Summary: The Perfect Islamic Community

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.

The Umayya remained a powerful clan as Islam spread under Muhammad and, after his death in 632, his two successors, or caliphs—successors of the Prophet. Still, the clan’s power had far from peaked. After the death of Umar, the second caliph, a member of the Umayya became his successor: Uthman ibn Affan (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Uthman, however, was quickly murdered because he privileged the Meccan elite over the early converts. Shaken by his death, the Umma charged the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, as being complacent with Uthman’s murder. Eventually Ali himself was murdered by the Umayyad’s supporters, giving rise to an Islamic state ruled by the Umayya, the Umayyad Caliphate, where the Islamic

To begin, Mujahidin was a rebel group during the 1980s that Ronald Reagan had funded. During the war the United States gave financial as well as military assistance to Mujahidin (Davis Moorhead). A reason why the U.S. helped Mujahidin was because of the relationship that they had with Great Britain. The Soviets had supported the Afghanistan government and Britain was also supporting the Mujahidin (Davis Moorhead). The main reason why the U.S. got involved was to support Mujahidin with military support. Mujahidin had then lead to the well know terrorist group

In the post Osama bin Laden era al-Qaedist ideology is flourishing across the Arab world. A significant development has been the rise of al-Qaeda offshoots in the Middle East. The Abdallah Azzam Brigades franchise has increasingly become a noteworthy actor in terrorism. On May 8th, 2012 Thomas Nides, Deputy Secretary of State designated Abdallah Azzam Brigades as a foreign terrorist organization (Nides, T.R. , 2012). Abdullah Azzam Brigades may have only recently been added as a foreign terrorist group; nevertheless the organization has deep roots, lethal capacity, and is capable of contributing to supplementary instability in the Middle East.

Chapter 14 in the book Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective of the Past by Herrry H. Bentley and Herbert F. Ziegler is mainly about Muhammad, the prophet, and his world, the expansion of Islam, economy and society of the early Islamic world, and its values and cultural exchanges.

In 1979, the Soviet Union entered Afghanistan to reclaim a falling economy. Despite their need to introduce a capitalistic society in the country, The Soviet Union was not liked by the Mujahidin,which was a pioneer organization before the current entity. Due to the differences that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union, the former decided to intervene to reduce the influence of Russians in the region. Different anti-Russian troupes were funded by the United States, which was referred to as the Mujahedeen. Other countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia contributed to the development of these forces.( Jones, 2008).

After reading this excerpt, I discovered that there was also theological debates within the Muslim community (Hillenbrand, 171). While in class, we had learned about a divide in the Muslim community; this divide is between two different groups, the Shi‘ites and the Sunnis. Although there is a divide between these two groups, the Shi‘ites and the Sunnis both agree on the fact that Allah is the one true God in the Islamic faith. Furthermore, these two groups also believe that Muhammad was the messenger of God. Unfortunately, these two groups have opposing theories on the rightful successor to the prophet Muhammad. The Shi‘ites feel that Muhammad’s successor should be someone from his bloodline; therefore, the Shi‘ites sought leadership from Muhammad's closest male relative, his cousin Ali ibn Abu Talib. Conversely, the Sunnis felt that a caliphate or religious leader should be elected by the Islamic community as his successor and sought leadership from the rightly guided caliphate, Abu

ISIS focuses on the fight at home while Bin Laden focused on the fight with the US and West (AbuKhalil,

After watching the film ‘Close Up’, I have learned about the characteristic of Mercy playing a large role in the Islamic community, even with people who are not Islam. This paper is going to look at the movie and the way mercy is shown by some of the characters, as well as how Sabzian existential crisis played a big part in his crime, and the Judge's compassion towards that crisis.

Division within the Muslim world did not begin until after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. It arose in the form of political uncertainty about who would be the next leader of the Muslim community after the death of the Prophet. One group of thinkers, who came to be known as Shiites (Shia meaning "faction" in Arabic), believed that authority in the Muslim world should stay within the family of the Prophet, and so pointed to Ali and his son Husayn, Muhammad's close relatives. Another group, known as Sunnis, believed that the person most worthy to lead should become the caliph, no matter his bloodline (Strayer 423).

A religion that will employ great influence in a civilization of more than one and a half billion people. The Prophets death also had the opportunity to split the religion into two main branches the Sunni and Shi’a. The Sunni who are 80 percent of Muslims, and they believed that, Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, to the successor. As for the Shi’a who only make up 15 percent of the Muslims in the world, believed an imam, in their case Ali, cousin, and son-in-law, should be the successor; due to their blood relations. However, with their differences aside, they shared the common belief that Prophet Muhammad was a messenger of Allah. Both the Sunni and Shi’a also share the belief that there are five pillars of Islam: (1) the harmony of Allah and the prophethood of Muhammad, (2) the five obligatory prayers, (3) fasting, (4) charity, and (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca. Both branches oppose several kinds social change that is done by western ideas, and instead have the primary objective of the establishment of Islamic law as the sole basis of their government. The question still is who should have been the rightful successor of the Prophet Muhammad. Someone who is in blood relations or someone who was a close

Set in the Fourteenth century in different regions of Africa and Asia, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta presents a precise representation of Ibn Battuta’s rihla , exemplifying a clear distinction between the different countries and regions he visited. Ibn Battuta began his journey by setting off from his home Tangier, Morocco to Mecca. “I braced my resolution to quit all my dear ones, female and male, and forsook my home as birds forsake their nests” (Dunn 69), as the much older Ibn Battuta wrote in his book of travels. During his travels by foot, donkey, camel and boat Ibn Battuta had visited almost all of the known Islamic world and more to pursue his ambition for knowledge and experience. This

During the seventh century Mohammed founded the Islam religion. Very impressive to know he established the first Islamic state, a theocracy in Medina, a city in Western Saudi Arabia located north of Mecca. Over a course of time he founded two branches of the religion. The Sunni branch have faith in that the first four caliphs Mohammed 's descendants technically took his place as the leaders of Muslims. They identify the inheritors of the four caliphs as authentic spiritual leaders. These inheritors administrated always in the Arab society up until the division of the Ottoman Empire after the end of the First World War.

Muhammad was an average Arabian merchant from the city of Mecca. He became orphaned at the age of six, and was raised by his uncle. Around the age of 40, Muhammad was visited the arch angel Gabriel. The angel spoke to him and stated he was the prophet of God. After that he began to speak the word that would soon shape the Quran. Throughout Muhammad’s lifetime, he was not only the chosen prophet, but he was also a political, religious and military leader. He tried unsuccessfully to spread his Islamic beliefs within Mecca, However, the people of Mecca saw this new religion as a contradiction of previous beliefs and most people were reluctant to convert. They also did not understand

stage. Islam makes it lucrative for Muslims to seek any knowledge and as the Prophet pbuH states: ‘The best of people are those that bring most benefit to the rest of mankind.’