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Shiia Islam
Shi'a Islam (also called Shiite or Shi'i) is the second largest division of Islam,
constituting about 10-15% of all Muslims. The Sunni Muslims recognise the Four
Caliphs as ‘rightly guided’, while Shi’a Muslims recognise Ali as the First Caliph and
his descendants. Shi’as differ on how many Imams there have been. Some talk of
Twelve and others of Fourteen. They also differ on who is the last Imam (Mahdi).
Imamites say it was the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al’Mahdi, the Zaydites say the
Fifth, Zayd, and, the Isma’ilites say the Seventh Imam, Ismail. However, Shi’as agree
that the Last Imam went into hiding and will return to bring in the end of the world.
Shi’a Beliefs
The five Shia principles of religion (usul ad din) are: belief in divide unity (tawhid);
prophecy (nubuwwah); resurrection (maad); divine justice (adl); and the belief in
the Imams as successors of the Prophet (imamah). The latter principle is not
accepted by Sunnis.
Most Sunnis believe the Sharia (religious law of Islam) was codified and closed by
the 10th century. Shia followers believe the Sharia is always open, subject to fresh
reformulations of Sunna, hadith, (traditions of what Muhammad and his
companions said and did) and Qur’an interpretations.
Like Sunni Islam, Shia Islam has developed several sects. Because of their belief that
the leader of the Muslimcommunity must be a blood relative of the prophet,
disputes arose when two sons of an Imam (the title given to the Shia leader) both
claimed to be the rightful successor. These disputes caused the Shia sect to further
divide into three groups: Zaids, Ismai’ilis, and Ithna Asharis. The Twelver or IthnaAshari sect is the most important of these, as it predominates not only in Iraq but in
the Shia world generally. Broadly speaking, the Twelvers are considered political
quietists as opposed to the Zaydis who favor political activism, and the Ismailis who
are identified with esoteric and gnostic religious doctrines.
Canonical schools in Islam, are called "Fiqh's"; the only Fiqh's in Shia Islam, are
Usuli, Akhbari, and Shaykhi. These 3 all belong to the Ithna-Ashari or mainstream
Shia Islam, which believes in the 12 Shia Imams; hence the name which means
"Twelver's". The dominant Shia legal school is sometimes termed the Ja'fari Fiqh,
after lmam Jaafar Sadiq (a.s.), the Sixth Infallible Imam of the world of Shiism. The
term "Jaafari" is something of a pejorative term, just like "Wahhabiyyah" is; and one
that is not used by Shias themselves. It is used by Sunnis, to derided Shias, just as
"Wahhabiyyah" is used by Westerners and Shias, to deride Sunnis, but neither term
is correct in and of itself.
A student assimilates from very early the ijtihad methodology as he assumes
religious ranks: preacher, then mujtahid, hujjat Al-Islam [Proof of Islam], and then
hujjat Al-Islam wa Al-Muslimeen until he becomes a Source or ayatollah, and
thereafter the great ayatollah or ayatollah al-`uzma.
The 1964 Afghan Constitution, which was the basis of new 2003 constitution, stated:
"Islam is the sacred religion of Afghanistan. Religious rites performed by the state
shall be according to the provisions of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence." This
stipulation left Afghan Shia without proper representation. Thus in March 2003,
Ayatollah Mohammad Asef Mohseni, leader of the predominantly Shia Harakat-e
Islami-yi Afghanistan, proposed that, along with the Sunni Hanafi school of
jurisprudence, the Shia Ja'fari school of jurisprudence be included in the new
constitution as an official sect. Mohseni said he proposed two additional formulas if
his proposal is not accepted: mentioning "Islam and the Islamic sects," or just
mentioning Islam without any mention of sects to ensure that Afghan Shia have
their jurisprudence recognized and are allowed to "perform their religious duties
according to it."
