under Muslim rule? [4]

Question 4

4 (a) Describe how Muslims observe the fast (sawm) of Ramadan, and who is exempted from it. [10]

(b) Explain how fasting in Ramadan benefits the Muslim community as well as the individual. [4]

Question 5

5 (a) Write about Muslim belief in God’s predestination and decree (al-qadr). [10]

(b) Does belief in al-qadr mean that people are not responsible for what they do? Give reasons for your answer. [4]

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Answers and mark guidance

How this paper is marked. Cambridge marks each part by levels of response (syllabus section 4.2). Part (a) tests knowledge (AO1): in Question 1, Level 4 = 4, Level 3 = 3, Level 2 = 2, Level 1 = 1; in Questions 2–5, Level 4 = 8–10, Level 3 = 5–7, Level 2 = 3–4, Level 1 = 1–2. Part (b) tests understanding (AO2): Level 2 = 3–4, Level 1 = 1–2. In Question 1, the two Hadiths chosen are read together and given one mark for (a) and one mark for (b).

The credit guides below turn this into points you can check your own answer against. Each bracketed figure is one accurate, relevant point developed to the stated depth, and every guide is capped at the tariff of its part. Where a guide lists more points than are needed, every listed point carries the same credit, so it does not matter which ones you choose; other valid points of the same quality earn the same credit.

Question 1

(a) [4] — for each of the two chosen Hadiths: the central teaching correctly stated [1], and developed with a link to belief or to a supporting verse or Hadith [1]. Two Hadiths × 2 = 4.

• (i) Faith means sincere goodwill and loyalty (nasiha): worshipping God alone, believing and acting on His Book, following His Messenger [1], and giving honest counsel and goodwill to Muslim leaders and to ordinary people, so religion covers relationships with people as well as with God [1].
• (ii) Caring for orphans is one of the highest good deeds [1]; the Prophet (pbuh), himself an orphan, promised closeness to him in Paradise, and the Qur’an repeatedly commands kindness to orphans and warns against consuming their property (Sura 4.10) [1].
• (iii) Honesty and generosity in business are part of faith and earn God’s mercy [1]; Muslims believe trade is lawful and blessed when it is fair, and the Qur’an condemns those who give short measure (Sura 83.1–3) [1].
• (iv) Muslims form one united body (the umma) [1]; the suffering of one believer is the concern of all, just as the Qur’an calls the believers a single brotherhood (Sura 49.10) [1].

(b) [4] — for each of the two chosen Hadiths, one practical action explained [2]. Two Hadiths × 2 = 4. For example:

• (i) Praying and acting with a sincere intention rather than for show, giving honest advice to friends, obeying and advising leaders respectfully, and speaking up politely when something is wrong [2].
• (ii) Sponsoring an orphan through a charity, fostering or supporting orphans in one’s family, and protecting an orphan’s inheritance honestly if one is responsible for it [2].
• (iii) Charging fair prices, not cheating or hiding faults in goods, giving extra time to a debtor who is struggling and asking for repayment politely [2].
• (iv) Giving money and help when Muslims elsewhere face disaster, visiting the sick, and supporting neighbours in difficulty so that no one suffers alone [2].

Question 2

(a) [10] — each accurate, developed point [2]; credit the best five (maximum 10).

• Imam al-Bukhari (Muhammad ibn Isma’il, 194–256 AH) was born in Bukhara, began memorising Hadiths as a boy and travelled widely, to the Hijaz, Iraq, Syria and Egypt, to learn them from many teachers [2].
• He is reported to have spent about sixteen years on his Sahih and to have chosen its contents from hundreds of thousands of reports; it contains about 7,000 Hadiths including repetitions, and far fewer without them [2].
• His conditions were very strict: every narrator had to be of sound character and memory, and it had to be established that each narrator had actually met the person he narrated from [2].
• The Sahih is arranged in books by subject, such as faith, prayer and fasting, and his chapter headings show his own legal understanding of the Hadiths beneath them [2].
• Imam Muslim (Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, died 261 AH) came from Nishapur and was a student of al-Bukhari; he also travelled widely and included only Hadiths he judged sound [2].
• Muslim accepted a narration if the two narrators lived at the same time and could have met, and he wrote an introduction explaining the principles for accepting Hadiths [2].
• Muslim gathers all the chains and wordings of a Hadith in one place, which makes comparing versions easy; Sunni scholars call the two books al-Sahihayn and regard them as the most reliable books after the Qur’an [2].

(b) [4] — each reasoned point [2]; credit the best two (maximum 4).

• The Hadiths are the second source after the Qur’an; they explain and give detail to the Qur’an’s general commands, such as how zakat is calculated [2].
• Where the Qur’an is silent, rulings may come from the Prophet’s (pbuh) words or practice, as when he approved Mu’adh ibn Jabal’s plan to judge by the Qur’an, then the Sunna, then his own reasoning [2].
• Consensus must agree with the Qur’an and Hadiths, and analogy works by extending a ruling found in them to a new case, so without the Hadiths scholars would have much less to base new rulings on [2].

Question 3

(a) [10] — each accurate, developed point [2]; credit the best five (maximum 10).

