Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the 'Submit my answers' button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

Where is the largest population of Muslims in the world today found?
a) Iran
b) Indonesia
c) Iraq
d) Saudi Arabia

Question 2:

What is the correct historical ordering of Islamic Empires?
a) The Umayyads, the Four Caliphs, the ‘Abbasids, the Ottomans
b) The Four Caliphs, the Ottomans, the ‘Abbasids, the Umayyads
c) The Umayyads, the ‘Abbasids, the Four Caliphs, the Ottomans
d) The Four Caliphs, the Umayyads, the ‘Abbasids, the Ottomans

Question 3:

Which of the following angels played a central role in conveying the message of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad?
a) Azuriel
b) Michael
c) Raphael
d) Gabriel

Question 4:

Muslims see Jesus as what?
a) The Son of God
b) A magician who deserved to be crucified
c) A prophet
d) King of the Jews

Question 5:

Which of the following statements about the Holy Qur’an is FALSE?
a) The Qur’an is believed to contain the revelations of Allah.
b) The Qur’an is assembled in chronological order from Muhammad’s earliest revelations to his last.
c) The Qur’an encourages submission to the will of God.
d) The Qur’an was transmitted by the angel Gabriel.

Question 6:

Which of the following statements is FALSE?
a) Sunni Islam and Shi’ism differ over whether Muhammad was divine.
b) Christian and Jews living in Islamic lands had to convert to Islam.
c) Abraham and his son Isaac built the Ka’ba in Arabia.
d) All of the above are false.

Question 7:

What is ‘Twelver Shi’ism’?
a) A group that recognizes 12 imams as the only legitimate leaders of Islam
b) A group that recognizes the 12th imam as the only legitimate leader of Islam
c) A group that claims to be the Islamic descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel
d) A group that prays 12 times a day instead of five times

Question 8:

What is ‘Wahhabism’?
a) An offshoot of Shi’ism that is based on the writings of Abd al-Wahhab
b) A modern movement that seeks to return to traditional Islamic teachings and practices based on the Shari’ah
c) An ideology that promotes conflict with the West
d) An Islamic sect that is noted for its practice of asceticism

Question 9:

The Holy Qur’an is written in which of the following sacred languages?
a) Persian
b) Arabic
c) Coptic
d) Armenian

Question 10:

Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Islamic Golden Age?
a) Ibn Arabi invented the first telescope.
b) Ibn Sina wrote a medical text that was studies throughout Europe for centuries to follow.
c) Numerous Arabic translations of Aristotle were produced, studied, and commented on by Muslim scholars.
d) al-Ghazali wrote an extensive text defending the importance of mystical experience.

Question 11:

Much as the Christian (Gregorian) calendar begins with the birth of Christ (in the year 0 AD), the Islamic calendar is centred on which formative event in its own early history?
a) Muhammad’s birth
b) the date of Muhammad’s first divine revelation
c) the Battle of Badr
d) the emigration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina

Question 12:

Which Sufi mystic reoriented the tradition around the notion of ‘unity of being’ and argued that even as human beings need God for their very existence, God also needs them in order to be known?
a) Ibn ‘Arabi
b) Hasan of Basra
c) Mansur al-Hallaj
d) Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

Question 13:

Which of the following is NOT a feature of Imami Shi’a Islam?
a) Faith in the eventual return of the Hidden Imam (Mahdi)
b) Belief that Ali should have been Muhammad’s immediate successor
c) Rejection of Islamic jurisprudence
d) Celebration of the life-examples of the Imams

Question 14:

Islamic jurisprudence is based on four discrete sources, each of which is seen as a valid basis for legal decisions. Which of the following is NOT a valid source in Islamic jurisprudence?
a) The Qur’an
b) The personal reasoning of the scholars
c) The decrees of a Caliph
d) The general consensus of the community

Question 15:

Under the Islamic caliphs, Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and others were accorded the status of dhimmi people. Which of the following is the best characterization of this dhimmi status?
a) Religious freedom in exchange for a poll tax
b) Religious freedom in exchange for conscripted labour
c) Religious persecution and a poll tax
d) Religious persecution and conscripted labour

Higher Education

A Concise Introduction to World Religions 2e: Chapter 5