Q 01/05

Scholars trace the Ashura fast to which Jewish holy day, kept on the tenth day of the month of Tishri?

A) Passover

B) Yom Kippur

C) Purim

D) Tisha B'Av

Answer · why

B) Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur falls on the tenth day of the first month of the Jewish year, just as Ashura falls on the tenth day of the first Islamic month, and the ear...

Q 02/05

Muharram means 'forbidden'; what has been banned during this month since before Islam?

A) Trade

B) Travel

C) Warfare

D) Marriage

Answer · why

C) Warfare

Warfare is the thing forbidden, and Muharram was one of four sacred months of truce even before Islam. The Quran later banned the old Arab habit of sh...

Q 03/05

Refusing allegiance to Yazid in 680, Husayn ibn Ali left Medina for which city, where he stayed until September?

A) Kufa

B) Ta'if

C) Basra

D) Mecca

Answer · why

D) Mecca

Mecca was where Husayn waited for four months while letters from Iraq urged him to come and lead them. He left the sanctuary city in September with a ...

Q 04/05

The Arba'in pilgrimage, often called the largest annual gathering on earth, brings millions to Karbala how many days after Ashura?

A) Three

B) Ten

C) Forty

D) Ninety

Answer · why

C) Forty

Forty days after Ashura is the Arba'in, and most of the pilgrims reach Karbala on foot. Commemorating the dead on the fortieth day is an old Islamic c...

Q 05/05

On the last day of Trinidad's Hosay, what happens to the tadjah model tombs paraded through St James to tassa drumming?

A) Buried in a field

B) Thrown into the sea

C) Burned at dawn

D) Stored for next year

Answer · why

B) Thrown into the sea

Thrown into the sea at sunset is how the tadjahs end the observance, which indentured labourers brought to Trinidad in the nineteenth century. The pap...