Ask a Shia: Shiites & Sunnis

This is the second installment of our weekly column entitled Ask a Shiite. Our resident Shiite will be fielding questions of a philosophical, physical, and political nature in regards to Shiite Islamic belief and Middle East perception. Interested in asking a question? Send an email to alec.

Question: What are the philosophical and moral differences of Sunni and Shiites? In your experience, how do the two groups regard and perceive each other? Is there really as much hostility between the two groups as we are led to believe in the American media?

Answer: The Shias and Sunnis are the two major sects in the religion of Islam. At the time of the Prophet’s (AS) death, there was a conflict upon who would succeed the Prophet. This conflict was not a typical one which comes to a person’s mind.

The Shias believe that Imam Ali (AS) was the rightful successor to the Prophet. Imam Ali was the Prophet’s son in law as he had only one daughter and the three others were adopted. Imam Ali was also the Prophet’s cousin. He was the first person to accept Islam when the it was revealed to the Prophet. He was only 10 years old when he accepted Islam.

The Sunnis believe that the first rightful successor was Abu Bakr, a friend of the Prophet. The first four of their caliphs (leaders) were called the Rightly Guided Caliphs. The second caliph was Umar ibn Khattab, third Usman ibn Affan and the last one Imam Ali.

What happened was that when the Prophet passed away, there was a meeting in a hut at a place called Sakifa. Only the Prophet’s so called companions were present. The fought amongst themselves and couldnt decide on a caliph. This meeting was a few hours after the Prophet’s death without the opinion of any of the other Muslims. Their intention is of course not known for sure but it is suggested from the behavior that the people were power hungry. Umar stood up and supported Abu Bakr and forced everyone else to do the same. This is all accepted as authentic by both Shias and Sunni.

The declared this to the all the Muslims. Everyone accepted except the partisans(Shias) of Ali. History shows that this small group of people were very loyal people. Imam Ali was a person who was very close to the Prophet, a person on whom the Prophet relied on and trusted. This is also accepted by both Shias and Sunnis. When the Abu Bakr and his followers found out about Imam Ali and his stance, they dragged him across the streets with a rope
around his neck, burnt his house causing a door to fall on the Prophet’s daughter leading to her miscarriage.

Imam Ali did not accept the new rule and his followers continued following him silently. He remained silent for the sake of Muslim unity. Silently he used to help the the first three caliphs from making critical mistakes. Umar himself has said that if Ali had not been there I would have perished. This is all accepted by both Shias and Sunnis. Imam Ali’s stance gives us a very high end example of patience.

The Shias believe that Imam Ali was the first of 12 Imams. An Imam in this sense means someone who is better than everyone else in everything. They are someone who are living examples of a perfect human being. Later on when Umar was dead the people came to Imam Ali and asked if he would accept the leadership but on four conditions. The first condition was that Imam Ali would give his rulings according to the Qur’an. Imam Ali accepted, then the next one was that his rulings would be according to the Prophet’s Sunnah. Sunnah is what the Prophet said, did and accepted. Basically it is what the Prophet approved of from his actions and sayings. The Sunnah is recorded from different narrators. Imam Ali accepted this as well. The third condition was that Imam Ali’s rulings comply with Abu Bakr and Umar’s rulings. Imam Ali asked them if the two went against the Quan and Sunnah and if they did then why should he accept the condition and if they did not then the two had wrong leadership. The people went silent on this and went and made Usman the third caliph.

After Usman the people were sick of the caliphs rule as it had messed up the society and they wanted Imam Ali to take up leadership. He accepted with a lot of reluctance and set about putting the society right. Basically Shias believe that the successor to the Prophet has to be divinely appointed whereas the Sunnis do not and they take Abu Bakr as the first caliph. One of the caliphs even said that he would go astray and the Muslim population should put hi right if he does so.

From this ‘split’ many other differences arise amongst the Muslims. Some narrators were accepted in bringing forward the Prophet’s Sunnah. All the differences between Muslims comes form this main split. But even then the Muslims, at least the Shias, have to consider the others as their Muslims brothers and have to stay united. Creating differences between the two is not allowed for the Shias.

Quite a few other factors also led to the difference there is amongst us. But even then it is not such that we consider each other as from a totally different faith. The most important things are accepted unanimously in both the sects. For example our declaration of faith is the same in both: There is no deity(worthy of worship) except for Allah Muhammad is His Messenger

Most of our differences are quite ignorable. The Shi’ite perception towards the Sunnis is quite tolerant. We consider them as fellow Muslims, we treat them like any other person and leave our differences for Allah to judge. We generally ignore the differences.

The Sunni perception towards us quite mixed. Most of the average Sunnis accept us like we accept them. But some extremist groups or some people to whom our (Shia) message has not reached treat us as non-Muslims and even think that killing us will send them to heaven. Normally these people hate us and think that we should be oppressed and if we rise, we will overwhelm and oppress them back. But this perception of theirs is quite wrong. I am a Shia and I know my religious leaders well. We want all Muslims to be united and we would never oppress them. We have been oppressed since the death of the Prophet and that kind of oppression more or less continues till this day. at one point of time the oppression was such that the Shias were almost ‘extinct’. Muslims leaders have been more or less oppressive people in history. We Shias almost never had power. It is recently that Iran was made, Iraqi being liberated but on the other hand possibly occupied and our message is getting to other parts of the Muslims world.

The media in most cases over exaggerates the differences and sense of enmity. They do not, as I have said earlier, show how the Muslims are uniting. There are so many unity meetings where world leaders take part but none of that is shown. All that is shown is how the Muslims are fighting amongst themselves and hence an image is created that the Shias and Sunnis are at each others’ throats all the time. As said before terrorists create the problems in the world for Muslims because they rise form within Muslims and say that they are doing it for Islam, so everyone thinks that they represent Islam and the Muslims even though they do not.

To summarize it all, Shias believe in a divinely appointed leader because divine matters can not be meddled with by fallible people, Sunnis believe that Abu Bakr was the closest ‘friend’ of the Prophet and try to justify the reign of the caliphs, our differences were quite hostile earlier on but we are moving towards unity at a snails pace and the terrorists mess things up for Muslims and they do not represent Islam and finally the western media exaggerates our hostility and plays down our unity.

[tags]religious divide, islamic sects, shiites, sunnis, divisions in muslim faith, allah, prophet muhammed, explanation in differences, iraq, iran, middle east, muslim world, arabs, perceptions of each other[/tags]