MAJOR BRANCHES OF ISLAM
Sunni Islam, one of the two main branches of Islam. Shia Islam is the other. Sunni Muslims constitute the vast majority in the world Islamic community (see Islam). The term sunna means the “way” or the “example” and refers to the example of the Prophet Muhammad. All Islamic groups and sects, however, accept the Sunna, along with the Qur'an (Koran), the sacred scriptures of Islam, as binding. Because it means the “way,” the term sunna may also be intended to distinguish mainstream Muslims from Shia Muslims, who follow a side path.
The two main branches of Islam differ primarily in their beliefs about the succession to Muhammad. Sunni Muslims believe that Muhammad intended that the Muslim community choose a successor, or caliph, by consensus to lead the theocracy (earthly kingdom under divine rule) he had set up. Shia Muslims, also known as Shias, believe that Muhammad chose his son-in-law, Ali, as his successor, and that only the descendents of Ali and his wife, Fatima, were entitled to rule the Muslim community. There are also differences between the two branches in interpretation of the Qur’an.
The doctrines of Sunni Islam were formed toward the end of the 9th century, and its theology was developed as a complete system during the 10th century. Both developments occurred, in large measure, as reactions to early schismatic movements, such as the Kharijites, Mutazilites, and Shias. The inclusive Sunni definition of a Muslim, for instance, was conceived in reaction to the narrow extremism of the Kharijites. The strong Sunni emphasis on God's power, will, and determination of human fate developed in reaction to the Mutazilite insistence on the absolute freedom of the human will. Sunni political doctrines emerged in the struggle against the legitimism espoused by the Shias in the dispute over the succession to Muhammad (see Caliphate). Various nuances of interpretation and different schools have developed within Sunni theology, the Sunni tendency having been to accommodate minor differences of opinion and to affirm the consensus of the community in doctrinal matters. Four schools of law also developed in the Sunni tradition: the Shafi'i, the Hanafi, the Maliki, and the Hanbali.
Shia Islam emerged out of a dispute over the succession to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. His successors, called caliphs, were both political and religious leaders of the theocracy (earthly kingdom under divine rule) that Muhammad had set up (see Caliphate). After the assassination of the fourth caliph, Ali, in 661, Ali’s supporters claimed that it had been Ali’s right to succeed Muhammad directly and that the previous caliphs had therefore been usurpers. They maintained that only the descendants of Ali and his wife, Fatima, Muhammad's daughter, were entitled to rule the Muslim community. Ali’s followers were known as the Shia (partisans), or Shiites. But the majority of the Muslim community, who followed the Sunna (way), rejected the Shia doctrine about the succession.
The Shia developed a doctrine of the infallibility, sinlessness, and divine right to authority of the descendants of Ali, whom they called imams (see Imam). The main Shia body recognizes 12 imams and is called the Twelvers; the Ismailis recognize 7 and are called the Seveners. The last imam disappeared in 880, and Shia Muslims to this day await his return, when they believe that justice will be established on earth.
The imam, as Shia Islam conceives him, is a repository of wisdom, absolute in his political and religious authority. Under the theoretical aegis of the 12th imam, Shia religious leaders exercise immense influence. They are more likely to take an innovative approach to religious issues and to defy political authority than are Sunni leaders.
During the early centuries of Islam, the Shia, politically defeated and persecuted, became an underground movement and adopted the principles of taqwa (which in this case means “dissimulation of faith”) and of an esoteric interpretation of the Qur'an (Koran), the sacred scriptures of Islam. Thus, Shia Muslims believe that beneath the explicit and literal meaning of the Qur'an are other levels of meaning, which are known only to the imam, who can reveal them to chosen followers. These principles, useful to the movement when it was politically powerless, are still accepted by Shia Islam. This branch of Islam also affirms the validity of a form of temporary marriage called muta. Shia Muslims pay the tax called zakat (originally levied by Muhammad to help the poor and later levied by Muslim states) to their religious leaders rather than to state authorities, as they did before achieving political power (for instance, in Iran in the 15th century). As a result, some Shia leaders in Iran and Iraq have immense wealth and property.
