Sunni muslim
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam, comprising up to 90% of the total Muslim population of the world. Sunni Muslims are referred to as Ahla Sunnah tul-Jamā‘ah (Arabic: أهل السنة والجماعة "people of the tradition [of Muhammad] and the community") or Ahla Sunnah (Arabic: أهل السنة) for short. Sunni Islam may be referred to as Orthodox Islam. The word "Sunni" comes from the term Sunnah (Arabic: سنة), which refers to the words and actionsor example of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The Sunni branch of Islam has four legal schools of thought or madh'hab, which are all accepted among one another. The Sunni branch accepts the first four caliphs as rightful successors of Muhammad and accepts hadiths narrated by the companions. Etymology
Sunni is a broad term derived from sunnah (سنة [ˈsunna], plural سنن sunan [ˈsunæn]), which is an Arabic word that means "habit" or "usual practice". The Muslim usage of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of Muhammad. In its full form, this branch of Islam is referred to as "Ahl Al-Sunnah Wa Al-Jama'ah" (literally, "People of the Sunnah and the congregation"). This is not to be confused with the Wahabi, Barelvi or deobandi factions who try to claim exclusivity to the name. Any one claiming to follow the sunnah and can show that they have no action or belief against the sunnah can claim to be a sunni.
Broadly the Barelvi and Deobandies are recognized as branches of sunni's.
Schools of law (Madh'hab)
Main article: Madh'hab
Islamic law is known as the Sharī‘ah. The Sharī‘ah is based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The Madh'hab translates to "way", and different Madhaheb (plural of Madh'hab) reflect different opinions on some laws and obligations of the sharia, for example when one Madh'hab sees a certain act as an obligation, while the other does not. It has to be clear that each one of these schools consider the others to be fully valid and accepted.
Below are the most famous four:
Hanafi School
Hanafi
Abu Hanifah (d. 767), was the founder of the Hanafi school and student of the shia`s known imam "Imam Jaafar al-sadaq. He was born circa 702 in Kufa, Iraq. Muslims of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Muslim areas of Southern Russia, the Caucasus, most of the Muslim areas of the Balkans and Turkey and parts of Iraq, all follow this school. It is also the dominant school of Muslims in the United Kingdom and Germany
Maliki School
Maliki
Malik ibn Anas (d. 795) Student of the imam Abu Hanifah's eldest student, Muhammad, Malik ibn Anas developed his ideas in Medina. His doctrine is recorded in the Muwatta which has been adopted by most North African and West African countries like Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria and others except Egypt, Horn of Africa and Sudan. Also, the Maliki madhab is the official state madhhab of Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. He was one of the teachers of Shafi'i.
Shafi'i school
Shafi`i
Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i (d. 820) was a student of Malik. He taught in Iraq and then in Egypt. Muslims in Indonesia, Lower Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kerala, India, Coastal Maharashtra,Kokan, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Palestine, Yemen and Kurds in the Kurdish regions follow the Shafi'i school. Al-Shafi'i placed great emphasis on the Sunnah of Muhammad, as embodied in the Hadith, as a source of the Shari'ah.
Hanbali School
Ahmad bin Hanbal (d. 855), the namesake of the Hanbali school, was born in Baghdad. He learned extensively from al-Shafi'i. Despite persecution, he held to the doctrine that the Qur'an was uncreated. This school of law is followed primarily in the Arabian Peninsula.
Theology of the four Madhab
The followers of these four schools follow the same basic belief system but differ from one another in terms of practice and execution of rituals, and in juristic interpretation of "divine principles" (or Shariah) as envisaged in Quran and Hadith. However Sunni Muslims consider them all equally valid.
There are other Sunni schools of law. However, many are followed by only small numbers of people and are relatively unknown due to the popularity of the four major schools; also, many have died out or were not sufficiently recorded by their followers to survive.
Interpreting the Shari'ah to derive specific rulings (such as how to pray) is known as fiqh, which literally means understanding. A madh'hab is a particular tradition of interpreting fiqh. These schools focus on specific evidence (Shafi'i and Hanbali) or general principles (Hanafi and Maliki) derived from specific evidences. The schools were started by eminent Muslim scholars in the first four centuries of Islam. As these schools represent clearly spelled out methodologies for interpreting the Shari'aa, there has been little change in the methodology per se. However, as the social and economic environment changes, new fiqh rulings are being made. For example, when tobacco appeared it was declared as 'disliked' because of its smell. When medical information showed that smoking was dangerous, that ruling was changed to 'forbidden'. Current fiqh issues include things like downloading pirated software and cloning. The consensus is that the Shari'ah does not change but fiqh rulings change all the time.
A madh'hab is not to be confused with a religious sect. There may be scholars representing all four madh'habs living in larger Muslim communities, and it is up to those who consult them to decide which school they prefer.
Sunni theological traditions
Some Islamic scholars faced questions that they felt were not explicitly answered in the Qur'an, especially questions with regard to philosophical conundra like the nature of God, the existence of human free will, or the eternal existence of the Qur'an. Various schools of theology and philosophy developed to answer these questions, each claiming to be true to the Qur'an and the Muslim tradition (sunnah). Among Sunnites, the following were the dominant traditions:
Athari (Arabic: أثري) , or "textualism" is derived from the Arabic word athar, meaning, literally "remnant" and also referring to "narrations". Their disciples are called the Atharis. The Atharis are considered to be one of three Sunni schools of Aqidah: Ashari, Maturidi, and Athari.
The Athari methodology of textual interpretation is to avoid delving into extensive theological speculation. They believe in Allah and his characteristics in the fashion that they were mentioned in the Quran, the Sunnah and by the Sahabah. They do not attempt to further interpret the aforementioned texts by giving a literal meaning like the Ẓāhirīs nor through tahreef (distortion), ta‘weel (figurative interpretation), tamtheel (making a likeness), tashbeeh (resemblance), nor ta’teel (denial). They avoid entering into philosophical and rational discussions of matters relating to Islamic beliefs that are not supported by the Quran, the Sunnah or the understanding of the Sahabah with specific wording; rather, their discussion and presentation of beliefs revolves entirely around textual evidences found in these sources, without taking the path of the literalists either, the Ẓāhirīs. The Atharis believe this to be the methodology adhered to by the first three generations of Muslims (i.e. the Salaf), therefore making it the school of Sunni Aqidah that they believe is the closest to the truth.
Due to the emphasis of the Hanbali school of thought on textualism, Muslims who are Hanbali usually prefer the Athari in Aqidah. However atharis are not exclusively Hanbali, many Muslims form the other four schools of thought, including Hanafis, adhere to the Athari school of Aqidah also.
Ash'ari, founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (873–935). This theology was embraced by Muslim scholars such as al-Ghazali.
Ash'ariyyah theology stresses divine revelation over human reason. Ethics, they say, cannot be derived from human reason: God's commands, as revealed in the Qur'an and the practice of Muhammad and his companions (the sunnah, as recorded in the traditions, or hadith), are the source of all morality.
Regarding the nature of God and the divine attributes, the Ash'ari rejected the Mu'tazilite position that all Qur'anic references to God as having physical attributes (that is, a body) were metaphorical. Ash'aris insisted that these attributes were "true", since the Qur'an could not be in error, but that they were not to be understood as implying a crude anthropomorphism.
Ash'aris tend to stress divine omnipotence over human free will. They believe that the Qur'an is eternal and uncreated.
Maturidiyyah, founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944). Maturidiyyah was a minority tradition until it was accepted by the Turkish tribes of Central Asia (previously they had been Ashari and followers of the Shafi school,[citation needed] it was only later on migration into Anatolia that they became Hanafi and followers of the Maturidi creed[citation needed]). One of the tribes, the Seljuk Turks, migrated to Turkey, where later the Ottoman Empire was established.Their preferred school of law achieved a new prominence throughout their whole empire although it continued to be followed almost exclusively by followers of the Hanafi school while followers of the Shafi, and Maliki schools within the empire followed the Ashari school. Thus, wherever can be found Hanafi followers, there can be found the Maturidi creed.
Maturidiyyah argue that knowledge of God's existence can be derived through reason.
[edit] Sunni view of hadith .The Qur'an as it exists today was compiled by Muhammad's companions (Sahaba) in approximately 650, and is accepted by all Muslim denominations. However, there were many matters of belief and daily life that were not directly prescribed in the Qur'an, but were actions that were observed by Muhammad and the community. Later generations sought out oral traditions regarding the early history of Islam, and the practice of Muhammad and his first followers, and wrote them down so that they might be preserved. These recorded oral traditions are called hadith. Muslim scholars sifted through the hadith and evaluated the chain of narration of each tradition, scrutinizing the trustworthiness of the narrators and judging the strength of each hadith accordingly.
Most Sunni accept the hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim as the most authentic (sahih, or correct), and grant a lesser status to the collections of other recorders. There are, however, four other collections of hadith that are also held in particular reverence by Sunni Muslims, making a total of six:
Sahih al-Bukhari
Sahih Muslim
Sunan an-Nasa'ii
Sunan Abu Dawud
Sunan at-Tirmidhi
Sunan ibn Majah
There are also other collections of hadith which also contain many authentic hadith and are frequently used by specialists. Examples of these collections include:
Muwatta of Imam Malik
Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah
Sahih Ibn Hibbaan
Mustadrak of Al Haakim
Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq
The Sunni branch of Islam has four legal schools of thought or madh'hab, which are all accepted among one another. The Sunni branch accepts the first four caliphs as rightful successors of Muhammad and accepts hadiths narrated by the companions. Etymology
Sunni is a broad term derived from sunnah (سنة [ˈsunna], plural سنن sunan [ˈsunæn]), which is an Arabic word that means "habit" or "usual practice". The Muslim usage of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of Muhammad. In its full form, this branch of Islam is referred to as "Ahl Al-Sunnah Wa Al-Jama'ah" (literally, "People of the Sunnah and the congregation"). This is not to be confused with the Wahabi, Barelvi or deobandi factions who try to claim exclusivity to the name. Any one claiming to follow the sunnah and can show that they have no action or belief against the sunnah can claim to be a sunni.
Broadly the Barelvi and Deobandies are recognized as branches of sunni's.
Schools of law (Madh'hab)
Main article: Madh'hab
Islamic law is known as the Sharī‘ah. The Sharī‘ah is based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The Madh'hab translates to "way", and different Madhaheb (plural of Madh'hab) reflect different opinions on some laws and obligations of the sharia, for example when one Madh'hab sees a certain act as an obligation, while the other does not. It has to be clear that each one of these schools consider the others to be fully valid and accepted.
Below are the most famous four:
Hanafi School
Hanafi
Abu Hanifah (d. 767), was the founder of the Hanafi school and student of the shia`s known imam "Imam Jaafar al-sadaq. He was born circa 702 in Kufa, Iraq. Muslims of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Muslim areas of Southern Russia, the Caucasus, most of the Muslim areas of the Balkans and Turkey and parts of Iraq, all follow this school. It is also the dominant school of Muslims in the United Kingdom and Germany
Maliki School
Maliki
Malik ibn Anas (d. 795) Student of the imam Abu Hanifah's eldest student, Muhammad, Malik ibn Anas developed his ideas in Medina. His doctrine is recorded in the Muwatta which has been adopted by most North African and West African countries like Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria and others except Egypt, Horn of Africa and Sudan. Also, the Maliki madhab is the official state madhhab of Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. He was one of the teachers of Shafi'i.
Shafi'i school
Shafi`i
Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i (d. 820) was a student of Malik. He taught in Iraq and then in Egypt. Muslims in Indonesia, Lower Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kerala, India, Coastal Maharashtra,Kokan, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Palestine, Yemen and Kurds in the Kurdish regions follow the Shafi'i school. Al-Shafi'i placed great emphasis on the Sunnah of Muhammad, as embodied in the Hadith, as a source of the Shari'ah.
Hanbali School
Ahmad bin Hanbal (d. 855), the namesake of the Hanbali school, was born in Baghdad. He learned extensively from al-Shafi'i. Despite persecution, he held to the doctrine that the Qur'an was uncreated. This school of law is followed primarily in the Arabian Peninsula.
Theology of the four Madhab
The followers of these four schools follow the same basic belief system but differ from one another in terms of practice and execution of rituals, and in juristic interpretation of "divine principles" (or Shariah) as envisaged in Quran and Hadith. However Sunni Muslims consider them all equally valid.
There are other Sunni schools of law. However, many are followed by only small numbers of people and are relatively unknown due to the popularity of the four major schools; also, many have died out or were not sufficiently recorded by their followers to survive.
Interpreting the Shari'ah to derive specific rulings (such as how to pray) is known as fiqh, which literally means understanding. A madh'hab is a particular tradition of interpreting fiqh. These schools focus on specific evidence (Shafi'i and Hanbali) or general principles (Hanafi and Maliki) derived from specific evidences. The schools were started by eminent Muslim scholars in the first four centuries of Islam. As these schools represent clearly spelled out methodologies for interpreting the Shari'aa, there has been little change in the methodology per se. However, as the social and economic environment changes, new fiqh rulings are being made. For example, when tobacco appeared it was declared as 'disliked' because of its smell. When medical information showed that smoking was dangerous, that ruling was changed to 'forbidden'. Current fiqh issues include things like downloading pirated software and cloning. The consensus is that the Shari'ah does not change but fiqh rulings change all the time.
A madh'hab is not to be confused with a religious sect. There may be scholars representing all four madh'habs living in larger Muslim communities, and it is up to those who consult them to decide which school they prefer.
Sunni theological traditions
Some Islamic scholars faced questions that they felt were not explicitly answered in the Qur'an, especially questions with regard to philosophical conundra like the nature of God, the existence of human free will, or the eternal existence of the Qur'an. Various schools of theology and philosophy developed to answer these questions, each claiming to be true to the Qur'an and the Muslim tradition (sunnah). Among Sunnites, the following were the dominant traditions:
Athari (Arabic: أثري) , or "textualism" is derived from the Arabic word athar, meaning, literally "remnant" and also referring to "narrations". Their disciples are called the Atharis. The Atharis are considered to be one of three Sunni schools of Aqidah: Ashari, Maturidi, and Athari.
The Athari methodology of textual interpretation is to avoid delving into extensive theological speculation. They believe in Allah and his characteristics in the fashion that they were mentioned in the Quran, the Sunnah and by the Sahabah. They do not attempt to further interpret the aforementioned texts by giving a literal meaning like the Ẓāhirīs nor through tahreef (distortion), ta‘weel (figurative interpretation), tamtheel (making a likeness), tashbeeh (resemblance), nor ta’teel (denial). They avoid entering into philosophical and rational discussions of matters relating to Islamic beliefs that are not supported by the Quran, the Sunnah or the understanding of the Sahabah with specific wording; rather, their discussion and presentation of beliefs revolves entirely around textual evidences found in these sources, without taking the path of the literalists either, the Ẓāhirīs. The Atharis believe this to be the methodology adhered to by the first three generations of Muslims (i.e. the Salaf), therefore making it the school of Sunni Aqidah that they believe is the closest to the truth.
Due to the emphasis of the Hanbali school of thought on textualism, Muslims who are Hanbali usually prefer the Athari in Aqidah. However atharis are not exclusively Hanbali, many Muslims form the other four schools of thought, including Hanafis, adhere to the Athari school of Aqidah also.
Ash'ari, founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (873–935). This theology was embraced by Muslim scholars such as al-Ghazali.
Ash'ariyyah theology stresses divine revelation over human reason. Ethics, they say, cannot be derived from human reason: God's commands, as revealed in the Qur'an and the practice of Muhammad and his companions (the sunnah, as recorded in the traditions, or hadith), are the source of all morality.
Regarding the nature of God and the divine attributes, the Ash'ari rejected the Mu'tazilite position that all Qur'anic references to God as having physical attributes (that is, a body) were metaphorical. Ash'aris insisted that these attributes were "true", since the Qur'an could not be in error, but that they were not to be understood as implying a crude anthropomorphism.
Ash'aris tend to stress divine omnipotence over human free will. They believe that the Qur'an is eternal and uncreated.
Maturidiyyah, founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944). Maturidiyyah was a minority tradition until it was accepted by the Turkish tribes of Central Asia (previously they had been Ashari and followers of the Shafi school,[citation needed] it was only later on migration into Anatolia that they became Hanafi and followers of the Maturidi creed[citation needed]). One of the tribes, the Seljuk Turks, migrated to Turkey, where later the Ottoman Empire was established.Their preferred school of law achieved a new prominence throughout their whole empire although it continued to be followed almost exclusively by followers of the Hanafi school while followers of the Shafi, and Maliki schools within the empire followed the Ashari school. Thus, wherever can be found Hanafi followers, there can be found the Maturidi creed.
Maturidiyyah argue that knowledge of God's existence can be derived through reason.
[edit] Sunni view of hadith .The Qur'an as it exists today was compiled by Muhammad's companions (Sahaba) in approximately 650, and is accepted by all Muslim denominations. However, there were many matters of belief and daily life that were not directly prescribed in the Qur'an, but were actions that were observed by Muhammad and the community. Later generations sought out oral traditions regarding the early history of Islam, and the practice of Muhammad and his first followers, and wrote them down so that they might be preserved. These recorded oral traditions are called hadith. Muslim scholars sifted through the hadith and evaluated the chain of narration of each tradition, scrutinizing the trustworthiness of the narrators and judging the strength of each hadith accordingly.
Most Sunni accept the hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim as the most authentic (sahih, or correct), and grant a lesser status to the collections of other recorders. There are, however, four other collections of hadith that are also held in particular reverence by Sunni Muslims, making a total of six:
Sahih al-Bukhari
Sahih Muslim
Sunan an-Nasa'ii
Sunan Abu Dawud
Sunan at-Tirmidhi
Sunan ibn Majah
There are also other collections of hadith which also contain many authentic hadith and are frequently used by specialists. Examples of these collections include:
Muwatta of Imam Malik
Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah
Sahih Ibn Hibbaan
Mustadrak of Al Haakim
Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq
Shia muslim
Shia Islam (Arabic: شيعة Shī‘ah, sometimes spelled Shi'a), is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'as but the terms Shiites or Shi'ites are common Anglicisations. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shī‘atu ‘Alī (شيعة علي), meaning "the followers of Ali" or "the faction of Ali"[1] or simply "The Party".
Similar to other schools of thought in Islam, Shia Islam is based on the teachings of the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an and the message of the final prophet of Islam,Muhammad. In contrast to other schools of thought, Shia Islam holds that Muhammad's family, the Ahl al-Bayt ("the People of the House"), and certain individuals among his descendants, who are known as Imams, have special spiritual and political authority over the community. Shia Muslims further believe that Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, was the first of these Imams and was the rightful successor to Muhammad and thus reject the legitimacy of the first three caliphs.
Shias regard Ali as the second most important figure after Prophet Muhammad. According to them, Muhammad suggested on various occasions during his lifetime that Ali should be the leader of Muslims after his demise. According to this view, Ali as the successor of Muhammad not only ruled over the community in justice, but also interpreted the Sharia Law and its esoteric meaning. Hence he was regarded as being free from error and sin (infallible), and appointed by God by divine decree (Nass) to be the first Imam.Ali is known as "perfect man" (al-insan al-kamil) similar to Muhammad according to Shia viewpoint. As a result, Shias exclusively use sermons attributed to Ali, in contrast to the Sunni traditions where the sunnah is largely narrated by companions. Subsequently, the Shi'a have their own form of hadith which leans towards narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt.
Similar to other schools of thought in Islam, Shia Islam is based on the teachings of the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an and the message of the final prophet of Islam,Muhammad. In contrast to other schools of thought, Shia Islam holds that Muhammad's family, the Ahl al-Bayt ("the People of the House"), and certain individuals among his descendants, who are known as Imams, have special spiritual and political authority over the community. Shia Muslims further believe that Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, was the first of these Imams and was the rightful successor to Muhammad and thus reject the legitimacy of the first three caliphs.
Shias regard Ali as the second most important figure after Prophet Muhammad. According to them, Muhammad suggested on various occasions during his lifetime that Ali should be the leader of Muslims after his demise. According to this view, Ali as the successor of Muhammad not only ruled over the community in justice, but also interpreted the Sharia Law and its esoteric meaning. Hence he was regarded as being free from error and sin (infallible), and appointed by God by divine decree (Nass) to be the first Imam.Ali is known as "perfect man" (al-insan al-kamil) similar to Muhammad according to Shia viewpoint. As a result, Shias exclusively use sermons attributed to Ali, in contrast to the Sunni traditions where the sunnah is largely narrated by companions. Subsequently, the Shi'a have their own form of hadith which leans towards narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt.
Sufi muslim
Sufism or taṣawwuf (Arabic: تصوّف) is, according to its adherents, the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfī (صُوفِيّ). Another name for a Sufi is Dervish.
Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God." Alternatively, in the words of the Darqawi Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, "a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits."
Classical Sufis were characterised by their attachment to dhikr (a practice of repeating the names of God) and asceticism. Sufism gained adherents among a number of Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE). The Sufi movement has spanned several continents and cultures over a millennium, at first expressed through Arabic, then through Persian, Turkish and a dozen other languages. "Orders" (ṭuruq), which are either Sunnī or Shī‘ī in doctrine, trace many of their original precepts from the Islamic Prophet Muhammad through his cousin ‘Alī, with the notable exception of the Naqshbandi who trace their origins through the first Caliph, Abu Bakr. Other exclusive schools of Sufism describe themselves as distinctly 'Sufi'.
According to Idries Shah, the Sufi philosophy is universal in nature, its roots predating the arising of Islam and the other modern-day religions; likewise, some Muslims consider Sufism outside the sphere of Islam.Mainstream scholars of Islam, however, contend that it is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.
Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God." Alternatively, in the words of the Darqawi Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, "a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits."
Classical Sufis were characterised by their attachment to dhikr (a practice of repeating the names of God) and asceticism. Sufism gained adherents among a number of Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE). The Sufi movement has spanned several continents and cultures over a millennium, at first expressed through Arabic, then through Persian, Turkish and a dozen other languages. "Orders" (ṭuruq), which are either Sunnī or Shī‘ī in doctrine, trace many of their original precepts from the Islamic Prophet Muhammad through his cousin ‘Alī, with the notable exception of the Naqshbandi who trace their origins through the first Caliph, Abu Bakr. Other exclusive schools of Sufism describe themselves as distinctly 'Sufi'.
According to Idries Shah, the Sufi philosophy is universal in nature, its roots predating the arising of Islam and the other modern-day religions; likewise, some Muslims consider Sufism outside the sphere of Islam.Mainstream scholars of Islam, however, contend that it is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.
ahmadiyya muslim
Ahmadiyya (Urdu: احمدِیہ) is an Islamic religious movement founded towards the end of the 19th century and originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908). Ghulam Ahmad was an important religious figure who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as predicted in the traditions of various world religions and bring about the final triumph of Islam as per Islamic prophecy. He claimed that he was the Mujaddid (divine reformer) of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah and Mahdi awaited by Muslims. Ahmadi emphasis lay in the belief that Islam is the final law for humanity as revealed to Muhammad and the necessity of restoring to it its true essence and pristine form, which had been lost through the centuries. Thus, Ahmadis view themselves as leading the revival and peaceful propagation of Islam. The Ahmadis were among the earliest Muslim communities to arrive in Britain and other Western countries
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the movement on 23 March 1889 and termed it the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (community), envisioning it to be a revitalisation of Islam. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims and claim to practice Islam in its pristine form; however, Ahmadiyya views on certain beliefs in Islam have been controversial to mainstream Muslims since the movement’s birth. Many mainstream Muslims do not consider Ahmadis to be Muslims, citing in particular the Ahmadiyya viewpoint on the death and return of Jesus the Ahmadiyya concept of Jihad as peaceful and the community’s view of the finality of prophethood with particular reference to the interpretation of Qur'an 33:40. In several Islamic countries today Ahmadis have been marginalised by the majority religious community; severe persecution and often systematic oppression have led many Ahmadis to emigrate and settle elsewhere
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the movement on 23 March 1889 and termed it the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (community), envisioning it to be a revitalisation of Islam. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims and claim to practice Islam in its pristine form; however, Ahmadiyya views on certain beliefs in Islam have been controversial to mainstream Muslims since the movement’s birth. Many mainstream Muslims do not consider Ahmadis to be Muslims, citing in particular the Ahmadiyya viewpoint on the death and return of Jesus the Ahmadiyya concept of Jihad as peaceful and the community’s view of the finality of prophethood with particular reference to the interpretation of Qur'an 33:40. In several Islamic countries today Ahmadis have been marginalised by the majority religious community; severe persecution and often systematic oppression have led many Ahmadis to emigrate and settle elsewhere
Others
Kharijites (Arabic Khawārij خوارج, literally "Those who Went Out"[1]; singular, Khariji) is a general term embracing various Muslims who, while initially supporting the caliphate of the fourth and final "Rightly Guided" caliph `Ali ibn Abi Talib, later rejected him. They first emerged in the late 7th century AD, concentrated in today's southern Iraq, and are distinct from the Sunnis and Shi'ahs.
The differences between the Sunnis, Shi'ahs, and the Kharijites are the following:
Sunnis believe that `Ali's impiousness did not, by itself, justify sedition.
Shi'ahs believe that the imaamate (leadership was the right of `Ali.
Kharijites insist that any Muslim could be a leader of the Muslim community and on the right to revolt against any ruler who deviated from the example of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.
From this essentially political position, the Kharijites developed a variety of theological and legal doctrines that further set them apart from both Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Kharijites were also known historically as the Shurah (Ar: الشُراة), literally meaning "the buyers" and understood within the context of Islamic scripture and philosophy to mean "those who have traded the mortal life (al-dunya) for the other life [with God] (al-aakhirah), which, unlike the term "Kharijite", was one that many Kharijites used to describe themselves.
The only surviving group, the Ibāḍī of Oman, Zanzibar and North Africa, reject the "Kharijite" appellation and refer to themselves as ahl al-'adl wa al-istiqama (أهل العدل و الاستقامة) ("people of justice and uprightness"). One of the early Kharijite groups was the Harūriyya; it was notable for many reasons, among which was its ruling on the permissibility of women Imāms and that a Harūrī, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam, was the assassin of ‘Alī.
the Quranist
Qur'an alone Muslims, also known as Quranis or Quranists, are Muslims who follow the Qur'an and consider it to be the only sacred text in Islam. They are mostly progressive Muslims, rejecting all the Hadith and Sunnah, libraries compiled by later scholars who catalogued narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done, which traditionalist Muslims consider essential for the Islamic faith and practiced by traditional Islamic scholars.
the Twelver
Twelver or Imami Shīa Islam (Athnā‘ashariyyah or Ithnā‘ashariyyah, Arabic: اثنا عشرية) is the largest branch of Shī‘ī (Shi'a) Islam. Adherents of Twelver Shī‘ism are commonly referred to as Twelvers, which is derived from their belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as the Twelve Imāms and their belief that the Mahdi will be none other than the returned Twelfth Imam that disappeared and is believed by Twelvers to be in occultation. Approximately 85% of Shī‘a are Twelvers, and the term Shi'a Muslim as commonly used in English usually refers to Twelver Shī‘a Muslims only.
Twelvers share many tenets of Shī‘ism with related sects, such as the belief in Imāms, but the Ismā‘īlī and Zaydī Shī‘ī sects each believe in a different number of Imāms and for the most part, a different path of succession regarding the Imāmate. They also differ in the role and overall definition of an Imām.
The Twelver faith is predominantly found in Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Kuwait. It also forms a large minority in India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
Ismāʿīlism
Ismāʿīlism (Arabic: الإسماعيليون al-Ismāʿīliyyūn; Persian: اسماعیلیان Esmāʿiliyān; Urdu: إسماعیلی Ismāʿīlī) is a branch of Shia Islam. It is the second largest sect of Shiaism, after the mainstream Twelvers (Ithnāʿashariyya). The Ismāʿīlī get their name from their acceptance of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar as the appointed spiritual successor (Imām) to Jaʿfar aṣ-Ṣādiq, wherein they differ from the Twelvers, who accept Mūsà al-Kāżim, younger brother of Ismāʿīl, as the true Imām.
Tracing its earliest theology to the lifetime of Muḥammad, Ismāʿīlism rose at one point to become the largest branch of Shī‘ism, climaxing as a political power with the Fatimid Empire in the tenth through twelfth centuries. Ismailis believe in the oneness of God, as well as the closing of divine revelation with Muḥammad, whom they see as the final Prophet and Messenger of God to all humanity. The Ismāʿīlī and the Twelvers both accept the same initial A'immah from the descendants of Muḥammad through his daughter Fāṭimah az-Zahra and therefore share much of their early history. Both Shī‘ite groups see the family of Muḥammad (Ahl al-Bayt) as divinely chosen, infallible (ismah), and guided by God to lead the Islamic community (Ummah), a belief that distinguishes them from the majority Sunni branch of Islam.
After the death—or Occultation according to Seveners—of Muhammad ibn Ismail in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known today, with an explicit concentration on the deeper, esoteric meaning (batin) of the Islamic religion. With the eventual development of Twelverism into the more literalistic (zahir) oriented Akhbari and later Usooli schools of thought, Shi'ism developed into two separate directions: the metaphorical Ismāʿīlī group focusing on the mystical path and nature of Allah, with the "Imām of the Time" representing the manifestation of truth and reality, with the more literalistic Twelver group focusing on divine law (sharia) and the deeds and sayings (sunnah) of Muhammad and the Twelve Imams who were guides and a light to God.
Though there are several paths (tariqah) within the Ismāʿīlīs, the term in today's vernacular generally refers to the Nizari path, which recognizes the Aga Khan as the 49th hereditary Imam and is the largest group among the Ismāʿīlīs. While some of the branches have extremely differing exterior practices, much of the spiritual theology has remained the same since the days of the faith's early Imāms. In recent centuries Ismāʿīlīs have largely been an Indo-Iranian community, but Ismāʿīlī are found in India, Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, East Africa, Syria, and South Africa, and have in recent years emigrated to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America and Trinidad and Tobago.
The differences between the Sunnis, Shi'ahs, and the Kharijites are the following:
Sunnis believe that `Ali's impiousness did not, by itself, justify sedition.
Shi'ahs believe that the imaamate (leadership was the right of `Ali.
Kharijites insist that any Muslim could be a leader of the Muslim community and on the right to revolt against any ruler who deviated from the example of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.
From this essentially political position, the Kharijites developed a variety of theological and legal doctrines that further set them apart from both Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Kharijites were also known historically as the Shurah (Ar: الشُراة), literally meaning "the buyers" and understood within the context of Islamic scripture and philosophy to mean "those who have traded the mortal life (al-dunya) for the other life [with God] (al-aakhirah), which, unlike the term "Kharijite", was one that many Kharijites used to describe themselves.
The only surviving group, the Ibāḍī of Oman, Zanzibar and North Africa, reject the "Kharijite" appellation and refer to themselves as ahl al-'adl wa al-istiqama (أهل العدل و الاستقامة) ("people of justice and uprightness"). One of the early Kharijite groups was the Harūriyya; it was notable for many reasons, among which was its ruling on the permissibility of women Imāms and that a Harūrī, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam, was the assassin of ‘Alī.
the Quranist
Qur'an alone Muslims, also known as Quranis or Quranists, are Muslims who follow the Qur'an and consider it to be the only sacred text in Islam. They are mostly progressive Muslims, rejecting all the Hadith and Sunnah, libraries compiled by later scholars who catalogued narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done, which traditionalist Muslims consider essential for the Islamic faith and practiced by traditional Islamic scholars.
the Twelver
Twelver or Imami Shīa Islam (Athnā‘ashariyyah or Ithnā‘ashariyyah, Arabic: اثنا عشرية) is the largest branch of Shī‘ī (Shi'a) Islam. Adherents of Twelver Shī‘ism are commonly referred to as Twelvers, which is derived from their belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as the Twelve Imāms and their belief that the Mahdi will be none other than the returned Twelfth Imam that disappeared and is believed by Twelvers to be in occultation. Approximately 85% of Shī‘a are Twelvers, and the term Shi'a Muslim as commonly used in English usually refers to Twelver Shī‘a Muslims only.
Twelvers share many tenets of Shī‘ism with related sects, such as the belief in Imāms, but the Ismā‘īlī and Zaydī Shī‘ī sects each believe in a different number of Imāms and for the most part, a different path of succession regarding the Imāmate. They also differ in the role and overall definition of an Imām.
The Twelver faith is predominantly found in Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Kuwait. It also forms a large minority in India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
Ismāʿīlism
Ismāʿīlism (Arabic: الإسماعيليون al-Ismāʿīliyyūn; Persian: اسماعیلیان Esmāʿiliyān; Urdu: إسماعیلی Ismāʿīlī) is a branch of Shia Islam. It is the second largest sect of Shiaism, after the mainstream Twelvers (Ithnāʿashariyya). The Ismāʿīlī get their name from their acceptance of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar as the appointed spiritual successor (Imām) to Jaʿfar aṣ-Ṣādiq, wherein they differ from the Twelvers, who accept Mūsà al-Kāżim, younger brother of Ismāʿīl, as the true Imām.
Tracing its earliest theology to the lifetime of Muḥammad, Ismāʿīlism rose at one point to become the largest branch of Shī‘ism, climaxing as a political power with the Fatimid Empire in the tenth through twelfth centuries. Ismailis believe in the oneness of God, as well as the closing of divine revelation with Muḥammad, whom they see as the final Prophet and Messenger of God to all humanity. The Ismāʿīlī and the Twelvers both accept the same initial A'immah from the descendants of Muḥammad through his daughter Fāṭimah az-Zahra and therefore share much of their early history. Both Shī‘ite groups see the family of Muḥammad (Ahl al-Bayt) as divinely chosen, infallible (ismah), and guided by God to lead the Islamic community (Ummah), a belief that distinguishes them from the majority Sunni branch of Islam.
After the death—or Occultation according to Seveners—of Muhammad ibn Ismail in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known today, with an explicit concentration on the deeper, esoteric meaning (batin) of the Islamic religion. With the eventual development of Twelverism into the more literalistic (zahir) oriented Akhbari and later Usooli schools of thought, Shi'ism developed into two separate directions: the metaphorical Ismāʿīlī group focusing on the mystical path and nature of Allah, with the "Imām of the Time" representing the manifestation of truth and reality, with the more literalistic Twelver group focusing on divine law (sharia) and the deeds and sayings (sunnah) of Muhammad and the Twelve Imams who were guides and a light to God.
Though there are several paths (tariqah) within the Ismāʿīlīs, the term in today's vernacular generally refers to the Nizari path, which recognizes the Aga Khan as the 49th hereditary Imam and is the largest group among the Ismāʿīlīs. While some of the branches have extremely differing exterior practices, much of the spiritual theology has remained the same since the days of the faith's early Imāms. In recent centuries Ismāʿīlīs have largely been an Indo-Iranian community, but Ismāʿīlī are found in India, Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, East Africa, Syria, and South Africa, and have in recent years emigrated to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America and Trinidad and Tobago.