Two lists, and that is the point: Shared festivals, and some kept by one branch only. That structure answers the Theme 1 question about variation before you write a word.
Sunni and Shia
- Id al-Fitr
- Id al-Adha
- Mawlid al-Nabi
Shia only
- Ashura
- Id al-Ghadir
- The birthdays of Fatima and of the imams
The Islamic festival year. Three shared, three Shia — and the Shia list is a claim about authority.
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A lunar calendar: The Islamic calendar is lunar, so Ramadan and the festivals move through the solar year rather than falling in a fixed season.
That is not a curiosity. A Muslim in a northern country fasts through long summer days in some years and short winter ones in others, which is exactly why the exemptions matter.
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What the guide actually asks: Five items, each specific. These are questions about ritual law, and that is how to answer them.
The five items
- All Pillars, especially prayer — location, purity issues, dress, timing
- Hajj and gender
- Shrine visitation and gender
- Death rituals and gender
- Separate male and female worship, with attendance compulsory for men only for Friday prayer at the mosque
| The guide's item | What the question is |
|---|---|
| Prayer | Where women pray, the purity rules that affect validity, dress, and timing |
| Hajj and gender | Validity with purity, and the related choice of timing — pre- or post-menopause |
| Shrine visitation | Whether and how women visit shrines; practice varies widely by region and branch |
| Death rituals | Who washes and carries a body, and who attends a burial |
| Friday prayer | Attendance at the mosque is compulsory for men only; women may attend |
How to write about this: Compulsory for men only is not the same as forbidden to women, and the difference is the whole of an accurate answer.
Muslim jurists have worked these questions out at length and Muslims disagree about several of them. Report what the rules are, which branch or school holds them, and where practice varies — and do not rank.
The guide also lists first-hand accounts by women and female mystics in Islam under Theme 4.
So the syllabus asks for women's religious experience in their own words as well as for the rules that shape it. An answer that gives only the rules has answered half the question the guide sets.
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Jum'a → umma → identity → dietary law → experience. Each link follows from the one before.
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The claim worth quoting: Halal and haram as a means of communal identity — the guide's own phrase.
Compare it with Jewish kashrut, which the guide says expresses being set apart as a holy people. Same kind of law, two different accounts of what it is for. That is a developed connection, and Part 1 rewards it.
How this is tested. Theme 1 asks how and why ritual varies between branches according to doctrinal, cultural and gender factors.
Explain why Islamic ritual practice varies between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
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