The guide's two headings: Issues of authority of the texts (Qur'an and Hadiths.) And then a long list under authority of the person.
Why Islam stands out: Islam is the course's clearest case of a tradition whose authority runs through offices and scholars as well as through a book.
Islamic authority. The Qur'an's standing is absolute; its scope is not, which is why the chain continues.
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Get the offices right: Imam means different things in different places: in Sunnism the guide lists it as the person who leads prayer; in Shi'a thought the Imams are the line of authority descended from the Prophet's family.
The guide flags this by listing "imams (in Shia and Sunni thought)" — and a candidate who notes the difference has shown real reading.
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The schools of law, as equal siblings. Four Sunni and one Shi'i, all working from a shared foundation.
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Why more than one school is not a failure: A Muslim follows one school, and a question may have a different answer in another — without either being outside Islam.
The schools are recognised methods rather than rival churches, which is why there is no Islamic equivalent of a schism over legal method. Saying this is worth more than naming the four.
And the other schools of thought: The guide lists them separately from the schools of law: mutakallimun (theologians), philosophers, and the different interpretations by Sufis and Shi'is.
So Islamic intellectual life has a legal strand, a theological strand, a philosophical strand and a mystical strand — and the guide asks you to know that they are distinct.
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Sunni, Shia and Sufi, one question at a time. Sufism is a strand within the branches, not a third one.
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Two things not to write: Do not present one branch as the original and the other as a departure — that is a claim each makes about the other, and it is not the course's to make.
And do not treat Sufism as a third branch. The guide lists Sufi interpretations under schools of thought, and Sufis are Sunni or Shia.
How this is tested. Theme 3 asks who has authority and what the relationship is between doctrine and organizational structure.
Examine the sources of authority in Islam.
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