Which Sect of Islam Believes That Muslim Leaders Should Be Descended From Muhammads Family Line?

Introduction

Sunni and Shi'a

Mosaic tiled columns in a mosque ©

The words Sunni and Shi'a appear regularly in stories about the Muslim globe but few people know what they really mean. Organized religion permeates every aspect of life in Muslim countries and understanding Sunni and Shi'a beliefs is of import in agreement the modern Muslim globe.

Introduction

The partition betwixt Sunnis and Shi'as is the largest and oldest in the history of Islam.

They both concur on the fundamentals of Islam and share the same Holy Book (The Qur'an), only there are differences more often than not derived from their different historical experiences, political and social developments, as well as indigenous composition.

These differences originate from the question of who would succeed the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the emerging Muslim community afterwards his decease. To understand them, nosotros demand to know a flake nearly the Prophet's life and political and spiritual legacy.

The Prophet Muhammad

When the Prophet died in the early seventh century he left not only the religion of Islam but as well a community of well-nigh one hundred thousand Muslims organised as an Islamic state on the Arabian Peninsula. Information technology was the question of who should succeed the Prophet and lead the fledgling Islamic country that created the divide.

The larger group of Muslims chose Abu Bakr, a shut Companion of the Prophet, as the Caliph (politico-social leader) and he was accepted equally such by much of the customs which saw the succession in political and non spiritual terms. However another smaller group, which likewise included some of the senior Companions, believed that the Prophet's son-in-police force and cousin, Ali, should exist Caliph. They understood that the Prophet had appointed him as the sole interpreter of his legacy, in both political and spiritual terms. In the end Abu Bakr was appointed First Caliph.

Leadership claims

Both Shi'as and Sunnis have good evidence to support their understanding of the succession. Sunnis contend that the Prophet chose Abu Bakr to pb the congregational prayers as he lay on his deathbed, thus suggesting that the Prophet was naming Abu Bakr as the next leader. The Shi'as' bear witness is that Muhammad stood up in forepart of his Companions on the way dorsum from his last Hajj, and proclaimed Ali the spiritual guide and master of all believers. Shi'a reports say he took Ali's mitt and said that anyone who followed Muhammad should follow Ali.

Muslims who believe that Abu Bakr should have been the Prophet's successor have come to be known as Sunni Muslims. Those who believe Ali should have been the Prophet'southward successor are now known as Shi'a Muslims. It was simply later that these terms came into employ. Sunni means 'one who follows the Sunnah' (what the Prophet said, did, agreed to or condemned). Shi'a is a wrinkle of the phrase 'Shiat Ali', meaning 'partisans of Ali'.

The use of the word "successor" should not be dislocated to mean that those leaders that came after the Prophet Muhammad were also prophets - both Shi'a and Sunni concord that Muhammad was the final prophet.

The partition

Seeds of division

Ali did not initially pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr. A few months afterward, and according to both Sunni and Shi'a conventionalities, Ali changed his mind and accepted Abu Bakr, in order to safeguard the cohesion of the new Islamic State.

The Second Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, was appointed by Abu Bakr on his decease, followed by the third Caliph, Uthman ibn 'Affan, who was chosen from six candidates nominated by Umar.

Ali was somewhen chosen as the fourth Caliph following the murder of Uthman. He moved the majuscule of the Islamic country from Medina to Kufa in Republic of iraq. However, his Caliphate was opposed past Aisha, the favoured wife of the Prophet and daughter of Abu Bakr, who accused Ali of being lax in bringing Uthman's killers to justice. In 656 CE this dispute led to the Battle of the Camel in Basra in Southern Iraq, where Aisha was defeated. Aisha later apologised to Ali merely the clash had already created a carve up in the community.

Widening of the carve up

Islam'southward dominion had already spread to Syria past the time of Ali'due south caliphate. The governor of Damascus, Mu'awiya, aroused with Ali for not bringing the killers of his kinsman Uthman to justice, challenged Ali for the caliphate. The famous Boxing of Siffin in 657 demonstrates the religious fervour of the time when Mu'awiya's soldiers flagged the ends of their spears with verses from the Qur'an.

Ali and his supporters felt morally unable to fight their Muslim brothers and the Battle of Siffin proved indecisive. Ali and Mu'awiya agreed to settle the dispute with outside arbitrators. Withal this solution of human arbitration was unacceptable to a group of Ali'due south followers who used the slogan "Rule belongs only to Allah", justified past the Qur'anic verse:

The determination is for Allah only. He telleth the truth and He is the Best of Deciders

Qur'an

This grouping, known as the Kharijites, formed their ain sect that opposed all contenders for the caliphate. In 661 the Kharijites killed Ali while he was praying in the mosque of Kufa, Iraq. In the years that followed, the Kharijites were defeated in a serial of uprisings. Effectually 500,000 descendents of the Kharijites survive to this day in Due north Africa, Oman and Zanzibar as a sub-sect of Islam known as the Ibadiyah.

