The universe and the place of human beings — Sikhism

What the specification asks for

Paper 1, Section 1, 1.1 (Sikhism). Assessed on AO1 (knowledge and understanding) and AO2 (analysis and evaluation), weighted equally. Incandio is aligned to this specification. It is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's indicative content — the point numbers are given so you can check every unit against your own copy.

1 · Understand it

Every Sikh act of worship ends with the same congregational prayer, and that prayer ends by asking for the welfare of all people. Not of Sikhs. Of everyone. Notice where it sits: the community's very last word, every single time, is a request made on behalf of people who are not in the room.

What it means

The specification names God as karta purakh — the creator being — and the phrase does two jobs at once. It says the universe was made rather than simply being there, and it says the maker is a being with will rather than an impersonal principle. Sikh teaching holds that this one God created everything by will and remains present within what was made as well as beyond it.

Creation runs by hukam, God's order, and living in accordance with that order is what a Sikh is aiming at. The world produced by that order is real and it is good. This matters more than it sounds, because it settles a question other traditions have argued about for centuries: there is nothing here to escape from, so Sikhism has no monastic tradition and no ideal of withdrawal.

Human birth is described as a rare opportunity to reunite with God. Read that carefully — the claim is about opportunity, not about rank. A human life is precious because of what can be done with it, which is a different thing from saying human beings sit at the top of a ladder with everything else beneath them.

The Sikh ideal is the householder: a person who works, marries, raises a family and supports others while remembering God. All three of the duties Guru Nanak taught are worldly ones — remember God, earn honestly, share what you have — and none of them can be done by someone who has left the world behind.

Why believers hold it

The reasoning runs from the nature of the creator to the status of the creation. If a good God made this world and is present inside it, then the world cannot be the obstacle. Anything a person needs is available here, in a life of work and family, which is exactly why the householder rather than the ascetic is held up as the model.

Environmental responsibility follows from the same premise without needing a separate argument. Damaging creation damages what God made and what God inhabits, so the case does not depend on a calculation about future generations, though Sikhs make that case too. The closing petition of the daily prayer, asking good for everyone without qualification, sets the scope wide enough to cover more than human interests.

The objection worth taking seriously is that calling human birth uniquely valuable is precisely the attitude that produced the environmental crisis, since any hierarchy licenses using whatever sits below it. The Sikh reply is that opportunity is not rank: a rare chance to do something carries no permission to consume everything else, and there is no Sikh text granting dominion.

The other objection is that the universe needs no creator, since physics accounts for its order perfectly well without one. The honest Sikh answer distinguishes two questions. Explaining how the universe operates is not the same as explaining why there is one at all, and karta purakh is a claim about the second rather than a rival account of the first.

Where it comes from

• The Guru Granth Sahib — The Mul Mantar, opening of the Guru Granth Sahib (Japji Sahib) (translated)

  Ik Onkar — There is one God, the eternal truth, the creator, without fear, without hatred.

  The opening statement of Sikh belief: one God, eternal, creator, beyond fear and enmity, self-existent, known by grace.

  What it is doing here: Supplies the name the specification asks for and the shape of the claim: one being, eternal, creator, without fear and without hatred, which rules out a maker who has rivals or enemies inside the creation.

• Sikh teaching — Nam Japna, Kirat Karni, Vand Chhakna — taught by Guru Nanak (translated)

  Remember God, work honestly, share with others.

  The three duties of a Sikh, held together: devotion, honest labour and sharing. Sikhism rejects withdrawal from the world.

  What it is doing here: Shows that the practical conclusion is worldly rather than ascetic — remember, work, share — so the goodness of creation is not a theory but a timetable.

• Sikh liturgy — The closing words of the Ardas, the Sikh congregational prayer (translated)

  Sarbat da bhala — may all people prosper.

  The Ardas ends by asking good not for Sikhs but for everyone. Universal concern is built into the daily prayer.

  What it is doing here: Extends the scope of concern past the community that is praying, which is what turns a belief about creation into a duty towards everything in it.

Where it bites

It shows in Sikh environmental campaigning organised explicitly on religious grounds, including large tree-planting projects run by Sikh organisations; in the food served in the free kitchen at a gurdwara, which is vegetarian so that nobody is excluded and is usually sourced locally; in the closing line of the daily prayer asking prosperity for everybody; and in Sikh disaster relief that reaches whoever needs it without asking what faith they hold. Naming one of these turns a general claim into a developed point, which is what the six-mark grid rewards.

It also shapes what a Sikh answer sounds like. The move is rarely a warning about judgement and rarely a lament about the state of the planet. It is a statement that the maker is present in the thing being damaged, followed by somebody doing practical work — which is the same pattern the tradition follows on almost every ethical question.

What people get wrong

People think: Sikhism is a mixture of Hinduism and Islam.

Actually: Sikhs hold that the faith is a distinct revelation given to Guru Nanak rather than a synthesis of anything. Shared vocabulary is not shared doctrine, and the examiners name this misconception directly because it produces a whole answer describing a religion nobody holds — one with incarnations, with renunciation, and with an unreal world.

