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Sunni and Shia are different sects among Muslims and the difference of opinions have resulted in many Fatwas, non-binding but authoritative legal opinion or learned interpretation issues pertaining to the Islamic law. Fatwas are based on the question and answer process found in the Quran, which seeks to enlighten on theological and philosophical issues, hadith, legal theory, duties, and the Sharia law. [1] Sunni fatwas have been used to justify the persecution of Shia throughout their history. [2] [3] [4]
While all Islamic schools and branches of Islam recognise the Qur'an, they differ in which other authorities they acknowledge; in particular the question of the Succession to Muhammad separates the Sunni, who acknowledge the elected Rashidun Caliphs and their descendants, from the Shia, who acknowledge the Imams or descendants of Muhammad; these two branches are then subdivided by their views on the further course of the succession. Shia fiqh differs with Sunni fiqh on not only political issues, but also important theological issues. Various attitudes towards Shia can be found among the worldwide majority Sunni community.
The Sunni fatwas on Shia often involved legal opinions issued by an expert in the Sharia law. However, modern fatwas were also given by other Muslim authorities and these were recognized as long as they cite the legal sources used. [1] Some of the notable fatwas are listed below:
Ottoman clergy officially maintained the pronunciation of Takfir on Twelver Sh'ism, a stance which was used by Ottoman sultans to declare the wars fought against the Safavid Empire as Jihad. The 16th century Ottoman Shaykhul Islam Ebussud Effendi issued a series of fatwas excommunicating Twelver Shi'ites as kuffar (disbelievers). [5] He also proclaimed the legal verdict calling for the killing of the Kizilbash; which was implemented by Ottoman authorities to suppress Shi'ism throughout the empire. [6] [7] Declaring the Qizilbash as disbelievers and calling for their executions, Ebussud states:
"These outrageous people became unbelievers as they scorned the Holy Qurʾan, the noble shariʿa , and the religion of Islam, disdained and killed scholars on account of their knowledge, [and] considered their immoral cursed leader god and prostrated before him. [They] considered permissible many religiously forbidden acts whose prohibition has been established by definite scriptural sources, and cursed Abu Bakr and ʿUmar (the first two caliphs after Muhammad’s death), may God be satisfied with them. In addition, they became unbelievers because they denied the Holy Qurʾan by defaming Aʿisha the trustworthy (Prophet’s wife), may God be pleased with her, who was exonerated by the revelation of several verses [in the Qurʾan]. By doing so, they also cursed the Prophet (hazret-i risalet-penah) and blemished his saintly personality. According to the consensus of a multitude of scholars from different times and places, killing them is permissible (mubah); those who doubt their unbelief become unbelievers. [8]
However, major Sunni scholars have declared the unbelief of Shia who hold certain beliefs. For example, Ottoman scholar ibn Abidin, a source of authoritative fatwas for Hanafis writes: [9]
There is no doubt in the disbelief of those that falsely accuse Sayyida Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) of adultery, deny the Companionship of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr ( Allah be pleased with him), believe that Sayyiduna Ali (Allah be pleased with him) was an Imam... even if they believe in Allah, the last Prophet, and the perfection of the Quran (Radd al-Muhtar, 4/453).
According to Imam Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, the founder of the Barelvi movement, most Shiites of his day were apostates because they repudiated necessities of religion. This includes, according to him, the following: [10]
a) to believe that Qur'an is incomplete.
b) to call it 'book of `Uthman'.
c) elevate Sayyiduna `Ali karram Allâhu wajhah and other imâms above the prophets .
d) if these imâms are held to be higher than even one prophet .
e) to allege that Allâh was regretful after issuing a command and hence remorsefully, changed His earlier ruling.
f) to allege that Allâh didn't realize the wisdom of a certain ruling (or the lack of it) and when He realized it, He changed the rule.
g) to allege that RasûlAllâh practised taqiyyah in the course of his tabligh.
Those who hold the above and other such statements that amount to disbelief are kâfirs by ijmâ`a. All dealings with them are similar to those with apostates. it is in Fatâwâ Dhahîriyyah, Fatâwâ hindiyyah, Hadiqatun Nadiyyah: [aHkâmuhum aHkâm al-murtaddîn] they are to be dealt with as apostates.
