What are Sunnis and Shiites?

Answer 1

Answer 1
Shiites and Sunnis are the two largest sects of Islam. They basically are in concord on the fundamental principles. They all believe in the Unity of God, in Prophet Muhammed as the last messenger, pray five times a day, fast, go to pilgrimage, pay zakat, and believe in the life after death.
However the difference is in how they perform the acts. For example, the method of praying varies and the Sunnis and Shiites start and break fast at different times ( a difference of 10 minutes approx.).
Thus the Sunnis and Shiites believe the same thing but act in a bit different way. Together they form a major part of the Muslim Community.


In addition, Shiites didn't accept the election of the Caliphs after prophet Muhammad death and believed that the Caliphs should be from Prophet Muhammad descendants and that the first Caliph should have been Ali Ibn Abou Taleb (God be pleased with him) ; the prophet Cousin and the husband of his daughter Fatimand not Abou Bakr.



Answer 2

shia and sunni have mainly conflict on Imamat (leadership).
shia say Imamat is one of 5 pillars of Islam and only God can select leader for people. but sunni say Imamat is not part of Islam and leader can be selected by people by any method like shura (for example for Abubakr) or by will of previous leader for example for Omar) or by people (for example for Ali).
the conflict of shia and sunni has been always amplified by world Imperialism to prevent Islam from spreading in world.
Shia believes in Allah, prophet and all fundamentals of Islam.
Shia pray 5 times a day but usually do the 2, 3 and 4, 5 pray together and so may seem they do only 3 pray a day. there is some differences in details of pray like genuflect (for shia should be on a stone or part of earth and for sunni on carpet or floor ).
shia believe after death of prophet God selected the successive for prophet who is the political leader of Muslim community and people can not and does not the right to selected it.
shia refers to many verse of Quran like: "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority" (Quran 2:30) or "O David! We did indeed make thee a vicegerent on earth" (Quran 38:26) also other verses.
Shia believes such verses means only God can select an Islamic political leader (Caliph) and there is no mention in Quran people have the right to select leader. and shura is not allowed to be used for selecting leader and prophet himself always selected leaders of wars and other leaders by command of God.
In Shia Islam Caliphs after prophet are 12 infallible Imams who have inherited divine knowledge of prophet.
Shia Muslims do not consider selection of Abubakr as Caliph by people valid because God did not select him. They believe God ordered prophet to declare people that Ali is selected as successor of prophet and prophet did this mission many times during his prophet-hood and mainly in Ghadir event after last Hajj of his life at a 3-4 hour speech in front of 120,000 Muslims at Ghadir in hot desert after 2 days stop of long caravan for gathering and 3 days after speech for congratulations and homage of Muslims to Ali.
Islam at that time had high power in world and Some companions had high interest in leadership position after prophet. Muslims knew that it is the final Hajj of prophet (predicted by prophet) and were going along with prophet to hear what prophet says at end of his life.
Shia believes Ghadir event is the most important event of Islam and is mentioned in Koran in many verses like "Today" (اليوم) in verse 5:3 of Quran is the day of Ghadir. Or Verse 5:67: "(O Messenger! proclaim the (message) which hath been sent to thee from thy Lord. If thou didst not, thou wouldst not have fulfilled and proclaimed His mission. And Allah will defend thee from men (who mean mischief). For Allah guide not those who reject Faith)" is revealed at Ghadir day and is about declaring political and spiritual leadership of Ali S.A. after prophet.
Both Sunni and Shia Muslims accept happening of Ghadir event But different interpret. Some Sunni writers tried to reject the event of Ghadir as declare of leadership of Ali S.A. and said at Ghadir prophet only wanted to say Ali S.A. is my friend and no one should bother him.
Ali S.A. had 3 different missions to Yemen by prophet during 10 years and in 2 of them some companions of prophet had some conflicts with Ali S.A. and prophet said some sayings about Ali S.A. to solve conflicts and some sunni writers have mixed stories of missions of Ali S.A. to Yemen with story of Ghadir to prove Ghadir event is not about Leadership of Ali and is not important.
Shia scholars believe some Sunni writers who were related to Kings have changed and deviated historical evidences about political leadership of Ali S.A. in old historical books and republished them to destroy evidences of leadership of Ali from old Sunni books.
The famous Shia book Al-Ghadir (الغدير) by Allameh Amini is a collection of evidences and proofs for Ghadir Events written all from sunni historical books by referring to 100,000 Sunni books and full reading of 10,000 sunni books. Allameh Amini is a famous Shia scholar and spent 40 years of his life in traveling to access original old Sunni books in libraries in different countries to write this 20 volume book only from Sunni books and not using any Shia book. Some Sunni scholars tried to reply this book but then said if we want to reply this book we should first destroy all sunni books.
Shia doctrine have root in Battle Karbala.
When tragedy of Karbala happened most of Iranians understood there is two different interpret of Islam that both can not be true. so most of Iranians became shia and followers of "Ahl al-Bayt" and forgive their lives for them like what they did in Iranian Revolution and Iran-Iraq War.
Shia Muslims have at least 120,000 Hadith (saying) from The Fourteen Infallibles that is the base of Shia Islam along with Quran.
Shia believes according to " Hadith of the two weighty things" The Fourteen Infallible are the only valid interpreters of Quran and sayings of them are from God because they are Representative of God in earth and they have inherited divine knowledge of prophet.
Shia believes 12th of them (Imam Mahdi S.A.) is alive and because people have killed all 11 Imams before him, he is in occultation like Jesus S.A. and will rise with Jesus S.A. when people become ready and want to accept his leadership. All 11 Imams have been killed and during their life they all have been in prison or under hard control of government to not have any political activity.
They never had enough serious followers to can get political power. Among them only the sixth Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq was relatively free (for transition of power between Umayyads and Abbasids) to have only scientific activities and so only he is known in west because he established university and had students from all over the world. Westerns know him as a polymath: an astronomer, alchemist, Imam, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, writer, philosopher, physician, physicist and scientist. He was also the teacher of the famous chemist, Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber), and of Abū Ḥanīfa, the founder of the Hanafi school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. He never wanted be a famous man and only shared his knowledge with seekers of knowledge. Some researchers consider his teachings the root cause of renaissance.
Sunni Muslims also accept Mahdi and his worldwide leadership as Caliph of God in earth at end of world. There is a famous Hadith from prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that Mahdi at occultation is like sun behind cloud, he is hidden from people but people receive his benefits.