Before long after the decease of Ali, Mu'awiya, causeless the Caliphate of the Islamic land, moving the capital from Kufa to Damascus. Unlike his predecessors who maintained a high level of egalitarianism in the Islamic state, Mu'awiya's Caliphate was monarchical. This set the tone for the fledgling Ummayad dynasty (c.670-750 CE) and in 680 on the decease of Mu'awiya, the Caliphate succeeded to his son Yazid.

Shi'a Muslims in London commemorate Ashura ©

About the aforementioned fourth dimension, Hussein, Ali'southward youngest son from his spousal relationship to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and the 3rd Shi'a Imam, was invited by the people of Kufa in Iraq to become their leader. Hussein fix off for Kufa from his dwelling in Medina with his followers and family, but was met past Yazid's forces in Karbala before reaching his destination.

Despite existence hopelessly outnumbered, Hussein and his small-scale number of companions refused to pay allegiance to Yazid and were killed in the ensuing battle. Hussein is said to take fought heroically and to have sacrificed his life for the survival of Shi'a Islam.

The Boxing of Karbala is 1 of the most significant events in Shi'a history, from which Shi'a Islam draws its stiff theme of martyrdom. Information technology is central to Shi'a identity even today and is commemorated every twelvemonth on the 24-hour interval of Ashura. Millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Hussein mosque and shrine in Karbala and many Shi'a communities participate in symbolic acts of self- flagellation.

Expansion

Sunni and Shi'a expansion

As Islam expanded from the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula into the circuitous and urban societies of the once Roman and Western farsi empires, Muslims encountered new ethical dilemmas that demanded the authority of religious answers.

Sunni expansion and leadership

Sunni Islam responded with the emergence of four pop schools of thought on religious jurisprudence (fiqh). These were prepare down in the 7th and eighth centuries CE past the scholars of the Hanbali, Hanafi, Maliki and Shaafii schools. Their teachings were formulated to find Islamic solutions to all sorts of moral and religious questions in whatsoever club, regardless of time or identify and are still used to this solar day.

The Ummayad dynasty was followed by the Abbasid dynasty (c. 758-1258 CE). In these times the Caliphs, in contrast to the commencement four, were temporal leaders only, deferring to religious scholars (or uleama) for religious problems.

Sunni Islam continued through the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties to the powerful Mughal and Ottoman empires of the 15th to 20th centuries. Information technology spread east through primal Asia and the Indian sub-continent as far as the Indonesian archipelago, and west towards Africa and the periphery of Europe. The Sunnis emerged as the nearly populous grouping and today they make upwardly effectually 85% of the one billion Muslims worldwide.

Shi'a expansion and leadership

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Shi'a community continued with 'Imams' believed to be divinely appointed from the Prophet's Family. Different the Sunni Caliphs, the Shi'a Imams generally lived in the shadow of the state and were independent of it. The largest sect of Shi'a Islam is known as The Twelvers, because of their belief that twelve divinely appointed Imams descended from the Prophet in the line of Ali and Hussein, led the community until the 9th century CE.

Shi'a imams according to the Twelve are shown in blue

Muhammad al-Muntazar al-Mahdi was the 12th Imam. The Shi'a believe that as a young boy, he was subconscious in a cave under his father'southward house in Samarra to avoid persecution. He disappeared from view, and according to Shi'a belief, has been hidden past God until he returns at the finish of time. This is what Shi'as call the Major Occultation. The Shi'a believe this Twelfth Imam, or Mahdi or Messiah, is non dead and will render to revive the true message of Islam. His disappearance marked the end of the leadership of the straight descendants of the Prophet.

(Note: While the information provided is the position of the largest Shi'a subdivision, that of The Twelvers, other Shi'a groups, such every bit the Ismailis, hold differing views.)

In the absenteeism of the Mahdi, the rightful successor to the Prophet, the Shi'a community was led, as it is today, by living scholars usually known by the honourable title Ayatollah, who act as the representatives of the Hidden Imam on earth. Shi'a Muslims take always maintained that the Prophet'southward family are the rightful leaders of the Islamic world.

There are significant differences between scholars of Shi'a Islam on the role and power of these representatives. A minority believe the role of the representative is accented, generally known as Wilayat Faqih. The majority of Shi'a scholars, yet, believe their power is relative and bars to religious and spiritual matters.