People think: Sikhs believe the world should be renounced in order to find God.

Actually: The householder is the Sikh ideal and there is no monastic tradition. All three duties Guru Nanak taught require a person to be in the world: remembering God, earning an honest living, and sharing with others cannot be done by somebody who has withdrawn from ordinary life.

People think: Saying human birth is precious means humans rank above everything else.

Actually: The tradition describes human birth as a rare opportunity for reunion with God rather than as a position on a scale of worth. That framing gives a life urgency without granting it a licence, and it is the reason Sikh environmental argument does not have to fight its way past a doctrine of dominion.

What the examiner expects you to understand

• Name karta purakh and say what it means, because the term without the meaning earns very little.
• Use Sikh vocabulary throughout; a general answer about the environment with no religious content is capped as generic.
• Give one concrete practice — the free kitchen, a Sikh tree-planting campaign, the closing line of the prayer — rather than principles only.
• Say that God is both beyond creation and present within it, since only the second half does the environmental work.
• Never describe Sikhism as a blend of two other religions; the examiners record that confusion by name.

2 · Grade 9 Notes

Core belief / issue

The specification names God as karta purakh — the creator being. Sikhism teaches that one God created the universe by will and remains present within it, and that human birth is a rare opportunity to reunite with God rather than a possession to be enjoyed. Creation is real and good, which is why Sikh teaching rejects world-denying asceticism from the start.

Key terminology

Incandio's mark schemes credit the religion's own vocabulary; spelling variants are accepted, a vague paraphrase is not.

Karta Purakh (also Karta Purkh)

The creator being; God as maker of everything, named in the Mool Mantar.

Hukam

God's will and order; the way the universe runs and the way a Sikh is to live within it.

Ik Onkar (also Ek Onkar)

There is one being; the opening statement of the Guru Granth Sahib.

Sarbat da bhala (also sarbat da bhalla)

The welfare of all; the closing petition of the Sikh daily prayer.

Gristhi (also grihasti)

The householder; Sikhism's ideal, which is why the world is engaged rather than renounced.

What Sikhism teaches

• shared — One God created the universe by will and is present within creation as well as beyond it.
• shared — Creation runs by hukam — God's order — and living in accordance with it is what a Sikh aims at.
• shared — Human birth is described as a rare opportunity to reunite with God, which gives it urgency rather than status.
• shared — The world is real and good and is to be engaged rather than renounced, which is why the householder is the Sikh ideal.

Why it teaches this

The reasoning is that a creation made by a good God and containing God's presence cannot be something to escape. That is why Sikhism has no monastic tradition and why its three daily duties are all worldly — remember God, work honestly, share with others. Environmental responsibility follows from the same premise: damaging creation damages what God made and is present in.

Sources of authority

• The Guru Granth Sahib — The Mul Mantar, opening of the Guru Granth Sahib (Japji Sahib) (translated)

  Ik Onkar — There is one God, the eternal truth, the creator, without fear, without hatred.

  The opening statement of Sikh belief: one God, eternal, creator, beyond fear and enmity, self-existent, known by grace.

  How to use it: It is the first thing in the scripture and the summary of the whole of it, which is why Sikh answers about God can be grounded in one place.

  What it does not settle: Uncontested among Sikhs, so it distinguishes no group from another.

• Sikh teaching — Nam Japna, Kirat Karni, Vand Chhakna — taught by Guru Nanak (translated)

  Remember God, work honestly, share with others.

  The three duties of a Sikh, held together: devotion, honest labour and sharing. Sikhism rejects withdrawal from the world.

  How to use it: Because honest work and sharing are religious duties rather than by-products of faith, Sikh answers on wealth, poverty and family are not about charity but about obligation.

  What it does not settle: It states the duties, not how much or to whom.

• Sikh teaching — Hukam, karma and mukti; taught throughout the Guru Granth Sahib (translated)

  Hukam — God's will and order; mukti — liberation through God's grace.

  Everything happens within God's hukam; actions have consequences (karma) and rebirth continues until liberation, which comes by grace and by remembering God.

  How to use it: Holding hukam and human responsibility together is the Sikh answer to determinism, and it is different from both the Christian and the Hindu answer.

  What it does not settle: Mukti is not identical to moksha or nibbana, and treating the three as interchangeable is exactly the kind of confusion the reports penalise.

• Sikh liturgy — The closing words of the Ardas, the Sikh congregational prayer (translated)

  Sarbat da bhala — may all people prosper.

  The Ardas ends by asking good not for Sikhs but for everyone. Universal concern is built into the daily prayer.

  How to use it: A prayer that asks for the welfare of all makes universal concern a habit of worship rather than a policy — which is a strong development on interfaith and human rights.

  What it does not settle: It expresses an attitude rather than settling any particular question.