Shia Muslims say some faithful believers have connection with Mahdi and use his knowledge and at least 1000 persons have had connection and talk with Mahdi during his occultation but Any one having relation with Mahdi S.A. should keep it secret and does not declare it in public until death.

Answer 3
Prophet Muhammad did not leave a successor after his death, leaving his community to chose between the best of his companions. The first caliph was Abu Bakr, the Prophet's best friend. Then Omar, Othman and Ali followed. During the caliphates of Omar and Othman there were groups that stated that the successor of the Prophet should have been Ali, as he was from the Prophet's family and he married his daughter Fatima. After the death of Othman, the community had two leaders at the same time: Ali and Muawiyah, the latter claiming Ali was not fit to rule the entire Empire. After these moments, two different sects emerged: the sunnis, who consider that Abu Bakr was the rightfull successor, and the shiites, who consider that Ali should have been and that only from the Prophet's family should be chosen a leader. The religious beliefs of the two sects have common aspect, but also differences. Nowadays there are approximately 70% sunnis and 30% shiites, but the statistics are very vague. The largest number of shiites live in Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

Answer 4
They disagree on minor side issues that not affecting basic Islam beliefs. They ; for example; disagreed on the way the successor of the prophet (after his death) should be chosen. Muslims elected Abou Bakr to be the first Caliph after prophet Muhammad (PBUH) death. However, some Muslims believed that the successor should be from the family of the prophet and hence should Ali Ibn Abou Taleb (the prophet cousin and husband of his daughter). However, after the election of AbouBakr, they joined the majority and even Ali Ibn Abou Taleb (God be pleased with him) supported the elected Caliph. The same scenario was repeated after election of Omar Ibn Alkhattab as the second Caliph and Othman Ibn Affan as the third Caliph. Ali Ibn Abou Taleb was then elected as the fourth Caliph.
Sunnis and Shiites are just two Islamic schools that differ in minor issues.The outsiders are trying to feed up assumed differences and conflicts between Muslim groups to gain control on Muslim countries and on their resources. The two main groups are Sunnis and Shiites. Both groups agree upon basic Islam pillars, believe in same and only version of Quran, believe and follow the sunnah of same prophet (PBUH), pray to same direction (facing Kaba in Makkah or Mecca in Saudi Arabia, go to same places on pilgrimage (or Hajj), and adhere to same Islam morals and ritual worships. They only differ on some side issues that are not critical.