Other Sunni scholars who have declared Shiites as deviants or apostates:
There are Sunni fatwas that were considered Sunni obligation to the "insult offered to the Sunni faith by the Shia religious literature." [30] This is demonstrated in the case of some Sunni fatwas issued in Pakistan, which were considered as defensive materials created for the purpose of defending the faith from the Shia. [30] The latter's mere existence in the country within the context of these specific fatwas was considered as an insult.
In 1959, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mahmood Shaltoot issued fatwa that Shia theology is a part of Islam. In 2016, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb reissued Shaltoot's fatwa on Shia Muslims. [31]
In 2004, both Sunni and Shia scholars released the so-called 2004 Amman Message, which established some form of standards to prevent or at least discredit and counter renegade interpretations such as those made by Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. [32] This initiative outlined who are qualified to issue fatwas or legal opinions, promoting a more conservative framework over progressive interpretations. The Amman Message also asserted the common beliefs of the two Islamic sects.
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani has noted that it is not the way of Sunnis to make blanket takfir of Shia. He writes: [33]
...we only declare someone who denies something necessarily known of the religion to be a kafir--and this is not the case with common Shia. Someone who says 'There is no God but Allah, Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah' is a Muslim. Shia Muslims, who make this declaration of faith are therefore MUSLIM.
Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali as his successor (khalifa) and the Imam after him, most notably at the event of Ghadir Khumm, but was prevented from succeeding Muhammad as the leader of the Muslims as a result of the choice made by some of Muhammad's other companions (sahaba) at Saqifah. This view primarily contrasts with that of Sunni Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor before his death and consider Abu Bakr, who was appointed caliph by a group of Muhammad's other companions at Saqifah, to be the first rightful (rashidun) caliph after Muhammad. Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shia Muslims.
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims, and simultaneously the largest religious denomination in the world. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagreement over the succession to Muhammad and subsequently acquired broader political significance, as well as theological and juridical dimensions. According to Sunni traditions, Muhammad left no successor and the participants of the Saqifah event appointed Abu Bakr as the next-in-line. This contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad appointed his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor.
Wahhabism is a reformist religious movement within Sunni Islam, based on the teachings of 18th-century Hanbali cleric Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. The movement was initially established in the central Arabian region of Najd and later spread to other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and is today followed primarily in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Ibn Taymiyya was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, traditionist, ascetic, and proto-Salafi and iconoclastic theologian. He is known for his diplomatic involvement with the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan Khan at the Battle of Marj al-Saffar, which ended the Mongol invasions of the Levant. A legal jurist of the Hanbali school, Ibn Taymiyya's condemnation of numerous folk practices associated with saint veneration and visitation of tombs made him a contentious figure with many rulers and scholars of the time, which caused him to be imprisoned several times as a result.
In Islam, Taqiyya is a precautionary dissimulation or denial of religious belief and practice. Generally, taqiyya is the action of committing a sinful act for a pious goal.
Zaydism is one of the three main branches of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali‘s unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. Zaydism is typically considered to be a branch of Shia Islam that comes closest to the Sunni, although the "classical" form of Zaydism over the centuries had changed its posture with regard to Sunni and Shia traditions multiple times, to the point where interpretation of Zaydi as Shia is often based on just their acceptance of Ali as a rightful successor to Muhammad. Zaydis regard rationalism as more important than Quranic literalism and in the past were quite tolerant towards Sunni Shafi'ism, a religion of about half of the Yemenis.
Takfir is an Arabic and Islamic term which denotes excommunication from Islam of one Muslim by another, i.e. accusing another Muslim to be an apostate. The word is found neither in the Quran nor in the ḥadīth literature; instead, kufr ("unbelief") and kāfir ("unbeliever") and other terms employing the same triliteral root k-f-r appear.
Sa'id ibn Jubayr (665–714), also known as Abū Muhammad, was originally from Kufa, in modern-day Iraq. He was regarded as one of the leading members of the Tabi'in. Sa'īd is held in the highest esteem by scholars of the Shi'a and Sunni Islamic tradition and was considered one of the leading jurists of the time. He also narrated several hadith from Ibn Abbas.
Takfiri is an Arabic and Islamic term denoting a Muslim who excommunicates one of his/her coreligionists, i.e. who accuses another Muslim of being an apostate.
Rafida refers to those Shia Muslims who 'reject' the legitimacy of the caliphates of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, in favor of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
A turbah, or mohr, also known as khāk-e shefā and sejde gāh, is a small piece of soil or clay, often a clay tablet, used during salat to symbolize earth. The use of a turbah is recommended (mustahabb) according to the Twelver Shia school of Islam, a unique practice of the sect, and many Hadiths mention the benefits of prostration (Sajda) upon soil or an alternative natural material. The most favoured soil is that of Karbala, the site of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali; however, soil from anywhere may be used. In the absence of soil, plants or items made from these may be substituted. This provision has been extended to include paper.
The Shia view of the Qur'an differs from the Sunni view, but the majority of both groups believe that the text is identical. While some Shia disputed the canonical validity of the Uthmanic codex, the Shia Imams always rejected the idea of alteration of Qur'an's text. Only seven Shia scholars have believed in omissions in the Uthmanic codex.
After the death of Muhammad in 632, a group of Muslims, who would come to be known as the Sunnis, believed that Muhammad's successor as caliph of the Islamic community should be Abu Bakr, whereas a second group of Muslims, who would come to be known as the Shias, believed that his successor should have been Ali ibn Abi Talib. This dispute spread across various parts of the Muslim world, which eventually led to the Battle of the Camel and Battle of Siffin. Sectarianism based on this historic dispute intensified greatly after the Battle of Karbala. During the battle, Husayn ibn Ali and some of his close partisans, including members and children of Muhammad's household, were killed by the ruling Umayyad Caliph Yazid I. The outcry for revenge divided the early Islamic community, albeit disproportionately, into the Sunni and the Shia. This is known today as the Islamic schism.
Sheikh Yasser al-Habib is a Kuwaiti Shi'i scholar, and the head of the London-based Mahdi Servants Union, as well as Al-Muhassin mosque in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, and the writer of The Lady of Heaven. Al-Habib's work focuses on Islamic history, drawing on Shia and Sunni sources.
Criticism of Twelver Shia Islam dates from the initial ideological rift among early Muslims that led to the two primary denominations of Islam, the Sunnis and the Shias. The question of succession to Muhammad in Islam, the nature of the Imamate, the status of the twelfth Shia Imam, and other areas in which Shia Islam differs from Sunni Islam have been criticized by Sunni scholars, even though there is no disagreement between the two sects regarding the centrality of the Quran, Muhammad, and many other doctrinal, theological and ritual matters. Shia commentators such as Musa al-Musawi and Ali Shariati have themselves, in their attempts to reform the faith, criticized practices and beliefs which have become prevalent in the Twelver Shia community.
A number of minority groups within Islam have faced persecution by other Muslims for allegedly being incompatible with Sunni Islam.
Anti-Shi'ism or Shiaphobia is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Shia Muslims because of their religious beliefs, traditions, and cultural heritage. The term was first used by Shia Rights Watch in 2011, but it has been used in informal research and written in scholarly articles for decades.
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding creed. The main schools of Islamic theology include the extant Mu'tazili, Ash'ari, Maturidi, and Athari schools; the extinct ones include the Qadari, Jahmi, Murji', and Batini schools.
The ideology of the Islamic State has been described as being a hybrid of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, the Islamic State defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".
Al-Baqi cemetery, the oldest and one of the two most important Islamic graveyards located in Medina, in current-day Saudi Arabia, was demolished in 1806 and, following reconstruction in the mid-19th century, was destroyed again in 1925 or 1926. An alliance of the House of Saud and the followers of the Wahhabi movement known as the Emirate of Diriyah carried out the first demolition. The Sultanate of Nejd, also ruled by the House of Saud and followers of Wahhabism, carried out the second. In both cases, the actors were motivated by the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, which prohibits the building of monuments on graves.
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