Different interpretations

• Creation read as an act at a moment and read as continuous; Sikh teaching says God created and sustains, and the Guru Granth Sahib declines to say when.
• Human birth read as the highest form and read as the most opportune; the second is the tradition's own framing and it avoids a hierarchy of worth.
• Environmental responsibility read as a modern application and read as implicit in sarbat da bhala; the second is the stronger reading, since the prayer asks for the welfare of all.

Differences within Sikhism

Amritdhari and Sahajdhari Sikhs hold the same teaching about creation, hukam and the value of human birth. There is no meaningful doctrinal disagreement here and inventing one would be manufactured disagreement.

The traditions broadly agree here. Saying so is a stronger answer than inventing a division.

Application to the issue

It shows in EcoSikh, which organises tree-planting and environmental campaigns explicitly on Sikh grounds; in the langar's use of local and vegetarian food; in the concluding line of the Ardas asking for the welfare of all; and in Sikh disaster relief that reaches whoever needs it regardless of faith.

Arguments supporting

• A creation containing God's presence cannot be treated as raw material. — Sikh teaching holds God to be within creation as well as beyond it. (sikhism)
  Answered by: Presence within creation could equally suggest that creation is inviolable in ways that make any use of it problematic, which is not how Sikhs read it.
• Sarbat da bhala extends responsibility beyond human beings. — The prayer asks for the welfare of all, without qualification. (shared)
  Answered by: A prayer is not a policy, and the phrase's breadth means it does not settle any particular question.

Arguments challenging

• Making human birth uniquely valuable is the attitude that produced the environmental crisis. — Any hierarchy licenses using what is below it. (non-religious)
  Answered by: Sikhism describes human birth as an opportunity rather than a rank, which is a genuine difference and one that carries no licence.
• The universe requires no creator. — Physics explains its order without one. (non-religious)
  Answered by: Explaining how the universe works does not explain why there is one, which is where the Sikh claim about karta purakh actually sits.

Secular / non-religious perspective

Non-religious people hold that the universe requires no creator and that human beings are one species among many, distinguished by capability. Responsibility for the planet is owed to present and future people and to sentient animals. Humanists would find the practical Sikh conclusions congenial while rejecting the premise about a creator present within creation.

Examinable throughout Paper 1. Nothing here earns a mark on Paper 2.

Evaluation

The hinge: Whether human distinctiveness is a rank or an opportunity. Sikhism answers the second, which lets it hold human birth precious without establishing a hierarchy.

Defensible conclusions

• Framing human birth as an opportunity rather than a status is Sikhism's distinctive move here, and it avoids the licence problem that dominion-based accounts have.
• The householder ideal follows directly from creation being good, which is why Sikh environmental engagement is practical rather than ascetic.
• Sarbat da bhala is the strongest single phrase available, because it makes the welfare of everything the object of the community's daily prayer.

Not defensible

• Describing Sikhism as a blend of Hinduism and Islam — the examiners name this and the doctrine of Ik Onkar belongs to neither.
• Attributing world-denial or renunciation to Sikhism, which the householder ideal directly contradicts.

Exam use

• Identify · 3 marks — Three ways religious people can care for the planet, or three Sikh beliefs about creation. Short phrases only.
• Outline · 4 marks — Two beliefs developed. 'Sikhs believe God is karta purakh (1) — the creator who is also present within creation, so damaging it damages what God made and inhabits (1).'
• Explain · 6 marks — Explain why Sikhs believe they should care for the environment: karta purakh, God's presence in creation, hukam, and sarbat da bhala.
• Evaluate · 12 marks — 'The world would be a better place without humans.' Sikhism's answer is that human birth is the opportunity for reunion, which no other creature has.

Common mistakes

• Describing Sikhism as a mixture of Hinduism and Islam.
• Attributing renunciation to Sikhism, which rejects it.
• Writing about the environment generally with no Sikh vocabulary.

“Sikhism is a mixture of Hinduism and Islam.” — Sikhs hold that the faith is a distinct revelation given to Guru Nanak, not a synthesis. Describing it as a blend denies the tradition its own account of its origin.

Write instead: Sikhism began with Guru Nanak's revelation. It shares vocabulary with the traditions around it — karma, samsara, mukti — while teaching its own doctrine of one God, the ten Gurus and the Guru Granth Sahib. The traditional saying 'there is no Hindu, there is no Musalman' is often misread as endorsing a blend; it is better read as declaring that the labels do not decide standing before God.

Grade 9 insight

The Ardas, said at the end of every Sikh act of worship, closes by asking for sarbat da bhala — the welfare of all. A Level 4 answer notices what the placement does: the community's final word, every single time, is a petition for everyone rather than for itself. That single structural fact says more about Sikh universalism than any statement of doctrine, and it is why Sikh charitable work characteristically makes no distinction of faith.

Carry on through Sikhism

• Next unit: 1.2 · Human nature and the human condition
• The universe and the place of human beings in the other religions: Buddhism · Christianity · Hinduism · Islam · Judaism
• All of Sikhism · Incandio Religious Studies · The 4RS1 specification