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What is the difference between Sunni and Shiite Islam?
Sunnis focus on following the Prophet’s example whereas Shi’a focus on the lineage of Muhammad’s family through a series of Imams. Since the 1970s, and especially since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, there has been growing tension between Sunni and Shi’a communities in parts of the Middle East.
What do Shiites and Sunnis believe?
Sunnis and Shiites share the belief that there are five pillars of Islam: (1) the unity of Allah and the prophethood of Muhammad, (2) the five obligatory prayers, (3) fasting, (4) charity, and (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Why did Islam split between Sunnis and Shiites?
Though the two main sects within Islam, Sunni and Shia, agree on most of the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam, a bitter split between the two goes back some 14 centuries. The divide originated with a dispute over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Islamic faith he introduced.
Is Shiite and Shia the same?
Shiites are the second-largest branch of Islam, after Sunnis. A Shiite believes that Mohammed’s son-in-law, Ali, was his legitimate successor as political and religious leader. Though Shiites hold this basic belief in common, there are further divisions within Shia Islam, another name for the group of Shiites.
Which countries are Shiite?
Shia Muslims are in the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and, according to some estimates, Yemen. There are also large Shia communities in Afghanistan, India, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Who do the Sunni believe should rule?
The Sunnis recognize the first four caliphs as the Prophet Muhammad’s rightful successors, whereas the Shiʿah believe that Muslim leadership belonged to Muhammad’s son-in-law, ʿAlī, and his descendants alone.
What are two differences between Sunni and Shiite beliefs?
What are the differences between Sunnis and Shiites? Their beliefs over who should have succeeded the Prophet Muhammad is the key theological difference between the two. Sunnis also have a less elaborate religious hierarchy than Shiites have, and the two sects’ interpretation of Islam’s schools of law is different.
Is Iran Sunni or Shiite?
They each follow one of the two main branches of Islam – Iran is largely Shia Muslim, while Saudi Arabia sees itself as the leading Sunni Muslim power.