The Islamic Hijri calendar is counted from the Prophet's migration from Mecca to which city?
- A.Jerusalem
- B.Medina
- C.Damascus
- D.Baghdad
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Medina. The migration of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in the year 622 is called the Hijra, and the Islamic lunar calendar counts its years from it, which is why its years are marked Hijri. Option A is wrong because Jerusalem, though the third holy city of Islam and the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, is not the city of the Hijra. Option C is wrong because Damascus later became the capital of the Umayyad caliphate, well after the Prophet's lifetime. Option D is wrong because Baghdad was founded later still as the capital of the Abbasid caliphate. The two cities to remember for the Prophet's life are Mecca, his birthplace and the site of the Kaaba, and Medina, the city of the Hijra and of his burial.
Read the full article: World Religions: Founders, Books and Worship Places
Practice Questions
View allThe Tripitaka is the sacred canon of which religion?
- A.Jainism
- B.Buddhism
- C.Zoroastrianism
- D.Sikhism
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The Tripitaka, meaning three baskets, is the Buddhist canon written in Pali and divided into the Vinaya Pitaka on monastic discipline, the Sutta Pitaka of the Buddha's discourses and the Abhidhamma Pitaka of philosophical analysis.
Read the full explanation →Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon at
- A.Bodh Gaya
- B.Lumbini
- C.Sarnath
- D.Kushinagar
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The correct answer is C, Sarnath, near Varanasi, where the Buddha preached to his first five disciples in the deer park; the event is called the Dharmachakrapravartana, the turning of the wheel of law, and it is from the Sarnath lion capital that India took its state emblem.
Read the full explanation →The Zend Avesta is the holy book of
- A.Judaism
- B.Zoroastrianism
- C.Taoism
- D.Shinto
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The correct answer is B, Zoroastrianism, the faith founded by Zoroaster in ancient Persia and followed in India by the Parsis, whose place of worship is the fire temple or agiary and whose scripture is the Zend Avesta.
Read the full explanation →The Adi Granth, later revered as the Guru Granth Sahib, was first compiled by
- A.Guru Nanak
- B.Guru Ram Das
- C.Guru Arjan Dev
- D.Guru Gobind Singh
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The correct answer is C, Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, who compiled the Adi Granth in 1604 and installed it in the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first Tirthankara of Jainism?
- A.Rishabhanatha
- B.Parshvanatha
- C.Mahavira
- D.Neminatha
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The correct answer is A, Rishabhanatha, also called Adinath, the first of the twenty-four Tirthankaras of the present age, whose symbol is the bull and who is mentioned even in some Hindu texts.
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