Q 01/05

Muhammad's birth year is named for which animal, recalling Abraha's failed march on Mecca?

A) Elephant

B) Camel

C) Antelope

D) Horse

Answer · why

A) Elephant

The Year of the Elephant, roughly 570 CE, is named for the war elephants Abraha brought to demolish the Kaaba, an army that tradition says was routed ...

Q 02/05

In which cave above Mecca, on the 'Mountain of Light', did Muhammad receive the first revelation?

A) Safa

B) Marwa

C) Hira

D) Mina

Answer · why

C) Hira

Hira was where Muhammad went for long spells of solitary prayer, and it was there, in 610, that the angel brought him the opening verses of the Quran.

Q 03/05

Which angel, said in hadith to have six hundred wings, brought Muhammad the Quran's revelations?

A) Michael

B) Gabriel

C) Israfil

D) Azrael

Answer · why

B) Gabriel

Gabriel, Jibril in Arabic, is also believed by Muslims to have announced the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, so the same angel spans the Gospels...

Q 04/05

Which merchant paid Muhammad double her usual commission for a trade trip, then proposed marriage?

A) Sawda

B) Khadijah

C) Maymunah

D) Zaynab

Answer · why

B) Khadijah

Khadijah was the first person to accept Islam, and although Muhammad married several times after her death in 619, he took no other wife while she liv...

Q 05/05

Muhammad reached Medina in Rabi' al-Awwal, but in which month does the Islamic calendar's year one begin?

A) Rajab

B) Muharram

C) Shawwal

D) Dhu al-Hijjah

Answer · why

B) Muharram

Muharram opens every Islamic year, so when the Hijra's year was made year one around 638, the count began about two months before Muhammad set out.