The Ja'fari [Hafari] fiqh of the Imami Shias is in most cases indistinguishable from
one or more of the four Sunni madhahib, except that "Muta'h" or temporary
marriage is considered lawful by the Fiqh Jafari, whereas it is prohibited in all the
Sunni schools. But the Shia are still viewed with great caution by the Ulema of the
Sunni world. Although Sunni and Shi'a Muslims are historically ambivalent, this
traditional enmity was dampened in Central Asia due to shared resistance
to Russian and Soviet rule. Indeed, both Sunni and Shi'a delegations to the 1905
Third Congress of Muslims in Russia declared Ja'farite Shi'ism as a fifth legal school,
equivalent to the Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali, and Shafi'i madrasehs.
Shi’as do not believe in predestination. They accept the teachings of the Mu’tazilities,
a group of Sunni scholars who were later declared heretical. The Mu’tazilities
believed that God cannot be responsible for evil, and therefore, humans must have
freewill and be independent of God’s authority in this life. A further belief of Shia
Muslims concerns divine justice and the individual's responsibility for his acts,
which are judged by a just God. This contrasts with the Sunni view that God's
creation of man allows minimal possibility for the exercise of free will.
Two distinctive and frequently misunderstood Shia practices are mutah, temporary
marriage, and taqiyah, religious dissimulation.
Mutah, that is, marriage with a fixed termination contract subject to renewal, was
practiced by Muslims as early as the formation of the first Muslim community at
Medina. Banned by the second caliph, it has since been unacceptable to Sunnis, but
Shias insist that if it were against Islamic law it would not have been practiced in
early Islam. Mutah differs from permanent marriage because it does not require
divorce proceedings for termination because the contractual parties have agreed on
its span, which can be as short as an evening or as long as a lifetime. By making the
mutah, a couple places the sexual act within the context of sharia; the act then is not
considered adulterous and offspring are considered legitimate heirs of the man.
Taqiyah is another practice condemned by the Sunni as cowardly and irreligious but
encouraged by Shia Islam and also practiced by Alawis and Ismailis. A person
resorts to taqiyah when he either hides his religion or disavows certain religious
practices to escape danger from opponents of his beliefs. Taqiyah can also be
practiced when not to do so would bring danger to the honor of the female members
of a household or when a man could be made destitute as a result of his beliefs.
Because of the persecution frequently experienced by Shia imams, particularly
during the period of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, taqiyah has been
continually reinforced.
Shia practice differs from that of the Sunnis concerning both divorce and inheritance
in that it is more favorable to women. The reason for this reputedly is the high
esteem in which Fatima, the wife of Ali and the daughter of the Prophet, was held.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/islam-shiia.htm
Twelvers / Ithna Ashari Islam
The Twelvers are by far the largest group of Shiite Muslims, because the Iranians are
Twelvers. Perhaps eighty percent of the Shiis are Twelvers. Twelvers constitute
ninety percent of the modern population of Iran and fifty-five to sixty percent of the
population of Iraq. Twelver Shiites are the majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and also
have substantial populations in Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, India, Afghanistan
and Bahrain.
The following of Jafar Sadik bifurcated into two branches - the Ismailis, the followers
of Ismail, and the Musawite, the supporters of Musa Kazim, who later on came to be
known as Twelvers, or Ithna Asharites. Canonical schools in Islam are called
"Fiqh's". the only Fiqh's in Shia Islam, are Usuli, Akhbari, and Shaykhi. These 3 all
belong to the Ithna-Ashari or mainstream Shia Islam, which believes in the 12 Shia
Imams; hence the name which means "Twelver's".
Those who believe that the third son was the rightful ruler of Islam are called the
"Twelvers", because they believe that there were 12 Imams. The last one is still
alive, according to the Twelvers, and has been hiding in a cave for the last more than
one thousand years. They hold that the twelfth Imam (Muhammad) who
disappeared about 874 is still living. He will come out and resume his rule soon, the
Twelvers say.
Modern Twelvers believe that, for his own protection, Mohammad al-Mahdi went
into "occultation" (hiding). He is reported to have communicated to the faithful via
intermediaries called Babs (Gates), the first of whom was Uthman al-Amri. When the
last of the four gates died in 941 CE, the lesser occultation ended and the greater
occultation began. The line of Twelver Imams came to an end.
