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Summary: Similarities Between Shia And Sunny Islamic Communities

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Common traits and major divergences between Shia and Sunny Islamic communities
To start from, let`s take a quick tour into history and find some useful facts. Islam is one of the 3 major world religions and is the youngest one. It appeared in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula in the early seventh century in the Hijaz among the tribes of Western Arabia. The term "Islam" means "submission" (to the will of God) and those who are submitted are called “Muslims”. Muslims take Islam as a comprehensive way of life, which involves any sphere of human existence. Although Islam was born in Saudi Arabia, the number of the non-Arab Muslims nowadays exceeds the number of Muslim Arabs by almost three times. In addition, there are four countries with the highest proportion of the Muslim population outside the Middle East: Indonesia - 203 million, Pakistan - 174 million, Bangladesh - 145 million, India - 161 million, Russian Federation - 20 million people. (World's Muslim Population) Presently Islam is divided into several streams. The major are Sunni and Shia. Also there is a third branch called Sufism and several small communities (Wahhabis, Druses, Alawi, Ahmadiyah) . The Sunnites count about one billion and one hundred million of followers …show more content…

They both believe in Holy Allah, in the Judgment Day, in the Prophet Muhammad, in Seal of Prophets. They believe that everything that the Prophet Muhammad came with relates to the faith in all the sacred scriptures and in all Prophets of Allah. Allah says in Qur'an: “The Messenger (Muhammad SAW) believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers. Each one believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books, and His Messengers. They say, "We make no distinction between one another of His Messengers" - and they say, “We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your Forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the return (of all).” (Qur'an, 2:285). These are the Pillars of Islam which both the Shiites and the Sunnites came to

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After the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, a rift occurred within the Islamic community. There was a vacancy for leadership and a question of who was qualified to fill it. At that time the companions of the Prophet were elected to be central leaders and were known as Caliphs. The way in which Caliphs were elected, and who succeeded them, is where the difference between Sunni and Shia begins.

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This is a major factor because the two powers choose their leaders differently. Sunni Muslims chose religious leaders from a larger community, particularly from their religious scholars known as Ulama. Shia Muslims however invested in their religious leaders known as, Imams, with a religious authority that the caliphs lacked allowing them to infallibly interpret divine revelation and

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Shi’a also believes in a ongoing sequence of heirs amongst the children of Ali. The Shi’a is not accepting of the three Caliphs. The Sunni is the original Islam. They follow the Sunnah, which is the teaching of Muhammad and they are taught by the readings of the Quran. The Sunni follow Muhammad only.

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Before the split, Muhammad was seen to be as the leader of Islam. With him dying, a civil war between Muslim against Muslim occurred as in regards as to who should hold authority. On one side was the Sunni Muslims which believed that the caliphs should be rightful political and military leaders selected by the Islamic community. On the other side was the Shia. They came to the conclusion that leadership should come from the line of Ali and Husayn, blood relatives of Muhammad.

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Muhammad- In Islam too, there is division. 90% of the Muslim population is Sunnis, and the other 10% is Shiites. They both have dress codes, but the Shiites is much more strict than the Sunnis. For example, the Shiites believe that woman should always be completely covered in public.

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The division between Sunni and Shia Muslims is rooted in a disagreement over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad as the leader of the Muslim community(3). The Shia Muslims believe that leadership should remain within Muhammad’s family, specifically through his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, and his descendants, who are known as the Imams (2,3). Shia Muslims believe Muhammad designated Ali as his successor, and look towards the Imam more as a spiritual leader to guide the Muslim community on the interpretations of the Quran and Islamic law (3,5). On the other hand, Sunni Muslims believe that the leader (caliph) should be determined by the Muslim community based on merit and qualifications, regardless of their bloodline (1). The Sunni Muslims

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Present day, there are many more Sunni followers than Shiites. Despite the fact that the Shiites are outnumbered, this does not stop the political disruption and instability. The Shia and Sunni factions formed when the prophet Muhammad died in 632. The members of the Shia community, called Shiites, believed that the descendants of Ali

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