Sunni And Sh Influence

Introduction

As Muhammad set the stage for the emergence of a new religion, Islam, there was a huge controversy over who the next leader should be and how the later ones would be selected after Muhammad died on June 8th, 632 AD. As the procedure of selecting a leader became unclear, many problems within the Islamic community occurred. One of the major effect on the debate over the caliphate was the emerging of a permanent internal religious malevolence; the Sunni-Shi’a Split. The Sunni and Shi’a split that arose within the religion had immense impact on the early Islamic world and empires, and also has a considerable amount of influence in today’s world. There were a couple of causes that led up to the split, such as the rivalry between Ali

Islam was still expanding, and many Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians converted to Islam. These converts at the time had the option to follow Sunni or Shi’a Islam. Not only did these converts practice Islam, they assimilated few of their customs and traditions, however this didn’t have a big impact on Sunni Islam as there was already a well established infrastructure to the sect. On the contrary, Shi’a Islam had to pay there toll as these religions brought some change and diversity to the weaker sect of Islam. Their religions influenced the evolution of Shi’a Islam, as it developed some distinct rituals and characteristics than their Islamic counterpart. These later advanced into many splits in Shi’a Islam, causing it to always be a minority as it was never able to unify. Mainstream Shi’ites believe there were twelve Imams. Zaydi Shias (found mostly in Yemen), felt that the fifth Imam was the last one, causing it to split from mainstream Shi’a. They have had a religious code in place in Yemen up till the 1960s, once it finally forged back with the majority of Shi’a Islam. Ismaili Shi’a, which is mainly in central Asia (this sect had a “diaspora” due to the government and is located in small groups in other areas), broke off

One of the biggest milestones in Shi’a history was Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979. Iran was a country that was ruled with a majority Sunni population and government. Despite economical growth, there was much opposition against the Mohammad Reza Shah, leader of Iran, and how he used the clandestine police, the Savak, to control the country. The strong Shi'a opposition against Shah resulted in the country becoming a very volatile place to live and eventually it all piled up into a civil war (History of Iran: Islamic Revolution of 1979). The opposition was lead by an exiled Shi’a fighter Ayatollah Khomeini, who was living in Iraq and later in France. Due to his exile, it was very difficult to communicate with his followers in Iran, so he smuggled messages in small numbers and then duplicated it, spreading like a disease throughout Iran. This marked the beginning of Iranian revolution. He wanted a republic, but also had a vision for an Islamic government ruled by the “guardianship of the jurist” (velayat-e faqih), which means that the best fit and most experience will rule. This is a very conservational concept among Shia scholars and which is strongly opposed by Sunnis, who have been against this system for years, keeping the Sunni political leadership and religious scholarship unlike that. He wanted to