All Muslims are bound together by the Shahada

Islam (lit. submission) comes from the Arabic root s-l-m, which also connotes peace. Last in the line of revealed Abrahamic tradition, Islam has become, since the seventh century, the faith of people from all parts of the world, “reflecting a great deal of diversity in its expressions and in regional patterns of daily life. It is also marked by intellectual, theological, spiritual and institutional pluralism.” (Daftary)

All Muslims affirm the Shahada – that there is only one God and Muhammad is His final Messenger. However, after the death of the Prophet, different communities of interpretation developed their doctrinal positions. In the Amman Declaration made in Jordan’s capital in July 2005, the majority of Muslim leaders in the world joined in an agreement to affirm the legitimacy of all these schools of law.

During his lifetime, Prophet Muhammad was both the recipient and interpreter of divine revelation. Upon his death in 632 CE, the Muslim community engaged in a debate over his successor. Since he was the “seal of the prophets” (khatim al-anbiya), he could not be succeeded by another prophet (nabi). However, a successor was needed to assume his functions as leader of the community and state. A group of notables chose Abu Bakr as the successor to the Messenger of God, or khalifat rasul Allah, hence the word caliph in Western languages.

The majority of the community supported Abu Bakr’s leadership. Abu Bakr was succeeded by Umar (634-44), Uthman (644-56), and Ali ibn Abu Talib (656-61). This group came to believe that the sunna – the actions and sayings of the Prophet that complemented the divinely revealed message of the Quran constituted a model for establishing norms for Muslim conduct – would guide the community. They came to be known as Ahl al-sunna or Sunnis.

In regard to practice, the Sunnis elaborated the Sharia through the concepts of ijma (consensus) and qiyas (analogy), which were thought to be sufficient to guide the community. The sharia (lit. “the way”) is a way of life, providing a guide for living in accordance with the will of God.

“Early Muslim states provided an organized system of courts and judges to mediate disputes at all levels. The totality of political, moral and social order in Islam was thus given specific definition. It was not meant, however, to be a fixed system of rigid rules and regulations. Several schools of thought developed in various parts of the Muslim world, which applied the Sharia differently according to variation in human and geographical conditions. Some scholars tended to be stricter than others” (Nanji). There developed, over time, a methodology of analysis and application through which answers could be obtained.

Four distinct schools of Sunni law emerged around geographic centres of the Islamic empire and out of sectarian differences:

1. Hanafi, founded byAbu Hanifa al-Numan (d.767), predominant in Central and Western Asia and India.
2. Maliki, founded in Medina by Malik ibn Anas (d. c. 796), predominant in Upper Egypt and North and West Africa.
3. Shafii, founded by Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafii (d.c. 820) predominant in Egypt, East Africa and Southeast Asia. Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population, follows the Shafii school of law.
4. Hanbali, founded by Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), predominant in Saudi Arabia.

Shia
Upon the Prophet’s death, a small group held that he had designated his cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abu Talib, to be his successor through divine command revealed at Ghadir Khumm shortly before his death. This minority group became designated as the shi’at Ali, “party of Ali,” or simply Shi’a. They include the major communities of Ithna Asharis and Ismailis. Ali was also the Prophet’s first supporter who championed the cause of Islam.

The Shi’a “had come to believe that the Islamic message contained inner truths that could not be understood directly through human reason. They had, thus, recognized the need for a religiously authoritative guide, or imam, as the Shia have called their spiritual teacher and leader. In addition to being a guardian of revelation and leader of the community…. the successor was also entitled to a religious mandate for explaining the message of Islam. A person with such qualifications could belong only to the Prophet’s family (ahl al-bayt). Later the Shi’a also held that after Ali, the leadership of the Muslim community was the exclusive prerogative of Alids – descendants of Ali belonging to the ahl al-bayt” (Daftary).

Sufis
Sufis are Muslims  “who from the beginning have considered the teachings of the Quran and the example of the Prophet to mirror an inner and spiritual orientation to life. The name is derived from tasawwuf, the act of devoting oneself to a search for an inner life.” (Nanji)

Imam
This title is applied to a religious leader, to the leader of the congregational prayer, and to the founders of the schools of law. The term originally meant ‘model’ or ‘example.’ In Shiism, the imam is the religious leader, descended from the line of Ali and attributed with spiritual authority, the position being hereditary and based on a specific designation. Just as it was the prerogative of the Prophet to designate his successor, each imam has the absolute right to designate his successor from among his male progeny.

The Sunni definition of imam specified that the first four caliphs, including Ali, were all legitimate authorities who fulfilled the conditions of a rightful imam. However, after this period, a ruler could be considered the rightful imam if he fulfilled certain conditions of character and geneology not restricted to the descendants of the Prophet’s family. (Nanji)

Ismailis
Upon the death of the sixth Shia Imam, Jafar al-Sadiq in 765, one group recognized the leadership of his son Ismail, while another group supported the younger son Musa al-Kazim. The former group came to be known as Ismailis after the Imam, and the latter came to be known as Ithna Asharis (or Twelvers). In 874, the Ithna Asharis believe that their twelfth imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, disappeared and will return at the end of time as the divinely guided leader (mahdi). After this event, the Twelver community continued to be guided by representative scholars while the Ismailis continued to be led by a hereditary Imam to the present day.

The Shia follow the Jafari school of law established by Imam Jafar al-Sadiq centred on the concept of Imamat; the law allows “greater latitude for independent human reason.” (Almanac)

In the late eleventh century, the Ismailis suffered a schism over the succession to the Imamat. Some followed the youngest son al-Mustali and came to be known as the Mustali Ismailis; others gave allegiance to his eldest son Nizar and came to be known as the Nizari Ismailis.

Today, the Nizari Ismailis, residing all over the world, are the only Shia community who are led by a living hereditary Imam – His Highness the Aga Khan, the forty-ninth Imam in direct lineal descent from Prophet Muhammad through Ali and Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. In his guidance, the Aga Khan has emphasised that “Islam is a thinking, spiritual faith, one that teaches compassion and tolerance and that upholds the dignity of man, Allah’s noblest creation.”*

Sources:
Farhad Daftary, A Short History of Ismailis, Edinburg University Press, 1998
Azim Nanji, Dictionary of Islam, Penguin Books, London, 2008
Glossary, The Muslim Almanac edited by Azim A Nanji, Gale Research Inc., Detroit, 1996
What is Shia Islam? The Institute of Ismaili Studies
*His Highness the Aga Khan, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Compiled by Nimira Dewji