About the time the lesser Occultation came to an end the Twelvers came to believe
that the Twelfth Imam would return to earth in the last days as the Mahdi, and
would establish a reign of justice and peace on earth. After his coming, they believe,
Christ will return. Some from Iran claimed when Imam Khomeini was alive that he
was in fact the "Disappearing Imam" who had come back to rule. Others said that he
was the Mehdi or "Promised Messiah".
The Twelvers are the largest Shiite group today, but they are not the only one, and
historically they were often a very small, weak group. They emerged as a distinct
Shii group mostly in the third Muslim century (the eighth century C.E.) after the
death of the twelfth Imam. Twelver Shiism appears to have grown in size partly
because it did not have a living Imam; many other descendants or alleged
descendants of the Prophet called themselves the Imam, formented militarty revolt,
and were killed. By not having a living Imam, Twelver Shiism was able to survive
and grow, and other Shiis often were absorbed into it when their revolts were
crushed and their Imams executed.
In law, the Twelvers do not accept hadiths, transmitted by enemies of the Imans
such as ‘A’isha, and make use also of the sayings of the Imams. In addition to the
Shi‘i regulations for the prayer call and ablutions, they admit the doctrine of taqiya
or katman, the prophecy or even necessity of hiding one’s true beliefs among nonShi’is...and they retain the peculiar institution of legal temporary marriage between
a free man and woman for mut‘a (pleasure).
An integral part of the Shii doctrine of the Imam is that he is the legitimate political
leader of Islam; just as the caliphs usurped Ali's authority, modern governments, in
the absence of the authority of the Imam, are not legitimate. Most Imams of the
Twelver line, after Hossein's martydom, did not make a claim to political leadership;
rather, they acknowledged the authority of the caliphs, and urged their followers to
do the same. Thus political quietism was a common option pursued by Twelver
Shiis. Early Shii thinkers living after the occultation of the Imam felt leaderless. They
felt a profound alienation from the world and generally adopted a quietest political
policy.
Within Twelver Shia Islam there are three major legal schools, the Usuli, the Akhbari
and the Shayki. Akhbaris constitute a very small group and are found primarily
around Basra and in southern Iraq as well as aroundKhorramshahr in Iran. The
dominant Usuli school is more liberal in its legal outlook and allows greater use of
interpretation (ijtihad) in reaching legal decisions, and considers that one must obey
a mujtahid (learned interpreter of the law) as well as an Imam.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/islam-ithna-ashari.html
Seveners / Ismaili Islam
Ismailis are Shi'a Muslims who claim that Ismail, the eldest son of Imam Jaffar, was the rightful ruler of all Muslims. They
are also known as the "Seveners", because Imam Jaffar was the seventh and, according to them, the last Imam. An
important Shi‘i Muslim community, the Ismailis as an entity emerged in 765 from a disagreement over the successor to the
sixth imam, Ja‘far al-Sadiq. According to the Ismailis, starting from Ali, the eldest son has always inherited the right to rule.
Shia Twelvers, those who accept the first Twelve Imams, believe that Jafar, the Sixth Imam, passed over his eldest son,
Ismail, in favor of Ismail's brother Musa al Kazim. Ismailis, however, believe that Jafar appointed Ismail to be the Seventh
Imam--hence Ismailis are often called Seveners.
Ismaili Shia doctrine closely resembled Twelver Shia Islam with regard to observance of the sharia but also included a
system of philosophy and science coordinated with religion that proved the divine origin of the Imamate and the rights of
the Fatimids to it. Ubaid Allah al Mahdi, the founder of the Fatimid Dynasty, came to North Africa in the early tenth century
and actively promoted the Ismaili faith. The Fatimid rulers proclaimed themselves true caliphs.
Little is known of the early history of the sect, but it was firmly established by the end of the ninth century. From 969 to
1171, an Ismaili dynasty, the Fatimids, ruled as caliphs in Egypt. The Fatimids, unlike the Tulinids and the Ikhshidids,
wanted independence, not autonomy, from Baghdad. In addition, as heads of a great religious movement, the Ismaili Shia
Islam, they also challenged the Sunni Abbasids for the caliphate itself. The name of the dynasty is derived from Fatima,
the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and the wife of Ali, the fourth caliph and the founder of Shia Islam. The leader of
the movement, who first established the dynasty in Tunisia in 906, claimed descent from Fatima.
Under the Fatimids, Egypt became the center of a vast empire, which at its peak comprised North Africa, Sicily, Palestine,
Syria, the Red Sea coast of Africa, Yemen, and the Hijaz in Arabia, including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Control
of the holy cities conferred enormous prestige on a Muslim sovereign and the power to use the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca
to his advantage. Cairo was the seat of the Shia caliph, who was the head of a religion as well as the sovereign of an
empire. The Fatimids established Al Azhar in Cairo as an intellectual center where scholars and teachers elaborated the
doctrines of the Ismaili Shia faith.
The first century of Fatimid rule represents a high point for medieval Egypt. The administration was reorganized and
expanded. It functioned with admirable efficiency: tax farming was abolished, and strict probity and regularity in the
assessment and collection of taxes was enforced. The revenues of Egypt were high and were then augmented by the
tribute of subject provinces. This period was also an age of great commercial expansion and industrial production. The
Fatimids fostered both agriculture and industry and developed an important export trade. Realizing the importance of
trade both for the prosperity of Egypt and for the extension of Fatimid influence, the Fatimids developed a wide network of
commercial relations, notably with Europe and India, two areas with which Egypt had previously had almost no contact.
Egyptian ships sailed to Sicily and Spain. Egyptian fleets controlled the eastern Mediterranean, and the Fatimids
established close relations with the Italian city states, particularly Amalfi and Pisa. The two great harbors of Alexandria in
Egypt and Tripoli in present-day Lebanon became centers of world trade. In the east, the Fatimids gradually extended
their sovereignty over the ports and outlets of the Red Sea for trade with India and Southeast Asia and tried to win
influence on the shores of the Indian Ocean. In lands far beyond the reach of Fatimid arms, the Ismaili missionary and the
Egyptian merchant went side-by-side.
In the end, however, the Fatimid bid for world power failed. A weakened and shrunken empire was unable to resist the
crusaders, who in July 1099 captured Jerusalem from the Fatimid garrison after a siege of five weeks.
Ismailis accept many Shia doctrines, such as the esoteric nature of truth and the inspiration of the Imams. Although
holding their Imams to be of divine origin, as the Shia do, Ismailis have a dual Imamate. They believe the succession of
visible Imams has continued to the present. There are, however, two imams, the visible and the hidden, the speaker and
the silent. The identity of the hidden imam is not known to the community but it is believed he will return to lead the
faithful. Ismailis generally follow the religious practice of the Shia Twelvers in prayers, fasts, and Quranic prescriptions,
but in their conservatism they resemble Sunnis on some points. For example, they do not observe the tenth of Muharram
in the impassioned way of the Shia.
Ismaili beliefs are complex and syncretic, combining elements from the philosophies of Plotinus, Pythagoras, Aristotle,
gnosticism, and the Manichaeans, as well as components of Judaism, Christianity, and Eastern religions. Ismaili
conceptions of the Imamat differ greatly from those of other Muslims and their tenets are unique. Their beliefs about the
creation of the world are idiosyncratic, as is their historical ecumenism, tolerance of religious differences, and religious
hierarchy. There is a division of theology into exoteric (including the conservative Shariah) and esoteric (including the
mystical exegesis of the Quran which leads to haqiqa, the ultimate realty). These beliefs and practices are veiled in
secrecy and Ismaili place particular emphasis on taqiya meaning to shield or guard, the practice that permits the believer
to deny publicly his Shia membership for self-protection, as long as he continues to believe and worship in private. Taqiya
is permissible in most Shia, and some Sunni, sects.
The Ismailis who number 15 million, are divided into several main branches. One, who call themselves Bohras, have their
headquarters in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. Another branch -- known as Khojas -- are headed by the Agha Khan
and concentrated in Gujarât State, India.
Nizari
ISMAILIS