Some other groups as Taliban and Al-Qaeda are in disagreement with both Sunnis and Shiites true Muslims.

Shia Islam is the A branch of Muslims that believe in Imamat as one of five pillars of Islam. Imamat means that based on Quran only God has the right to select the leader and no human even prophet SAWW has such a right. Imam (political leader) has divine knowledge of prophet SAWW from God and is the only human that can lead all humans to all be in welfare and can meet God. according to shia prophet declared 12 Imams for leadership of humans after his death but for some political reasons they never could lead humans and all of them were killed or poisoned for political reasons. according to shia 12th Imam is currently alive and by will of God has a long life and guides and protects real believers all over the world but he is in occultation untill people of world really want him as their leader and do not kill him like his 11 fathers who were Imams of their own times after prophet. according to shia granted from God, Imam has the power of controlling all the universe (miracle) and can perform any miracle and has knowledge of everything ( but still there are things that only God knows). but he use this power only when is needed to protect real believers and surviev of real Islam for truth seekers.

Answer 5
Human has freedom and beleiving in Shia Islam or Sunni Islam is a personal choice and according to Quran no compulsion should be in religion. every human is free claim one is better but it needs reasoning and evidence based on Quran and Hadith and authentic history. when prophet Muhammad SAWW died and Ali a.s was at funeral of prophet SAWW quickly a leader was elected while prophet SAWW was not still buried. and it was start of division between supporters of Ali a.s. and supporter of elected ruler.
They just got divided on the way the successor of the prophet (after his death) should be. some of top Arab tribe bosses at Saqifeh elected Abou Bakr to be the first Caliph after prophet Muhammad (PBUH) death and other Muslims were forced and even killed (for example سعد ابن عباده Saad Ib Ebadeh) to accept this ruler. Some like Ali a.s., Salman, Abuzar, Miqdad, Bilal,... disagreed this election. they believed that the successor should be Ali a.s. because God selected him as leader and not because he is relative of prophet SAWW. However, after the election of AbouBakr, they did not fight for power and Ali a.s helped the elected Caliph for survive of real Islam and to big enemies like Roman and Persian empires can not destroy Islam using civil war of Muslims. and always declared his disagreement with this election bu did not made civil war for power. The same scenario was repeated after election of Umar as the second Caliph by will of Abubakr and Othman as the third Caliph by election in a 6 persons meeting. when Muslims killed Uthman for his corruptions Ali a.s. was then elected as the fourth Caliph by majority of Muslims while he was not interested in power.
However, Sunnis and Shiites are two Islamic schools that differ in major (pillars of Islam) and minor issues. The world Imperialists know Islam is truth and if people know this they will lost power. so they try to make wars between Muslim groups to gain control on Muslim countries and on their resources. for example they bomb a shia mosque and tell in media that sunni did it and so on. The two main groups are Sunnis and Shiites. Both groups agree upon basic Islam pillars(unless Imamat (Islamic rules for political leadership)) and believe in same and only version of Quran and follow the sunnah of same prophet (PBUH), pray to same direction (facing Kaba in Makkah or Mecca in Saudi Arabia, go to same places on pilgrimage (or Hajj), and adhere to same Islam morals and ritual worships. Thier main differ is in Imamat.shia beleives based on Quran and Islam the only one who has the right to elect the leader is God and Muslims do not have such a right in Islam.

they are two major sects in Islam religion. Sunni counted as majority and Shiiah as minority.
the friends and followers of Ali believed that after the death of prophet, the caliphate and religious authority belonged to ALI. this belief came from consideration of Ali's position and station in relation to the prophet , his relation to the chosen among the companions , as well as his relation to muslim as general.

it was only the events that occurred during the few days of the prophet final illness that indicated that there was opposition to their view, contrary expectation, at the very moment when the prophet died and his body lay still unburied while his household and a few companion occupied with for his burial and funeral services , the friend and followers of Ali received news of the activity of another group who had gone to the mosque where community where gathered faced with this sudden loss of its leader.

this group ,Which was later ti form the majority , set forth in great haste to select a caliph for the muslim with the aims of the ensuring the welfare of the community and solving its immediate problems. they did this without consulting the household of the prophet , his relatives or many of his friends who were busy with funeral and without providing them with the least information. thus Ali and his companions were presented with a fait accompli .