Although the Shi'a have never ruled the majority of Muslims, they have had their moments of celebrity. The 9th century Fatimid Ismaili dynasty in Egypt and North Africa, when Cairo'south prestigious Al-Azhar University was founded and the 16th century CE Safavid Dynasty which engulfed the sometime Western farsi Empire and fabricated Shi'a Islam the official religion.

Meaning numbers of Shi'equally are at present found in many countries including Iraq, Pakistan, Republic of albania and Yemen. They make upward 90% of the population of Iran which is the political confront of Shi'a Islam today.

Differences

How do Sunnis and Shi'equally differ theologically?

Hadith and Sunnah

Initially the difference between Sunni and Shi'a was simply a question of who should lead the Muslim community. As time went on, however, the Shi'a began to testify a preference for particular Hadith and Sunnah literature.

Interpretation of the Hadith and Sunnah is an Islamic academic scientific discipline. The Shi'a gave preference to those credited to the Prophet'due south family unit and close assembly. The Sunnis consider all Hadith and Sunnah narrated by whatsoever of twelve m companions to be equally valid. Shi'as recognise these as useful texts relating to Islamic jurisprudence, merely subject them to close scrutiny. Ultimately this difference of accent led to different understandings of the laws and practices of Islam.

The Mahdi

The concept of the Mahdi is a central tenet of Shi'a theology, but many Sunni Muslims as well believe in the coming of a Mahdi, or rightly guided one, at the end of time to spread justice and peace. He will also be called Muhammad and be a descendant of the Prophet in the line of his girl Fatima (Ali's wife). The thought has been popular with grassroots Muslims due to the preaching of several Sufi or mystical trends in Islam.

Over the centuries a number of individuals have alleged themselves the Mahdi come to regenerate the Muslim globe, only none has been accepted by the majority of the Sunni community. Yet, some more Orthodox Sunni Muslims dispute the concept of the Mahdi because in that location is no mention of information technology in the Qur'an or Sunnah.

Shrines

The Wahabi movement within Sunni Islam views the Shi'a practice of visiting and venerating shrines to the Imams of the Prophet's Family unit and other saints and scholars every bit heretical. Most mainstream Sunni Muslims have no objections. Some Sufi movements, which often provide a bridge between Shi'a and Sunni theologies, assistance to unite Muslims of both traditions and encourage visiting and venerating these shrines.

Applied differences

Prayer

All Muslims are required to pray five times a day. However, Shi'a practice permits combining some prayers into three daily prayer times. A Shi'a at prayer can ofttimes be identified by a pocket-sized tablet of clay from a holy place (ofttimes Karbala), on which they place their forehead whilst prostrating.

Leadership

Today there are significant differences in the structures and organisation of religious leadership in the Sunni and the Shi'a communities. In that location is a bureaucracy to the Shi'a clergy and political and religious authority is vested in the most learned who emerge every bit spiritual leaders. These leaders are transnational and religious institutions are funded by religious taxes called Khums (20% of annual excess income) and Zakat (ii.five%). Shi'a institutions away are also funded this mode.

There is no such bureaucracy of the clergy in Sunni Islam. Virtually religious and social institutions in Sunni Muslim states are funded past the state. Only Zakat is applicable. In the West most Sunni Muslim institutions are funded by charitable donations from the customs at home and abroad.

How exercise Sunni and Shi'a view each other?

The persecution of the Prophet'due south family and the early on Shi'as provide a paradigm of martyrdom which is repeated throughout Shi'a history. The relationship between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims through the ages has been shaped by the political mural of that period.

As the Sunni Ottoman Empire expanded into the Balkans and central Asia and the Shi'a Safavid dynasty spread through the Persian Empire from the 16th century CE, tensions arose in Sunni-Shi'a relations.

The majority of Sunni and Shi'a Muslims do not permit their theological differences to divide them or cause hostility between them. For example, Shaikh Mahmood Shaltoot of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the oldest institution of Islamic learning in the world, considers Shi'a Islam to be of equal status to the iv Sunni schools of jurisprudence.

However, electric current global political weather condition mean in that location has been a degree of polarisation and hostility in many Muslim societies. The term Rafidi (pregnant "Rejecter") has been applied past radical Sunnis to disparage Shi'as. In plow the Shi'as will oftentimes utilise the label Wahabi, which refers to a particular sectarian move within Sunni Islam, as a term of abuse for all those who disagree with Shi'a behavior and practices.

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Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/subdivisions/sunnishia_1.shtml

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