What Is the Difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims?

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.

To start off, even though Sunni and Shia Muslims share the same religion, they disagree who should lead after Muhammad death. Sunni Muslims take up 85 to 90 percent of Muslims. Sunni Muslims believe Muhammad did not clearly

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

As a foreword, the story of The Kite Runner focuses on a man named Amir. In his childhood, he enjoyed a high-class life in Kabul, Afghanistan, living with his father Baba. They have two servants, Ali and his son Hassan. They are Hazaras, a lower class ethnic minority in Afghanistan. In one Winter of their childhood, Amir and Hassan participate in a kite-fighting tournament; the goal is to be the last kite flying. When a kite is cut, boys chase after it as a

Baba always purchases identical kites for both Amir and Hassan. Amir is not happy about being treated the same as Hassan stating “Sometimes I wish he wouldn’t do that. Wished he’d let me be the favourite. This reinforces the jealousy that Amir has and introduces and demonstrates Amir’s desperation to win and earn Baba’s love. This section identifies Hassan clearly as the kite runner as he was “by far the greatest kite runner” Amir had ever seen. (pg 46).

The novel comes full circle with the kite running. The spot takes Amir back to when before everything changed with Hassan, and they were just two friends. Since Amir has forgiven himself, he can enjoy this moment and kite flying again. His memories are no longer bringing him pain and he is able to enjoy this with Sohrab and tells him, “Did I ever tell you your father was the best kite runner in Wazir Akbar Khan? Maybe all of Kabul?” (Hosseini 367) Amir runs the kite for Sohrab just like Hassan did for him years ago. The novel comes full circle, however, this time instead of Amir running away from Amir, he is running with freedom.

symbols such as kite flying, his mother’s death, and the characters’ facial scars, the author asks readers to question their own internal strifes and if they too have demons. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the search for redemption is symbolized, time and time again, showing that redemption is the driving force behind self­discovery. Everyone is plagued with internal strifes; however, none more that Amir. The author brings Amir and Hassan together by making them fly kites with one another every year. After Hassan’s sexual assault, Amir never flew kites again. That was until Amir saved Sohrab, Hassan’s child. Amir states just how long it has been since he had last flown kites “ I hadn’t flown a kite in a quarter century, but suddenly I was 12 again and all the old instincts came rushing back.” (Hosseini 368). By having Amir fly kites with Sohrab in the end of the novel, the author shows that dishonesty is redeemable,

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

One being who would succeed the Prophet Muhammad after his death; Shias holding the belief that Muhammad had elected someone to be his successor; this being Ali, the closest relative to Muhammad. On the other hand, Sunni Muslims believe Muhammad did not choose a specific person to follow this death, but instead the best community would vote the most qualified candidate to take over the role as Caliph. This one controversy has spawn fights, debates, and even wars over who is correct, and is the primary cause in the split between the Sunnis and

The Kite Runner was originally from a book that were written by Khaled Housseini and the movie version of it was directed by Marc Forster. The story are about a boy named Amir (Young Amir performed by Zekeria Ebrahimi) is a son of a rich Kabul merchant in Afghanistan, whom he called Baba (performed by Homayoun Ershadi), his father. They have two servants, Ali and his son, Hassan (Young Hassan performed by Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada). They are a Hazara, the minority group of people Afghanistan. Amir and Hassan are close friend, they usually play together very often. One of the important scene in the movie is when the boys join the kite-fighting tournament where they have to fly the kite against the opponent and cut the string of the opponent’s kite

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:

Before the discussion of the difference of the Shiites and Sunnis and why they split into these groups, it’s important to understand who exactly is Muhammad and why he is so important to Islam. To begin with, Islam was started by Muhammad when he was visited by the archangel Gabriel, where the archangel sent a message to Muhammad from Allah. Muhammad had the remarkable

The Kite Runner, a story about two young children living in Afghanistan who go through their lives on different paths and manage to connect to each other later in life. There are two main themes in the book The Kite Runner. Throughout the book The Kite Runner, the themes of betrayal, forgiveness and immigration are portrayed.

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

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