Shia and Sunni
The two major divisions of Islam
By: Ali Mirdamadi
converted from a Power Point presentation in class
to HTML
by Ali Miramadi, and published here by permission of the author.
Topics that will be covered on this
page:
1- Where
Shia and Sunni separated
2- Sunni beliefs after
Muhammad's death
3- Shia beliefs after
Muhammad's death
4- A few Differences
The
Separation Of Shia and Sunni
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In
the final days of his life, Muhammad the prophet and messenger
of Islam told his closer followers that his life is nearing
an end. Many people could not imagine that Muhammad would
also pass away some day. But as he said himself, he was like
any other human being and some day would leave this world.
It’s after his death that Islam would see a split and just
like the other religions of the world, there would be conflicts
and arguments on who’s right, and who’s wrong.
This is where Islam would actually see a separation.
From here on based on different beliefs, Islam would
divide into two major groups.
Basically, the differences are more noticed once you
go into the details of this religion.
Almost
all of the basics of Islam are the same for both groups.
The five pillars of Islam are a good example that these
two groups both agree on. These five pillars are:
1-
Belief and witness in there being one God and that Muhammad
is his messenger.
2-
doing the Daily prayers
3-
Zakat, or spiritual almsgiving, in which all Muslims should
donate at least two and a half percent of their income to
needy Muslims.
4-
Fasting, which is done through out the month of Ramadan. This
is the month that the Quran was sent to Muhammad.
5-
Hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca.
All of these are the basic rules of Islam, which every
Muslim should follow.
These are all the same between both the Shia’s and
the Sunni’s. The
differences between these groups are how they do each one
of these basic rules. For instance, at prayer time, there
is a slight difference in gestures and prayers between the
Shi'ites and the Sunnis. |
Sunni
beliefs after Muhammad's death
| As
said earlier, what separates these two groups is what happens
after Muhammad’s death.
The Sunnis believe that Muhammad, before his death had
not identified anyone after himself to lead the Muslims.
So a group of his followers gather in a meeting and decided
that they should all vote to see who would be the best person
to guide the Islamic ummah (population). In this group of people, one of Muhammad’s close followers,
Abu-Bakr is decided to take control.
Sunnis call the people who lead the Islamic government
after Muhammad a Caliph. The very first which was Abu-Bakr. It's
at this point where the Shia and Sunni divide themselves and the
reason was that that a group of people which later on are referred
to the Shias or Shi'ites didn’t agree on Abu-Bakr becoming
the first Caliph. Why they did not believe this will be explained
in the next section.
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Shia beliefs after Muhammad's
death
| A
group of people did not accept Abu-Bakr as the Caliph. These groups
of people are later on known as the Shia’s. What they believe
in is that Muhammad, on his final pilgrimage to Mecca, had announced
an important message to the Muslim nation. At a place named Ghadireh-Khom,
he gathers all the people that are returning to their homes from
Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
He there announces that this Hajj he has just recently
returned from was the last one he could ever attend. Then a question
is asked about what the Muslim community should do and whom they
should follow. Muhammad replies “I have left you with two very
important resources. One the Quran, and the second my family”
then he calls Ali and raises his hand to the sky. (Ali is Muhammad’s
cousin and the first male individual to accept Islam). Then says
“Whoever believes in me, should also believe in Ali”. The Shia
population refer to this announcement as Muhammad having chosen
Ali and identifying him as the Islamic leader after himself. So
Ali was the first Imam (Shia leader) but also the fourth Sunni
Caliph. After Ali there were his sons, Hassan and Hussein, then
Hussein's son Sajjad, and etc... This continues till the very
last and twelfth Imam which is Mahdi. It is believed that Mahdi
has been hidden in God's command till the day that only God knows
himself. On that day Mahdi will return and fight with evil
and corruption which at that time it will be at its maximum extent..
|
Several differences and arguments
| In Islam the five
pillars are something that every Muslim has to accept. So what
are the differences between the Sunni’s and the Shia’s? There
are numerous differences, of which the very first and major one
is the Caliph and the Imam, which we already talked about. Other
differences can be seen in different areas. For example another
difference is in the Islamic rules and how extremely they are
applied. For instance
women in Saudi Arabia (which is a Sunni based population) would
not have many privileges that men do. They cannot work outside
the house, they cannot vote, and they would spend much more of
their time doing household chores. Crime is much more less in
Sunni countries. Because if in that country you were to steal
anything, your hand would get cut off immediately. In Mecca when
the call to prayer has been said, all of the people go to prayer
as soon as possible with out even having to close the stores.
Prayer is of great importance and therefore all the people are
expected to be in their local Mosque. [Ali indicated that
in his home country Iran, a predominantly Shi'ite country, that
the effects of conservative Wahabi Islam are not as great, though
women are expected to wear the Hijab.] Shia population
on the other hand has its own differences. As said Imam Mahdi
is the final Imam that is hidden from the world under Gods command.
In the absence of Mahdi, the Shia people will refer to the Ayatollah’s,
or sheikhs if they have any questions. The Ayatollah’s and the
Sheikhs are individuals who have earned a degree in Islamic
education. Their job is to answer the people's questions they
happen to have. Recent technology is one of the many things
that are not mentioned in the Quran. The sheikhs have the duty
of extracting new laws that relate to new technology that hasn’t
been mentioned in the Quran directly. So this way the Shia people
have a reference to answer the questions presented by life in
the modern world.
There
are many other differences between the two groups that go more
into details. But as said before, both groups accept the main
views and basic laws of Islam. It’s the details that they have
conflict over. These divisions are not only seen in Islam, but
also seen in almost every other religion.
The final part I would like to add is where these two groups
are normally found. Most of the Muslim population is Sunni. The
Shia’s can be seen mostly in Iran (95% of the Iranian population
is Shia), parts of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine,
Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. [Note
by Darren Witwer: In order to understand the division, I think
that an anology can be useful. Bear in mind that this
analogy is also a bit misleading, but it is useful for the understanding
of Christians. Sunni Islam shares many traits with Fundamentalist
Protestant religion: independent, personal relationship with
God and a lack of central authority. This leads to a variety
of Mullahs who lead divergent sects within the religion.
The Wahabi school of Islam, which is contemporary with and parallel
to the Hassidic movement in Judaism and the Mennonite-Amish
movement in Christianity, is especially conservative and anti-modern. The
rejection of Modernity and the lack of centralized authority
have been extremely important factors in the Middle East conflicts.
Since there is no central religious authority, it is nearly
impossible for one person to speak for all Sunni Muslims.
It
is probably no coincidence that the attempts to solve the Palestinian
conflict have revolved around attempts to set up Arafat as a
secular authority that speaks for all Palestinians.
Not only are there Wahabi Muslims, but there are also Christians
among them. Western models of diplomacy don't work well
with such a decentralized-yet-religious society.
Shi'ite Islam shares important
traits with Catholic Christianity--although they do not place
the same sort of importance on the Church itself, the role of
the Imam, which in modern Shia belief is played by the Ayatollah,
is similar to that of the Pope. In other words, there
is a tendency toward more centralization of authority.
Because of the hermeneutic/exegetic authority of the Ayatollah,
there is a degree of flexibility and changeability in Shiite
belief, which contrasts with the stronger conservative tendency
of Wahabi Islam. Also, like Catholicism, Shiite Islam
tends to appear among the more poor and oppressed classes
of Muslims within countries that are predominantly Sunni.
It is interesting too, that
like the Pope, the Ayatollah is quite respected and influential
even within Sunni countries. For example, the Ayatollah
of Iran has played important roles in Afghanistan, even though
Shi'ites are a small minority there. The conflicts between
Sunni Iraq and Shi'ite Iran are more complicated and venal than
this religious debate would imply.
In conclusion, one should
not carry this Catholic-Protestant analogy too far, but I believe
that it does provide a useful starting point for understanding
how these two religions relate to each other. Unlike Catholicism,
Shi'ites are in the minority.
Some useful links:
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