Difference between revisions of "Sunni - Shia"

Revision as of 16:49, 21 November 2010

Sunni and Shia are the two main branches of Islam.

Names

The term 'Sunni' comes from the Arabic word سنّة (sunnah, custom or practice), the custom or practice in this case being that of the Prophet Mohammed. Sunni Muslims (or, more briefly, Sunnis) are usually known in Arabic as السنّة اهل (ahl us-Sunnah), i.e., the people of the custom or practice (of the Prophet Mohammed). The term 'Shia' comes from the Arabic word شيعة (shi‘ah, sect, denomination, party, or group) and is short for علي شيعة (shi‘atu ‘ali, the party of Ali). Shia Muslims (or, more briefly, Shias or Shi'ites) are usually known in Arabic as البيت اهل (ahl ulbeit), i.e., the people of the household or family (of the Prophet Mohammed). The significance of these names will become clear in what follows.

Origins of the Distinction

The distinction between Sunni and Shia Islam has its origins in early Islamic history. The Prophet Mohammed died in the city of Medina in the Arabian Peninsula in 632 CE, and on his death Abu Bakr, one of his close companions, was chosen to succeed him as caliph, i.e., as temporal and spiritual leader of the Muslim community, which then numbered about 100,000. (The English word 'caliph' is the Arabic خليفة (khalifa), a noun which comes from the verb خلف (khalafa, to come after, or succeed) and literally means 'successor'.) However, the choice of Abu Bakr was contentious: while many favoured him as the most suitable person for the position, some believed that Mohammed's successor should come from his immediate family, and that Ali, Mohammed's cousin and husband of his daughter Fatima, should be caliph. Both parties could claim with some justification that their choice was that which Mohammed himself would have made, but their different choices reflected, at a deeper level, divergent views about the kind of leadership which would be appropriate for the Muslim community (see further below). Ali himself acquiesced in the choice of Abu Bakr, and some 24 years later in 656, after the caliphates of Umar ibn al-Khattab and Uthman bin 'Affan, became the fourth caliph. He moved his capital from Medina to Kufa in Iraq, where in 661, while praying in the city's mosque, he was murdered by an extremist dissident group. Ali's successor, Mu'awiya, came from outside Mohammed's family, and in 680 Mu'awiya's son, Yazid, succeeded him. Unlike the first four caliphs, Mu'awiya and all the caliphs after him were temporal rulers only and did not have authority in religious and spiritual matters. In 480, after the succession of Yazid, the inhabitants of Kufa invited Ali's youngest son, Hussein, to become their leader, but while he was on his way from Medina to Kufa, he and his followers met and fought with an army of Yazid's soldiers at Karbala. Hussein was killed in the battle, and, along with his father Ali, is venerated by Shias as a martyr who sacrificed his life for the sake of Shia Islam.

Some Differences between Sunnis and Shias

Many of the differences in belief and practice between Sunni and Shia Muslims today have their roots in the events of the first half century of Islamic history. These events explain, for example, why Sunnis and Shias have different attitudes to the hadith (حديث), i.e., the oral tradition about Mohammed's life and practice (the sunnah). After Mohammed's death many of his companions offered accounts of the way he lived or of particular incidents in his life, and these contemporary recollections were preserved in an oral tradition until they were written down and gathered into a number of collections in the eight and ninth centuries CE. Sunnis tend to give equal weight to all the accounts in the hadith irrespective of their authorship, but Shias attach much greater weight to the accounts provided by members of Mohammed's family and by certain of his very close companions. Clearly these differences in attitude towards the hadith can, in turn, lead to different beliefs about Mohammed's life and practice, and through this to different interpretations of certain passages in the Qur'an.

