Question for muslims regarding Sunni/Shiite division.?

Question

The Qur'an says to have no divisions within Islam. "The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah - the [sic] which we have sent by inspiration to thee - and that which we enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion and make no divisions therein: to those who worship other things than Allah, hard is the (way) to which thou callest them..." (42:13).
Question: If Islam is the truth, which of the divisions within it is the "most" true?
Question: Is the muslim religion as a whole in error since there are divisions within its ranks?

I must say this. For the last several days i asked several questions regarding catholicism. I was called bigot, KKK, obtuse, deluded, accused of bearing false witness and several other things I got in e-mail format. I asked 3 pretty deep questions regarding Islam today, and not one of the answers was angry or accusatory. I give those of you who've answered these questions so far credit for defending your faith intelligently. As a Christian, the beliefs of Muslims are at odds with mine. I've committed myself to Jesus Christ as my savior. That being said, you are to be congratulated for being knowledgeable of your faith and for being courteous in your answers.

Glamorous Bee: which group of Islam is it that won't end up in hell?

Answer 1

The division is based on the age-old question: what's important: lineage or merit? Shias believe that the Prophet's own family members were the natural heirs to the Prophet, as they were closest to him. Sunnis believe that the four Caliphs who succeeded Prophet Muhammad were selected on the basis of merit, and it's moot to discuss it anyway, because it happened very long time ago.

After Prophet's Muhammad’s death, a dispute arose as to who should succeed him. Some wanted Abu Bakr, the closest companion of the Prophet who was considered a very wise, kind and extremely generous man; others wanted Ali, who was both a nephew and son-in-law and was very well known for bravery. The tribal chiefs of Medina who were the original inhabitants also laid a claim to leadership. A couple of other candidates were also suggested. While Ali was busy taking care of the family, a meeting was held between different factions to select the leader of Muslims. Abu Bakr cried and offered to take himself out of the race but was selected anyway. The supporters of Ali [Shiah means "supporters] were not pleased.

Then to make things worse, Abu Bakr decided to distribute whatever little property that the Prophet had left among the poor, because he felt that the rightful heirs of a Prophet are the poor and the needy of his 'ummah', not just his family. This highly displeased Ali and the Prophet's daughter Fatima.

After Abu Bakr's death, Ali was again passed over twice, and Omar and then Othman were chosen as Caliphs. Othman, though very generous and pious, was not politically astute. He started appointing members of his clan to high offices which displeased many others. A rebellion, instigated by newly converted Muslims from Egypt, started and Othman was assassinated. Ali was finally made Caliph at the insistence of the rebels. Because of that, Ali's position was weakened and he did not pursue the killers of Othman. That angered Ayesha, the widow of Prophet Muhammad and daughter of Abu Bakr, who for that reason lead an army against Ali but was defeated. At the same time Muawiah, a relative of Othman and governor of Syria, refused to acknowledge Ali as his Caliph. Arbitration was tried and arbiters ruled in favor of Muawiah. Ali refused to accept that decision. Muawiah then declared that Ali be cursed in all mosques around the country. The supporters of Ali started cursing not only Muawiah but also Othman, Omar and Abu Bakr.

After Ali's death, his first son, Hassan, compromised with Muawiah to keep Muslims united, but he was later poisoned. Later on, Muawiah's son Yazid became the ruler, declared himself a "king" (which was shocking for Muslims, as it was unprecedented in Arabia) and moved the capital to Baghdad. The people of southern Iraq then started sending letters to Hussein, the second son of Ali, to come and liberate them from Yazid, promising that once he arrives at Kufa, they would join forces with him. Despite warnings, Hussein with his family and few dozen supporters went to Iraq. But when he got there, no help came. And after ten days of thirst and hunger, he and his supporters were brutally massacred by Yazid's soldiers at Karbala. One son survived and from whom the generations of Shiah Imams are descended. When people of Kufa found out, they started beating their chests in guilt, and the tradition of chest beating (maatam) during the month of Muharram became a Shiah tradition. The people of southern Iraq also had mystical (batini) beliefs, including a belief in the super-natural powers of Ali, and sympathy for his family; all that combined to produce Shiaism. Shiahs also made minor changes to ritual prayers and adhan (call to prayers) by adding Ali's name to it.

Sunnis [the word means people who follow the tradition] went through some reforms. They encouraged Muslims to love and respect ALL companions of the Prophet and to let bygones be bygones. But Shias never stopped cursing Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, Muawiah and Yazid. Sunnis find that insensitive and offensive. There are other doctrinal differences. Shias believe that temporary marriages are acceptable. Sunnis strictly forbid that. Shias rely less on Hadiths than Sunnis or have their own Hadiths.

I think if Shiahs stop cursing the Companions of the Prophet and let the incident of Karbala be a thing of the past, the two streams of Islam can come very close together.

Answer 2

The Quran condemns all sects. All sects in Islam, whether Sunni, Shias, Ahmaddis, Ismailli......etc have disagreements about hadith and sunnah attributed to the prophet. However, these same sects have no disagreements about the Quran.

It is sources of religious law, stories, conjecture, etc. outside the Quran which have created these sects. At the end of this article three "authentic" hadith have been produced about the last sermon of the prophet. The different versions/conjecture gave rise to sects.

The last sermon of the prophet witnessed by the thousands has three versions. The versions the references are listed below.

1) I leave with you Quran and Sunnah
Muwatta, 46/3

2) I leave with you Quran and Ahl al-bayt
Muslim 44/4, Nu2408; ibn hanbal 4/366; darimi 23/1, nu 3319.

3) I leave you for the Quran alone you shall uphold it.
Muslim 15/19, nu 1218; ibn Majah 25/84, Abu dawud 11/56.

Because the majority of the Muslims follow conjecture (hadith and sunnah) instead of Quran alone (17:46) as our Creator has commanded the "Muslims" are divided into sects. These sects are there because of differences and disagreements on Hadith rather than disagreements over the Quran.

Peace.

Answer 3

your right there should not be divisions between a religious group. But Christendom is the same there is many divisions and they all believe they are right.
However, God is not divided. He is not in all of these religions is he? He is in only one religion. It would be a small group of people away from the normal. Someone who truly practice peace and love.
So weather it is Muslim or Christian or Hindu there can only be one true faith and I have a feeling it isn't any of these.
When Noah was on the earth he preached to the people.
They all had a religion. Any ancient civilization we unearth has a religion. they even practice human sacrifice, child sacrifice and the sacrifice of animals. So they were very sincere. But how many believed Noah and got on the Ark?

Answer 4

The best answer I can give you as a Muslim, is that only extremists within the Sunni/Shiites sects are killing our poor brothers and sisters. There are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. The majority of us do not share this point of view. Take Iraq for example, when Saddam Hussein was in charge, he and his elite leaders were a Sunni minority controlling a Shiite majority. It was bound to happen that this political struggle would occur after Saddam Hussein was toppled. True there are religious differences, but its the divided political parties that are looking to destroy one another. Please don't judge an entire community for the actions of fanatics who will be punished by God for hurting their fellow Muslims...

Answer 5

Yes, but the Problem is we cannot control what other people do. There is no true ''sect''. The true Muslims are the ones that reject these sects and stick to the Quran and Sunna. See the Quran asks us Muslims not to create divisions amongst Muslims, just as Christians for example are not allowed to get divorced but they still do, not everyone obeys God's orders.

But it is worth mentioning that the difference between these two sects is Mostly political, and hardly has anything to do with Religious practices (the main difference is about the way leadership should be handled and to whom it should be given).

Answer 6

Prophet Muhammad-peace be upon him, predicted such divisions among the the muslims as he was quoted saying: "The sons of Israel were divided into 71 groups, and the Christians into 72 groups, and my people will be divided into 73 groups, all of which, except one group will end up in hell."
The quran clearly told us not to divide, yet we did for political reasons. Islam is not an error as a whole, but some sects have been misled and they unfortunately have wrong teachings. In the end, one sect will be the correct one, and if you ask us each person will tell you theirs is "the real Islam".

edit: Those who have stood up for the truth and admitted that the Prophet (PBUH) appointed Ali as a caliph. Those who have not changed Islam but preserved its every word. Those who are known as the Shias (twelvers) nowadays. Some are saying we are the minority, but look at the bigger picture, Islam only represents 1 of 6 billion people on earth, still a minority.

Answer 7

As salaamu 'alalikym, my freind.

During his lifetime, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be uopn him, his family and his followers) predicted that there would be sectarian divisions in Islam. He predicted that there would be 72 sects in all.
When he was asked to which sect his followers should belong, he is reported to have told them, "Belong to the one where the followers pray as you have seen me pray."
This could be understood as follow the teachings as they were delivered and practiced by the Prophet (peace be uopn him, his fmaiy and his followers). To learn how the same were delivered and praciticed, we turn to the Holy Qur'an (first and foremost) and then to the Sunna Hadiths.
The vast majority of all Mulims in the world today are Sunni.

No, Islam is not in error simply because some have chosen to follow themselves rather than to follow the teaching of the Holy Qur'an and the Sunna Hadiths.

Would you say that Christianity is in error because the vast majority of Christians do not follow what is taught in the New Testament, or because most Christians can not read the same in their original languages, or because with each "new" translation, the scriptures have been corrupted more and more beginning with the tranlsations of Jerome, to the King James translation and on to the modern English translations?

God, whether we address Him as Allah, Subhanna wa Ta'ala, YHWH or Trinity Father/Son/Holy Spirit, gives man free will to either choose to submit to His Will or to refuse the same. Regardless of what mankind does, either collectively or individually, God will always be God, Truth will always be Truth and we will always have the choice.

Choose wisely, as there is a lot riding on your decision.

Ma'a salaam

Answer 8

Islam itself is not in error. It is the Ummah who are in error. The Muslims are supposed to be just Muslims not Sunni, and not Shia. They are all Muslims however they just have an issue with who was to lead the Ummah after the Prophet's(PBUH*) death. I'm just a Muslim. I follow the Qur'an and strong Hadiths. I don't really care who was supposed to be leader of the Ummah. If the Shia and the Sunni could get over who was supposed to be the leader of the Ummah there wouldn't be extremists in Islam and the Muslim countries would be a lot better off. The Muslims who don't burn in Hell are the ones who are just Muslims. The ones who are not divided into sects.

Answer 9

if christians or catholics had divisions among each other(which they do)would their religions be in error? i don't think so. it's not religion itself that should be blamed when something goes wrong, people that follow that religion should be held at fault. i believe that all religions teaches it's followers to respect and love one another. if someone thinks that people are going to hell just because they do not follow the same religion as they do then that person doesn't have a true understanding of their own religion. which division is the most true? the one that promotes peace, harmony and tolerance not just among each other but with people of other faiths as well.

Answer 10

It was known by the Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) that sects would form, the Sunni who are not a sect by the way are the majority and he told us to remain with the majority because they wouldn't stray, the majority of what the scholars are on which are Sunni.

There are divisions in every religion but the shia have an ideology that it wafer thin and that you can study and see straight through.

All the major scholars are Sunnis and the Sunni are the majority.

Answer 11

well, sunni is the name given to the people who follow the prophets sunna, the quran and hadith. but when the prophet died the shias thought that Ali his nephew should be the caliph, because he was family, but Abu Bakr became the caliph because he was the most knowledgable, and in islam the most knowledgable is supposed to lead the people, not by family lines, so they split. but some of them aren't muslim, because some, actually a small percentage, believe that muhammed was not supposed to be the prophet, that ali was supposed to be, so when they say the shahadah they say ali ar-rasullallah, which isn't true, but some believe that Jibril(Gabriel) went to the wrong person. then there are others who beat themselves every year, because they are punishing themselves for not being there for Hussein(he prophet's grandson), so they whip themselves every year, it is disgusting. but the whole division thing is something that the shias did, not anyone else, and it is against islam to do so. and some of them don't follow the sunnah, because they don't think muhammed was the true prophet, that ali was.

but htis whole division nonesense is the same as what happened to the catholic church, and it is ridicoulous(sp???) in my opinion. i don't understand why people in both religions can't just follow the religion simply w/ out changing it and adding their opinions. it really pisses me off, because it isn't necessary.

but good question