Sunni and Shi'a Islam

Overview

Recall questions on the succession dispute, Ghadir Khumm, Abu Bakr and Ali, the differing sources, the caliphate and the Imamate, practical differences and distribution, and Armstrong and Nasr on the division.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What question divided Muslims after the Prophet's death?

   Model answer

   Who should lead the community, and on what basis. When the Prophet died in 632 leading Muslims met in a hall in Madinah and acclaimed Abu Bakr while Ali and the Prophet's household were occupied with the burial. One group held that the community should choose the fittest of the close companions; another held that the Prophet had already designated his cousin and son-in-law Ali, and that leadership belonged with his family. Over time a dispute about succession became a difference about the nature of religious authority itself.

2. 2

   What is Ghadir Khumm, and why does it matter so much?

   Model answer

   On the return from the farewell pilgrimage the Prophet halted at a watering place and spoke about Ali in terms that Shi'a Muslims read as a formal designation of him as guardian and leader of the community. Sunni Muslims accept the occasion and the words but read them as an expression of affection and high standing rather than an appointment. Almost the whole dispute can be seen in the two readings of one episode.

3. 3

   Who were Abu Bakr and Ali?

   Model answer

   Abu Bakr was among the earliest believers, the Prophet's closest companion and the father of his wife Aisha, and he led the community for two years after the Prophet's death. Ali was the Prophet's cousin, raised in his household, married to his daughter Fatimah, and father of Hasan and Husain. Sunni Muslims count Ali as the fourth caliph; Shi'a Muslims regard him as the first Imam and the rightful successor from the beginning.

4. 4

   What happened during Ali's caliphate?

   Model answer

   He took office in 656 after rebels killed the third caliph, and moved his centre to Kufa. Civil war followed at once: first against a force that included Aisha at the Battle of the Camel, then against Mu'awiya at Siffin, which ended in an arbitration. A faction rejected the arbitration, broke away as the Kharijites, and one of them killed Ali in 661. Mu'awiya then took power and founded the Umayyad dynasty.

5. 5

   Why do Sunni and Shi'a scholars work from partly different sources?

   Model answer

   Because they trust different transmitters. Sunni scholarship relies on reports carried by the Prophet's companions generally; Shi'a scholarship privileges what came through his family and treats the teaching of the Imams as authoritative in its own right. Both use the early chronicles, but they weigh the same episodes differently, so the disagreement is not only about conclusions but about which evidence counts.

6. 6

   What is the caliphate as Sunni Muslims understand it?

   Model answer

   The office of the Prophet's successor as head of the community. The caliph governs, defends the community and upholds the law, but he receives no revelation, is not protected from error, and holds authority because the community accepts him. Interpretation of the law belongs to the scholars rather than to him, which is why Sunni Islam has survived long periods of bad rulers without a crisis of religious authority.

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