As has already been said, Sunnis' and Shias have different views about the kind of person who should lead the Muslim community. Shias believe that this person possesses both temporal and spiritual authority, that he must come from Mohammed's family, and that he is divinely appointed and divinely defended against sin and error. Most Shias trace the true leadership of the Muslim community through a series of Imams, beginning with Ali in the seventh century and ending with the twelfth (Mohammed al-Muntazar al-Mahdi), who became Imam as a boy in 874 but disappeared shortly afterwards. Most Shias believe that this twelfth Imam did not die and that he is the Mahdi (مهديّ, mahdi, the rightly guided one) who will reappear at the end of the world to rule in justice and peace. (Some Sunnis have a similar belief in the coming of a Mahdi at the end of the world.) In the absence of the Mahdi Shias acknowledge the leadership of ayatollahs, who are regarded as the earthly representatives of the hidden Imam and stand at the apex of a hierarchical structure of religious authorities. The Sunni clergy, by contrast, are not organised within a hierarchical structure.

It is a consequence of the Shi'ite belief in the Imams as divinely appointed leaders together with the violent deaths of Ali and Hussein (the first and third Imams) that the veneration of martyrs and saints and pilgrimages to their shrines have a place in Shi'ite religious practice. (For Sunnis Mecca is the only legitimate place of pilgrimage.) For example, Shias mourn the the death of Hussein on the day of Ashura, the anniversary of the battle of Karbala - Sunnis also fast on this day but for a different reason. Well-known places of Shi'ite pilgrimage include Samarra (site of the tombs of the tenth and eleventh Imams and the place where the twelfth Imam disappeared), Najaf (site of Ali's tomb), Kufa, and Karbala.

As Islam spread into regions which had once been part of the Roman or the Persian Empire and into urban areas with more complex ways of life than those found in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq, new moral and legal issues confronted the caliphs, who were now temporal rulers only and deferred to religious scholars in matters of religion, morality, and law. It was in response to these challenges that there developed in the course of the eighth and ninth centuries CE four schools of Islamic jurisprudence (namely, the Hanafi, Maliki, Sha'afi, and Hanbali Schools), which sought in different ways to determine on the basis of the Qur'an what was morally and legally acceptable within the Muslim community. Since the Caliphs were Sunnis, these four schools of jurisprudence are part of Sunni Islam. The Shia Imams exercised their authority independently of the state, and Shias have their own tradition of jurisprudence distinct from the four Sunni schools.

There are many other differences in belief and practice between Sunni and Shia Islam. For example, while Sunnis must pray five times a day (at dawn (فجر, fajr), at midday (ظهر, dhuhr), in the afternoon (عصر, asr, at sunset (مغرب,maghrib), and in the evening (عشاء, isha)), Shias are permitted to combine the midday and afternoon prayers and the sunset and evening prayers, and so are required to pray only three times in the day. Again, while the elements of the ritual cleansing (وضوء, wudu') which is necessary before prayer are broadly the same for both Sunnis and Shias, there are differences of detail in the way Sunni and Shia perform the acts which constitute the rite. Finally, and perhaps more significantly, the Five Pillars of Islam are understood in different ways within the two branches of Islam. Sunnis understand the Five Pillars as five types of action which are incumbent on Muslims - namely, profession of faith (شهادة, shahada), prayer (صلاة, salah), alms-giving (زكاة, zakah), fasting (صوم, sawm), and pilgrimage to Mecca (حجّ, hajj). These five types of action are, of course, also incumbent on Shias, but for them the Five Pillars are five beliefs - namely, in the oneness of God (توحيد, tawhid), in God's justice (عدل, adl), in prophethood (نبوّة, nubuwwah), in the imamate as a divine institution (إمامة, imamah), and in the resurrection and last judgment (ميعاد, mi'ad).

Distribution

Today Islam is the dominant religion in a swathe of countries which stretch across the world from Indonesia in the Far East to Morocco in North Africa. The vast majority of Muslims (85-90%) are Sunnis: Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, parts of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, parts of Southern Russia, the Caucasus, Turkey, the Balkans, and North and West Africa are all predominantly Sunni. The best known Shia nation is Iran - more than 90% of its population is Shia - but there are also significant numbers of Shia in Iraq, Pakistan, Albania, the Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria.