ASSIGNMENT #1: KEY IDEAS, FUNDAMENTALS OF ISLAM
Instructions: In response to each of the three questions given in this sheet, give a clear, well-structured answer. While you should study the material from the books and the lectures in order to give the best answer you can, each answer that you hand in must be the result of your own work, reflection, and understanding.
Please review this sheet carefully several times and make sure to ask me questions about it by email if there is anything you don’t understand.
Format for Each Answer: Maximum 1 page, typed, double-spaced.
Required font size: 12.
Use only Times New Roman font.
Put your student ID number on each sheet.
Do not put your name on any sheet.
Use standard margins (1.0-1.25”).
Use a separate sheet for each separate answer.
Emailed answers will not be accepted.
Format for Assignment All sheets are to be stapled together.
Deadline: This assignment is due to Professor Mirza in class on Wednesday October 18th.
Working With Others: You are allowed, and encouraged, to discuss these questions with your classmates. However, the goal of any such discussion must be to understand the material for yourself, and then to explain the material according to your own understanding, and in your own words.
Key Theme of Assignment 1: The point of this assignment is to give you a chance to prove that you understand this material.
So you must first have an understanding of the relevant topics, and then you must demonstrate that understanding by imagining that in each answer, you are explaining the material to someone new to the study of Islam and new to the topic of the question.
This will be repeated frequently, because it can’t be stressed enough: you are not addressing Professor Mirza with these answers, rather you are addressing a hypothetical beginning student who is new to these topics.
Strategy for Working on These Questions:
For each question, it is recommended that you follow these steps.
(1) Make sure you understand the question as it is stated to the best of your ability, and make notes on any ideas that you have in response to the question.
(2) Determine what aspects of your lecture notes are most relevant to answering the question.
(3) Study carefully the parts of your lecture notes that you identified in the second step above, until you are sure you understand them.
(4) Think about how to apply your understanding to the specific question in front of you.
(5) Make notes about how to explain your answer to a beginner who is new to this specific topic.
(6) Write a draft of your answer within the space limits already mentioned.
(7) Revise and check your draft to improve it until you are confident that it satisfies that requirements laid out in the relevant section.
(8) Make sure that your grammar, punctuation, and spelling are all correct, and that each answer as well as the assignment as a whole satisfies the format requirements laid out above.
WRITING QUESTIONS:
1. Explain clearly and briefly, in your own words, the six fundamentals of Islamic belief.
2. Explain clearly and briefly, in your own words, the five pillar of the Islamic religion.
3. Explain clearly and briefly, in your own words, the ideal of spiritual excellence in the Islamic religion.
How Your Assignment Will Be Graded
(1) In this assignment, and every assignment in this course, it is your job to prove to me that you understand the material. I will assume that you do not understand what you are talking about until I see clear proof, on the paper in front of me, that you do.
This is very important: you do not get the benefit of the doubt for this or any other assignment.
(2) Any pages in excess of the one-page limit for each answer will be ignored, and only the first page will be graded.
(3) Every answer can receive a maximum of 16 points.
(4) For any answer you hand in, I will deduct one point for each sufficiently bad violation of one of the following requirements.
Requirements for Answers:
(a) Make sure that your understanding of the topics you are required to explain is correct. If you show an inaccurate understanding, you will lose points.
(b) Make sure that every sentence you write is true, justifiable, and clear.
(c) Make sure that you are writing for a beginning level student who is new to the material, and write so that such a student can understand what is going on. (Professor Mirza is not your audience here, so do not write to explain things to him). Lack of clarity will lead to losing points.
(d) Make each answer sufficiently clear and detailed that any reasonable and informed person can see that it correctly answers the question.
If you have any doubts about whether or not you have put in enough detail, be on the safe side and put in more detail, while still keeping your answer within the space limits already set.
There is no minimum length, but if your answer is less than a page in length, it most likely does not have enough detail in it.
(e) Use standard, neutral English in your answer (not slang).
(f) Keep your answers focused and concise: do not waste any words, do not write introductions, do not put in anything more than what you need to get your point across.
(g) Each answer should be understandable independently of every other answer.
(h) Use a new paragraph for each new idea.
(i) Use proper spelling throughout each answer.
(j) Use proper punctuation throughout each answer.
(k) Use proper grammar throughout each answer.
