How Do Sunni and Shia Islam Differ?
Middle East
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How Do Sunni and Shia Islam Differ?
Sunnis and Shiites praying together on Sunday in Beirut, Lebanon, in protest of the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Hassan Ammar / Associated Press
By JOHN HARNEY
January 3, 2016
Saudi Arabia’s execution of the Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr could escalate tensions in the Muslim world even further. In the Shiite theocracy Iran, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday
that Saudi Arabia, which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, would face
“divine vengeance” for the killing of the outspoken cleric, which was
part of a mass execution of 47 men. Sheikh Nimr had advocated for
greater political rights for Shiites in Saudi Arabia and surrounding
countries. Saudi Arabia had accused him of inciting violence against the
state.
Here is a primer on the basic differences between Sunni and Shia Islam.
What caused the split?
A schism emerged after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, and
disputes arose over who should shepherd the new and rapidly growing
faith.
Shiite
pilgrims at the shrine to Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq, in December.
Each year millions visit the city to mark Arbaeen, the end of the 40-day
mourning period for Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most revered
figures.
European Pressphoto Agency
Some
believed that a new leader should be chosen by consensus; others
thought that only the prophet’s descendants should become caliph. The
title passed to a trusted aide, Abu Bakr, though some thought it should
have gone to Ali, the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. Ali eventually
did become caliph after Abu Bakr’s two successors were assassinated.
After Ali also was assassinated, with a poison-laced sword at the mosque in Kufa, in what is now Iraq, his sons Hasan and then Hussein claimed the title. But Hussein and many of his relatives were massacred in Karbala, Iraq,
in 680. His martyrdom became a central tenet to those who believed that
Ali should have succeeded the prophet. (It is mourned every year during
the month of Muharram.) The followers became known as Shiites, a
contraction of the phrase Shiat Ali, or followers of Ali.
The
Sunnis, however, regard the first three caliphs before Ali as rightly
guided and themselves as the true adherents to the Sunnah, or the
prophet’s tradition. Sunni rulers embarked on sweeping conquests that
extended the caliphate into North Africa and Europe. The last caliphate
ended with the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
How do their beliefs differ?
The
Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam encompass a wide spectrum of doctrine,
opinion and schools of thought. The branches are in agreement on many
aspects of Islam, but there are considerable disagreements within each.
Both branches include worshipers who run the gamut from secular to
fundamentalist. Shiites consider Ali and the leaders who came after him
as imams. Most believe in a line of 12 imams, the last of whom, a boy,
is believed to have vanished in the ninth century in Iraq after his
father was murdered. Shiites known as Twelvers anticipate his return as
the Mahdi, or Messiah. Because of the different paths the two sects
took, Sunnis emphasize God’s power in the material world, sometimes
including the public and political realm, while Shiites value in
martyrdom and sacrifice.
Which sect is larger, and where is each concentrated?
More
than 85 percent of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims are Sunni. They live
across the Arab world, as well as in countries like Turkey, Pakistan,
India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia. Iran,
Iraq and Bahrain are largely Shiite. The Saudi royal family, which
practices an austere and conservative strand of Sunni Islam known as
Wahhabism, controls Islam’s holiest shrines, Mecca and Medina. Karbala,
Kufa and Najaf in Iraq are revered shrines for the Shiites.
Saudi
Arabia and Iran, the dominant Sunni and Shiite powers in the Middle
East, often take opposing sides in regional conflicts. In Yemen, Shiite
rebels from the north, the Houthis, overthrew a Sunni-dominated
government, leading to an invasion by a Saudi-led coalition. In Syria,
which has a Sunni majority, the Alawite Shiite sect of President Bashar al-Assad,
which has long dominated the government, clings to power amid a bloody
civil war. And in Iraq, bitter resentments between the Shiite-led
government and Sunni communities have contributed to victories by the
Islamic State.
Because
of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the
relationship between the Prophet Muhammad and Ali, one of his
successors. Ali was the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, not grandson.
An
earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the Prophet
Muhammad’s succession. It is a matter of dispute; it is not the case
that all Muslims agree that he died without appointing a successor.
(Although Sunnis believe this, Shiites believe that he chose Ali, his
cousin and son-in-law.)
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