• In Syria, Muslim armies took Damascus and then defeated a large Byzantine army at the Battle of Yarmuk (636), where Khalid ibn al-Walid played a leading part [2].
• Umar replaced Khalid as overall commander with Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, so that people would understand victory came from God and not from one general [2].
• Jerusalem surrendered on condition that the caliph came in person; Umar travelled there and gave its Christian inhabitants a written guarantee of safety for their lives, property and churches [2].
• In Iraq, Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas defeated the Persian army at Qadisiyya, and the Muslims then took the Persian capital, Ctesiphon (al-Mada’in) [2].
• The victory at Nahawand (642) broke the remaining Persian power, and it became known as the “victory of victories” [2].
• Amr ibn al-As led the conquest of Egypt, taking the fortress of Babylon and then Alexandria [2].
• To control the new lands Umar founded garrison towns such as Basra, Kufa and Fustat, which kept the armies apart from local people, and he divided the state into provinces under governors [2].

(b) [4] — each reasoned point [2]; credit the best two (maximum 4).

• He guaranteed religious freedom and protected places of worship, so modern states should protect the rights of minorities [2].
• In return for the jizya, non-Muslims were protected and did not have to serve in the army, and the poor, women, children and the elderly were not required to pay; states today should tax fairly and look after the vulnerable [2].
• He kept agreements made with conquered cities and punished governors who treated people unjustly, which shows that treaties and justice must be honoured [2].

Question 4

(a) [10] — each accurate, developed point [2]; credit the best five (maximum 10).

• Fasting in Ramadan, the ninth month, is the fourth Pillar of Islam and is commanded in the Qur’an so that believers may gain God-consciousness (Sura 2.183) [2].
• The fast is kept from dawn until sunset with the intention of fasting: Muslims give up food, drink and marital relations, and they must also avoid lying, backbiting and bad behaviour [2].
• Muslims eat a pre-dawn meal (suhur) and break the fast at sunset (iftar), often with dates and water as the Prophet (pbuh) did; eating or drinking by mistake does not break the fast [2].
• At night many attend the extra tarawih prayers and try to recite the whole Qur’an during the month; in the last ten nights they seek Laylat al-Qadr, which the Qur’an says is better than a thousand months, and some stay in the mosque in i’tikaf [2].
• The month ends with Eid al-Fitr; before the Eid prayer each family pays zakat al-fitr so that the poor can also celebrate [2].
• Exempted: children who have not reached puberty, people who are ill, and travellers; the ill and travellers make up the missed days later (Sura 2.184–185) [2].
• Women who are menstruating or in the period after childbirth do not fast and make up the days later; pregnant or breastfeeding women may postpone; the very old and the permanently ill who cannot fast feed a poor person for each day instead (fidya) [2].

(b) [4] — each reasoned point [2]; credit the best two (maximum 4).

• For the individual it builds self-discipline and God-consciousness, because a person who can give up lawful food for God can more easily give up what is forbidden [2].
• Feeling hunger creates sympathy for the poor, and the community gives more charity in Ramadan, including zakat al-fitr [2].
• Breaking the fast together, praying tarawih in congregation and celebrating Eid unite families and communities, and Muslims all over the world share the same experience [2].

Question 5

(a) [10] — each accurate, developed point [2]; credit the best five (maximum 10).

• Belief in al-qadr is the sixth Article of Faith; in the Hadith of Jibril the Prophet (pbuh) described faith as including belief in the divine decree, “its good and its evil” [2].
• God knows everything that has happened and will happen, before it happens; nothing is hidden from His knowledge [2].
• Everything is recorded in the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawh al-Mahfuz): “No disaster strikes on the earth or in yourselves except that it is in a record before We bring it into being” (Sura 57.22) [2].
• Nothing happens except by God’s will: “You do not will except as God wills, the Lord of the worlds” (Sura 81.29) [2].
• God is the Creator of all things, including the capacity people use when they act (Sura 37.96) [2].
• Humans are still given choice and responsibility: “Whoever wills, let him believe, and whoever wills, let him disbelieve” (Sura 18.29), and they will be judged for their deeds [2].
• Scholars have explained the balance in different ways; Shi’a teaching, following Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, describes it as “neither compulsion nor complete delegation, but a matter between the two”, emphasising God’s justice [2].

(b) [4] — a clear judgement [1], supported by reasons [3] (maximum 4). For example:

• No, belief in al-qadr does not remove responsibility [1]: God has given people free choice and will judge them only for what they choose (Sura 99.7–8) [1]; God does not burden anyone beyond their capacity (Sura 2.286) [1]; and the Prophet (pbuh) told a man to tie his camel and then trust in God, so effort is required [1].

An answer arguing that some things, such as when a person is born or dies, are outside human control while choices between right and wrong are not, receives the same credit when it is equally well reasoned.

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Where marks are usually lost

• Writing about only one Hadith in Question 1, or explaining three: the rubric asks for two, and each is worth half of each part.
• In Question 1(a), giving a practical action instead of a teaching about belief; in 1(b), repeating the teaching instead of giving an action.
• In Question 2, mixing up the two compilers or giving no features of how each collection is arranged.
• Narrating battles in Question 3 without names, dates or places, which keeps an answer below Level 4.
• In Question 4, listing exemptions without saying who makes up the days later and who pays fidya.
• In Question 5(b), giving a one-word judgement without reasons.