During the 10th and 11th centuries, Shia Islam had a large following throughout the Middle East, but the spread of the popular mystical movement known as Sufism seems to have greatly diminished its strength. Today Shia Muslims are in the majority in Iran, and large numbers are found in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia. They are also found in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bekáa Valley, Middle East, and Yemen. Their total number exceeds 165 million. In the late 20th century several Shia leaders, including the Iranian political leader Ayatollah Khomeini, advocated rapprochement and solidarity with Sunni Islam. Cities of importance are Beirut, Karbala´, Mashhad, and Qom.
In Shia Islam, the term imam is applied to the person who is both the political and religious leader. He must be descended from Ali and Fatima (the son-in-law and daughter of the Prophet Muhammad). No imam, however, except Ali, ever ruled, and beginning with the sixth imam, Jafar al-Sadiq, all eschewed political power. The imam is regarded by the main body of Shia Muslims as immune from error and sin and by the Ismailis as a veritable incarnation of God. Both sects believe the last imam to be in concealment and await his return.
Sufism, Islamic mysticism that began to develop in the 7th century, the first century of Islam. The term sufi (Arabic, “man of wool”) was coined in the early 9th century as a name for mystics whose ascetic practices included wearing coarse woolen garments, or sufu; soon the term referred to all mystics, whether or not they followed ascetic practices. Sufism arose out of various influences, among them a mystical overtone in some of the teachings of Muhammad, the founder of Islam; a desire to escape the hardships due to the social and political upheavals of the time; and a tendency toward quietism in reaction to the worldliness and extravagance of the early caliphs (see Caliphate).
By the 9th century ad the Sufis claimed to have methods of finding mystic knowledge of God, or Allah. The Sufi mystic, described as a pilgrim on a journey, follows a path of seven stages: repentance, abstinence, renunciation, poverty, patience, trust in God, and acquiescence to the will of God. Then, with the grace of God, a higher level of consciousness is attained, in which knowledge, the knower, and the known are realized as one. Some mystics believed that the supreme experience of union with God could not be expressed in words; others who tried to express it scandalized the orthodox by ecstatically proclaiming their identity with God. Eventually, formal pantheistic doctrines (see Pantheism) emerged; statements that the universe and God are actually one further outraged the orthodox, who believed that God, as creator of the world, transcends it. In addition, although most early Sufis conscientiously observed the religious law, some scorned it outright, proclaiming their inner light a sufficient source of religious guidance.
In the late 11th and early 12th centuries, the Islamic philosopher and theologian al-Ghazali finally reconciled the orthodox to mysticism. He de-emphasized the pantheistic aspects of Sufism, maintaining, on the one hand, that the individual should strive to attain the Divine Presence, but, on the other hand, that the good Sufi must live in peace with the rest of the community. His interpretation of Islam, which stressed the personal, emotional relationship of the individual to God, was accepted by the Islamic community within a century after his death. Sufism then became a vital force, winning over many more people, especially in western Asia, to orthodox Islam.
In the 8th century Sufi monastic communities were founded where devotees practiced mystical exercises. In the Middle Ages the great Sufi orders, which had several million adherents, were established; about 100 orders still exist, many of them in Iran. One of the most influential founders of orders was the Persian poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, who, in addition to composing poetry and other works, instituted devotional dances, particularly those of the whirling dervishes (see Dervish); his disciples, called the order of the Malawiya (in Arabic), or Mevlevi (in Turkish), have their headquarters at Konya, Turkey. In addition to the members of these orders, many wandering Sufi mendicants, or fakirs (see Fakir), have appeared over the centuries. Many have been genuinely pious, but those who were merely fraudulent beggars brought disrepute to Sufism. From the Middle Ages onward, Sufism influenced many poets, especially in Persia (later Iran), where the most brilliant poetry has been Sufi (see Persian Literature).
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