Similarities Between Sunni And Shiites

Ava DuVernay’s documentary, 13th, is a powerful analysis of the 13th Amendment included in the United States Constitution. Released October 7th, 2016, 13th depicts African Americans, even after the abolishment of slavery, as legally exploited through the 13th amendment. The goal of the documentary seems to strongly portray to its viewers the manipulation of politics at the expense of Blacks, yet again. 13th effectively demonstrates the struggles African Americans face in the arms of the criminal justice system in a powerful and emotion-provoking manner.

division between Shia (followers of Ali) and Sunni (followers of the custom of the caliphate)

In the city of Mecca, in what is today Saudi Arabia, was born the Prophet Muhammad. For Prophet Muhammad, the founder of a monotheistic religion that has over billion and a half believers, a religion that would employ a great influence on civilization and the history of humanity in general. What religion is that has over a billion followers and has an influence on a civilization? That religion is Islam. Muhammad not only was the founder of this monotheistic religion. Muhammad also had an influence on what will be the two main branches of Islam: Sunni and Shi’a. Who are the Sunni and Shi’a? What led to these two main branches? What are some of their similarities and differences? The Muslims have been battling to see who is the rightful caliph

Ali shared the same blood as Muhammad. In their opinion, this made Ali holy. Shi’ites saw caliphs more as spiritual and temporal leaders rather than rulers. Each side had its rational notions, but since more people followed Bakr, he was appointed the next caliph. Shi’ite remained under his guidance, but felt it was an abomination.

Compare and Contrast Christianity and Islam Nature of the Afterlife and Nature of the Divine

    Did you know two groups of the same religion have been fighting for over 1,400 years? The two groups are known as Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. They are fighting over a dispute over succession to Muhammad as a caliph of the Islamic community which spread across various parts of the world. The groups have different the succession of power after Muhammad died, and disagreements about marriage briefs on leadership, but are they so different? The groups are very different, because of

Another major disagreement between the Shi'a and Sunni was over the idea of salvation. The Islamic community, it was believed, would only win G-d's mercy on the Day of Judgment if the community as a whole lived according to G-d's law.(66)

What I mean when I say totally different is that the Sunni branch is more optimistic while the Shia branch leans more towards pessimism. The Sunni branch is the largest and it takes up about eighty five percent of Muslims leaving the Shia branch with only fifteen percent. The main issue of the branches is that they didn't both agree on who should lead the community after Muhammad passed. The Sunni branch believed it should have been a group decision on who takes charge next, while the Shia did not agree with that and they thought that it should have went to Muhammad's cousin, Ali. The Shia is also all about free will and symbolism rather than determinism and literal attributes like Sunni. Its hard to believe groups like Al Qaeda that committed the nine eleven terrorism attacks are apart of the Sunni branch and not the Shia since we consider these attacks harshly negative and definitely not positive. Not all Muslims are terrorists though, that was just one example of the two different branches of Islam that I discussed. Above are the most important factors that influence the religion of Islam and the way of life of the Muslim

Losing a leader can be very chaotic when they retire or pass on. Questions occur about the next leader, arguments begin, and relationships divide. Islam is a prime example of these events when the founder of the religion, Muhammad, passed on and left the Muslims without a leader. Thus started the separation of Islam into the factions the Shiites and Sunnis because of a disagreement of who will succeed Muhammad as his predecessor.

From this initial split other divisions and changes occurred within the religious practices and laws of Islam. While both share a belief in the Qur’an and the sunna (sayings or actions) of the Prophet Muhammad there are religious and legal differences. Imams are by the Shia definition the divinely guided ones but the Sunni defines Imaans as saints (Diffen n.d.). The Shia declared Ali and his descendants Imams with a special connection to the will of God with religious and legal authorities. The number of Imams and who were truly the divinely guided Imams would split Shias. There arose many branches but it came down to three main ones the Twelvers, the Seveners, and Zayids (Goldschmidt Jr. 2013). The Imams were mystical beings and the Twelvers believe that the 12th Imam disappeared and will one day return to set thing right for Muslims. Within the Sunni sect there are four branches of Islamic Law:

Another source of conflict as reported by Sørli et. al stems from the religious differences. As a whole, the Middle East is comprised of followers of Islam. But within the Islamic religion are the Sunni (which account for the majority), and the Shia. Tension lies between the two sects, especially given the fact that the Shia often hold the positions of power (Sørli, 147). Another major

The differences between Shia and Sunni’s took place after the death of Prophet Muhammad. “There are 1.6 billion Muslims across the world. Roughly 85%-90% of them are Sunnis”. (Ward) Sunni’s decided that the person/leader to guide the Islamic

The similarities of these two religions are uncanny. They are so closely related, and the differences seem so miniscule, at least to the eye of an outsider looking in. When it come to the prayer life of members of the two religions, they are almost identical. They both pray multiple times a day, prayer is obligatory for both, there are movements and gestures to go along with the prayers, the prayers are done facing a certain location, either Mecca or Qiblih, and they are both rooted from the same region in the world. In all reality the only major difference causing these two religions to tear each other apart, is what they believe about the manifestation of Allah. Other than that they are both monotheistic, follow teachings from the prophet Mohammad, and have a regulated form of prayer for members of the religion to follow. So like I said at the start, like any religion and/or its branches, they can be practically identical, but so very different at the same time.

that religion and politics have a long history in the Middle East does not mean that religion is always, or even most of the time, a crucial factor driving political conflicts. Most of the politics of the Middle East have been viewed by those inside and outside the region as driven by religious difference. From the Arab-Israeli conflict to the Iranian revolution to the emergence of

One of the most famous religious splits in human history is the well known Sunni-Shia split. The Sunni-Shia split is highly divisive throughout the world, and predominantly in the Middle East. These sects share similarities, such as they all believe that Allah is the one true god, and Muhammad is his messenger. They also believe in the same five religious pillars that Muslims follow. Although these sects are very similar, there is one big schismatic difference that separates the two. This difference lies with the question of: “Who is the rightful successor of the Prophet Muhammad?” Through this 1,400 year conflict Most sunnis believe that Abu Bakr the Prophet 's closest companion is the true successor. In contrast most Shias believe that Ali, who was the prophet 's cousin and son in law is the true successor. Abu bakr was the rightful heir to lead Muslims after the Prophet’s death. Abu Bakr was arguably his closest confidant throughout their lives, and Abu Bakr understood the Messenger teachings the best. It can also be argued that that Ali would be the fourth caliph instead of the first because choosing a successor to the Prophet based on bloodline could be seen as committing idolatry according to Islamic teaching.