Denominations
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The first subject in any religion study should be always the time frame of its founding, religious practices and prophets. Here I decided to make first discussion in Islamic portions on Denominations.
Islam
is founded in 622 CE from person, lieder of tribes Muhammad; The word “Islam”
comes from Arabic word meaning “submission”, which refers not only to
submission and bowing in front of God`s will, but also to will of the leader
called [ prophet ]. Islam believes to be part of Abrahamic religions tradition
(Christianity and Judaism), that are monotheistic. They dedicate prayers and
rituals to only one god, called Allah. There are known many names of Allah
(100) that are object of mystical power according to some followers of
Islam.
I.
Denominations ~
1.
Sunni – In order to understand better the Islamic religion we have to observe
separately the different denominations and branches. Sunna translated from
Arabic means “path” or well trodden path”, Tradition. This path is actually
taken as example from life of the leader Muhammad. They are the biggest number
of all Muslims worldwide – around 1.1 billion. Sunnis believe that Muhammad did
not appointed special successor after him, to lead the Muslim community
(ummah). They believe, after short period of confusion the majority elected for
first caliph the friend of Muhammad – Abu Bakr. Other caliphs, who
followed were known as “Rashidun” – or Rightly guided caliphs. They were: 2.
Umar Ibn Al Khattab, 3. Uthman Ibn Affan, 4. Ali Ibn Abu Talib. Unlike them,
Shiah Muslims believe that the first successor of Muhammad was Ali ibn Abu
Talib – his cousin and son-in-low. They believe descendants of Muhammad, called
Imams, who have special spiritual and political power over the country and Muslim
world.
Within
the Sunni Islam there are four major schools of Sharia (low):
Hanafi,
Maliki, Shafii, Hanbali, Zahiri; These are schools (madhab) of jurisprudence,
the biggest one is Hanafi, named after the Islamic scholar Abu Hanifa an-Numan.
The sources of Islamic low (Sharia) of Hanafi school are: The Quran, Hadiths
(words, actions and quotations of prophet Muhammad, ex. Sahih al Bukhari),
Sahabah community, Qiyas (analogy); All of these sources are reliable. Abu
Hanifa and his students wrote fountational texts for Islamic low as:
-
Al Fiqh al akbar (Theological book of jurisprudence)
-
Al Fiqh al Absat ( General book of jurisprudence)
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Kitab al Athar (Thousands of hadiths with commentary)
-
Kitab al Kharaj (doctrine of war against unbelievers)
-
Kitab al Siyar (distribution of spoils of war among Muslims)
These
doctrines include the lows for apostasy and taxation (jizia) of non Muslim
groups living within the Muslim community (country).
2.
Shia Islam
Is
the second largest group in Islam, the Shia followers live mainly in: Iran Iraq Bahrain Azerbaijan Kuwait Yemen Lebanon
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Twelvers (believe in twelve Imams)
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Alawites (9-10 century group)
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Ismailism
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Druze (11 century)
~
Zaidiyah (followers of Zayid ibn Ali)
We
have to understand that many divisions within the term Islam” (as considered by
the western scholars), have extreme views and consider other denominations
(branches, sects) of “Islam” as infidels. For them it is equal to non
believers. Regardless of the theological point that Christianity and Judaism
are part of the same “religious family”, monotheistic religion, they are
largely considered as “infidels” and non believers. The main point here is the
teaching of Muhammad, Quran and hadiths. Due to the many controversial and not
well understood verses of Quran, there is wide confusion on the topic of
Christian and Jews for Islam; Are they considered “brothers” or just non
believers? So the concept is changeable.
3.
Kharijite Islam – (major sect Ibadi)
© nina Lea-nour *
angel`S medium
spiritual writer
spiritual writer
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