Change hash without reload in jQuery

This works for me

$('ul.questions li a').click(function(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    $('.tab').hide();
    window.location.hash = this.hash;
    $($(this).attr('href')).fadeIn('slow');
});

Check here http://jsbin.com/edicu for a demo with almost identical code

You could try catching the onload event. And stopping the propagation dependent on some flag.

var changeHash = false;

$('ul.questions li a').click(function(event) {
    var $this = $(this)
    $('.tab').hide();  //you can improve the speed of this selector.
    $($this.attr('href')).fadeIn('slow');
    StopEvent(event);  //notice I've changed this
    changeHash = true;
    window.location.hash = $this.attr('href');
});

$(window).onload(function(event){
    if (changeHash){
        changeHash = false;
        StopEvent(event);
    }
}

function StopEvent(event){
    event.preventDefault();
    event.stopPropagation();
    if ($.browser.msie) {
        event.originalEvent.keyCode = 0;
        event.originalEvent.cancelBubble = true;
        event.originalEvent.returnValue = false;
    }
}

Not tested, so can't say if it would work