Ali and his friends such as Abbas , Zubayr , Salman . Abu Dharr , Meghdad and Ammar, after finishing with the burial of the body of the prophet became aware of the proceedings by which the caliph had been selected . they proteted against the act of choosing the caliph by consultation or election , and also against those who were responsible for carrying it out.

they even presented their own proofs and arguments but the answer they received was that the welfare of the Muslims was at sake and the solution lay in what had been done.it was this protest and criticism which separated from the majority the minority that were following Ali and made his followers known to society as the partisans or shiah of Ali . the caliphate of the time was anxious to guard against this appellation being given to the Shiite minority and thus to have Muslim society divided into sections comprised of a majority and a minority .

THE supporters of the caliph considered the caliphate to be a matter of the consensus of the community , and called those who objected the opponents of allegiance . they claimed that the shiiah stood, therefore opposed to muslim society .sometimes the shiiah were given other pejorative and degrading names.

shiism was condemn from the first moment because of the political situation of the time and thus it could not accomplish anything through mere political protest.

Ali in order to safeguard the well-being of Islam and the Muslims and also because of lack of sufficient political and military power did not endeavor to begin an uprising against the existing political order which would have been of a bloody nature . yet those who protested against the established caliphate refused to surrender to the majority in certain questions of faith and continued to hold that the succession to the prophet and the religious authority belonged by right to Ali. they believed all spiritual and religious matters should be refered to him and invited people to becime his followersIslam is Sunni and it did not split.It passed down from the time of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of god be upon him).Shias are a sect which changed alot of the teachings of the Prophet.Most of the Muslims regard them as non Muslim
shia and sunni have mainly conflict on Imamat (leadership).

shia say Imamat is one of 5 pillars of Islam and only God can select leader for people. but sunni say Imamat is not part of Islam and leader can be selected by people by any method like shura (for example for Abubakr) or by will of previous leader for example for Omar) or by people (for example for Ali).

the conflict of shia and sunni has been always amplified by world Imperialism to prevent Islam from spreading in world.

Shia believes in Allah, prophet and all fundamentals of Islam.

Shia pray 5 times a day but usually do the 2, 3 and 4, 5 pray together and so may seem they do only 3 pray a day. there is some differences in details of pray like genuflect (for shia should be on a stone or part of earth and for sunni on carpet or floor ).

shia believe after death of prophet God selected the successive for prophet who is the political leader of Muslim community and people can not and does not the right to selected it.

shia refers to many verse of Quran like: "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority" (Quran 2:30) or "O David! We did indeed make thee a vicegerent on earth" (Quran 38:26) also other verses.

Shia believes such verses means only God can select an Islamic political leader (Caliph) and there is no mention in Quran people have the right to select leader. and shura is not allowed to be used for selecting leader and prophet himself always selected leaders of wars and other leaders by command of God.

In Shia Islam Caliphs after prophet are 12 infallible Imams who have inherited divine knowledge of prophet.

Shia Muslims do not consider selection of Abubakr as Caliph by people valid because God did not select him. They believe God ordered prophet to declare people that Ali is selected as successor of prophet and prophet did this mission many times during his prophet-hood and mainly in Ghadir event after last Hajj of his life at a 3-4 hour speech in front of 120,000 Muslims at Ghadir in hot desert after 2 days stop of long caravan for gathering and 3 days after speech for congratulations and homage of Muslims to Ali.

Islam at that time had high power in world and Some companions had high interest in leadership position after prophet. Muslims knew that it is the final Hajj of prophet (predicted by prophet) and were going along with prophet to hear what prophet says at end of his life.

