The Schism Between Sunni And Shi Ite Muslims

Islam is one of the major world religions that quickly proliferated across the world. The spread of Islam started when Prophet Muhammad began to address the public a new revelation that he received from God in 632 CE. It was later written in the Quran, which is the Islamic sacred text. The religion united everyone under one rule and appealed to all because there was no hierarchy. It particularly diffused during the Middle Ages, when Islam had a great desire in exploring new information, developing extensive trade and creating a powerful military system in the Middle East and North Africa, which helped the Islamic World dominate politically and religiously.

Born in 570 in the whole city of Mecca, Muhammad was born to a wealthy and influential family. Orphaned at the age of six he struggled through life until the age of 40 he began hearing voices in Arabic. These voices would guide him for the next 22 years making him the founder of Islam. Muhammad documented what he heard and his writing became the holy book known today as the Quran. This religion spread quickly, from Africa to Spain. Today it is the second largest religion in the world with 1.6 billion Muslims.

In 570 C.E., a man was born who would later go on to become the final prophet of the fastest growing religion in the world. Muhammad was a merchant trader from Mecca. He was praying in a cave near Mt. Hira when he first heard the words of Allah from Archangel Gabriel. Muhammad kept silent about the encounters besides telling his wife until two years later. He decided it was time for the world to hear the message of Allah. From there stemmed the religion of Islam in Mecca. The lifestyle of Islam spread quickly due to pre-existing trade routes, the appeal of the religion and through military conquest.

It all began in a cave. Muhammad started Islam in 610 BC and after that it spread throughout Arabia and regions near it. Islam was able to do this quickly because of its military success, trade connections, and political order.

Muhammad a prophet for our time is written by Karen Armstrong. This book is like a diary that tells the life of Muhammad and how he played a big role in the Islamic religion. Muhammad was born in the year 570 ce and died in 623 ce. Muhammad was a man who did not have much going for him, he couldn’t read and lived in a cave with his wife at the time. When Muhammad was reached down upon by Allah he did not know what was happening and why it was happening. “ he knew that some people expected the imminent arrival of an Arab prophet, but it never occurred to him that he would be the one entrusted with the mission.” (p.10). Muhammad was 40 years old when this happened and he lived in Mecca. Mecca at the time had many different civilizations and was a big trading center. Arabs at the time did not like this and kept moving from places to place to get something stable. Some of the Arabs even had settled in urban areas around Mecca. Society in Mecca was based on laws and traditions that even though Allah is the main god

The spread of Islam throughout the world was among the most significant worldwide movements in history. Beginning as the faith of a small community of believers in Arabia in the seventh century, Islam rapidly became one of the major world religions. The core beliefs and culture of this faith is the belief that Muhammad (570-632), a respected businessman in Mecca, a commercial and religious center in western Arabia, received revelations from God that have been preserved in the Qur'an. The core of Islam remains the same today after 1396 years. Islam still translates to “submission” and Muslims still live by the Qur’an and follow the 5 Pillars of Islam. However, throughout the Pre-Islamic, Umayyad, and Abbasid

A. FOUNDING: Islam was founded by Muhammad when he received word from Allah in a prophecy (or vision). He began life in Mecca where idolatry was a main fact of life but had to flee to Madinah to escape prosecution in what has come to be known as the Hijrah. Islam spread through his family and friends at first but later his companions known as sahabat continued his work by a number of successful conquests which spread Islam to most of the middle east. Islam reached it high point when Muhammad and his army from Madinah conquered Mecca which was later deemed to the the Holy City.

In 610 CE, Muhammad ibn Abdallah had been spoken to by an angel named Gabriel who had told him of God, who is Allah, the one true God. Muhammad went on, and started speaking the words of Allah to the people of Mecca, but many declined his speeches. Muhammad decided to leave Mecca and go to Medina, where he studied his new religion. Later, Islamic belief was born, and many had started following it. Many different ways Islam spread was through conquest, it was easy to follow, and trade.

Islam was the main religion their denominations were based on. They believed in the same God, Allah, and in the same holy book, The Quran. The Sunni and Shia both believed in the same components of the Islamic belief and articles of faith. They used established institutions like madras, brotherhood lodges and ulama. The five Pillars of Faith was another shared belief. These includes the shahadan, which is the testimony of God’s unity and prophet hood of Muhammed; salat, which means daily prayer, zakat, saum, and hajj, which means to make pilgrimage to Mecca

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:

The differences do not stop there. BBC News reports that “the great majority of the world's more than 1.5 billion Muslims are Sunnis - estimates suggest the figure is somewhere between 85% and 90%.“ The Sunnis consider themselves as the true orthodox branch of Islam. The Shia are about 10%

Today, over eighty-five percent of Muslims are Sunni while less than twenty percent of Muslims are Shiite. Over thousands of years these two groups have been battling over who will be the next caliph. In the recent years this dispute has worsened, causing violent acts to be perpetrated by both sides. Discrimination, political disputes, and oppression have created a chasm between the two groups that will result in further bloodshed before its resolution.

This short paper serves to relate various themes inclusive to cultural conflict in modern day Iraq between Sunni and Shiite Factions as well as the emerging threat of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). This analysis will show how ISIS is utilizing ongoing cultural strife between predominately Sunni (Western Iraq; Al-Anbar Province), Shiite (Eastern Iraq, and Kurdish (Northern Iraq; Mosul) to further destabilize certain regions and attempt to gain influence over segments of the population. Iraq 's borders, which were originally defined by British powers after World War I, have largely failed to account for the cultural differences in peoples between the country 's provinces. As ISIS becomes a more organized and prevalent force in the region, it can be argued that they are attempting to legitimize themselves as a culture with emerging borders in both Iraq and Syria. The legitimacy of ISIS as an emerging cultural group largely depends on their ability to influence the local population and gain support for their objectives. This paper will address how the existing Iraqi Central Government may be failing its obligation to protect the economic, social, and cultural rights of particular groups (namely in Kurdish and Sunni populated territories). Additionally, this paper will attempt to address several questions that may be indicators of whether ISIS has the ability to sustain itself over time. Firstly, is ISIS capitalizing on the centralized government 's perceived failures

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

For about fifteen hundred years, Saudi Arabia’s history has centered on one major theme: Islam. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was born around 570 A.D. in the city of Mecca. Early in the 7th century A.D., according to Islamic belief, Muhammad, while meditating in a cave on Mount Hira, was visited by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel