The Shi’a sector in Islam and their sources from the Quran

Since the creation of the universe by God, religions have occupied a huge role of human life. Through out history, humans have adopted or embraced different faiths. Those faiths are sometimes rooted from their ancestors, or sometimes the people are being forced to accept them due to the fact that their rulers are follower of those religions. Religions in general are based on a combination of different thoughts, beliefs, and books. Islam is one those religions which has had different movements and branches. Those branches differ from one to another due to various causes. One reason is that followers of a specific branch interpret the Quran to a different meaning that may slightly change how those followers may act within this religion. Another cause that has a great impact on why those groups believe differently from the other groups who follow the same faith is the historical background of such an event that may happen in the past or the future that caused an alteration, or caused a separation to create a new sector within the religion. Shi’a and Sunni are the two largest branches of Islam. Each one of them has their reasoning and sources from the Quran and the tradition of the prophet Muhammad why they are unique from each other. In this paper, I am going to provide an introduction of the Shi’a branch and the concept of Imamate, why the Shi’a believe Ali is the successor after the prophet Muhammad and I will provide a comparison of the verses from the Quran how each those verses are interpreted differently in each sector to support their point of views.

The Shi’a is the second largest group in Islam after the Sunni sector. According to Dr. Sullivan in his article “Who Are The Shia”, the Shi’a’s population is 150 million Shi’a M...

... middle of paper ...

... issues between the sectors. The benefit of this is that the Islamic world is beginning to understand that they are weak nations due to the separation and the useless argument between whose is right or wrong. In my opinion, this is a very fundamental change within the Muslims to begin to make the unity of the Islamic nations.

Works Cited

Ahmed, Ali S. V., and Mahdi Pooya. The Holy Qur'an: The Final Testament : Arabic Text, with English Translation and Commentary. 5th ed. Elmhurst, NY: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, 2005.

Muẓaffar, Muḥammad Riḍā. The Faith of Shīʻa Islam. Baldwin, NY: Anjumane Aza Khana-E-Zahra, 1983.

Sullivan, Paul. "Who Are the Shia?" History News Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. .

Subḥānī, Jaʻfar, and Reza Shah-Kazemi. Doctrines of Shiʻi Islam: A Compendium of Imami Beliefs and Practices. London: I.B. Tauris, 2001.