Shia believes Ghadir event is the most important event of Islam and is mentioned in Koran in many verses like "Today" (اليوم) in verse 5:3 of Quran is the day of Ghadir. Or Verse 5:67: "(O Messenger! proclaim the (message) which hath been sent to thee from thy Lord. If thou didst not, thou wouldst not have fulfilled and proclaimed His mission. And Allah will defend thee from men (who mean mischief). For Allah guide not those who reject Faith)" is revealed at Ghadir day and is about declaring political and spiritual leadership of Ali S.A. after prophet.

Both Sunni and Shia Muslims accept happening of Ghadir event But different interpret. Some Sunni writers tried to reject the event of Ghadir as declare of leadership of Ali S.A. and said at Ghadir prophet only wanted to say Ali S.A. is my friend and no one should bother him.

Ali S.A. had 3 different missions to Yemen by prophet during 10 years and in 2 of them some companions of prophet had some conflicts with Ali S.A. and prophet said some sayings about Ali S.A. to solve conflicts and some sunni writers have mixed stories of missions of Ali S.A. to Yemen with story of Ghadir to prove Ghadir event is not about Leadership of Ali and is not important.

Shia scholars believe some Sunni writers who were related to Kings have changed and deviated historical evidences about political leadership of Ali S.A. in old historical books and republished them to destroy evidences of leadership of Ali from old Sunni books.

The famous Shia book Al-Ghadir (الغدير) by Allameh Amini is a collection of evidences and proofs for Ghadir Events written all from sunni historical books by referring to 100,000 Sunni books and full reading of 10,000 sunni books. Allameh Amini is a famous Shia scholar and spent 40 years of his life in traveling to access original old Sunni books in libraries in different countries to write this 20 volume book only from Sunni books and not using any Shia book. Some Sunni scholars tried to reply this book but then said if we want to reply this book we should first destroy all sunni books.

Shia doctrine have root in Battle Karbala.

When tragedy of Karbala happened most of Iranians understood there is two different interpret of Islam that both can not be true. so most of Iranians became shia and followers of "Ahl al-Bayt" and forgive their lives for them like what they did in Iranian Revolution and Iran-Iraq War.

Shia Muslims have at least 120,000 Hadith (saying) from The Fourteen Infallibles that is the base of Shia Islam along with Quran.

Shia believes according to " Hadith of the two weighty things" The Fourteen Infallible are the only valid interpreters of Quran and sayings of them are from God because they are Representative of God in earth and they have inherited divine knowledge of prophet.

Shia believes 12th of them (Imam Mahdi S.A.) is alive and because people have killed all 11 Imams before him, he is in occultation like Jesus S.A. and will rise with Jesus S.A. when people become ready and want to accept his leadership. All 11 Imams have been killed and during their life they all have been in prison or under hard control of government to not have any political activity.

They never had enough serious followers to can get political power. Among them only the sixth Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq was relatively free (for transition of power between Umayyads and Abbasids) to have only scientific activities and so only he is known in west because he established university and had students from all over the world. Westerns know him as a polymath: an astronomer, alchemist, Imam, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, writer, philosopher, physician, physicist and scientist. He was also the teacher of the famous chemist, Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber), and of Abū Ḥanīfa, the founder of the Hanafi school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. He never wanted be a famous man and only shared his knowledge with seekers of knowledge. Some researchers consider his teachings the root cause of renaissance.

Sunni Muslims also accept Mahdi and his worldwide leadership as Caliph of God in earth at end of world. There is a famous Hadith from prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that Mahdi at occultation is like sun behind cloud, he is hidden from people but people receive his benefits.

Shia Muslims say some faithful believers have connection with Mahdi and use his knowledge and at least 1000 persons have had connection and talk with Mahdi during his occultation but Any one having relation with Mahdi S.A. should keep it secret and does not declare it in public until death.
Sunnis and Shias are two branches or denominations of Islam:

Below are the major differences between Shia and Sunni:

All the Muslims agree that Allah is One, Muhammad (P) is His last Prophet, the Quran is His last Book for mankind, and that one day Allah will resurrect all human beings, and they will be questioned about their beliefs and actions. There are, however, disagreements between the two schools in the following two areas:

1. The Caliphate (successorship/leadership) which the Shia believe is the right of the Imams of Ahlul-Bayt.

2. The Islamic rule when there is no clear Quranic statement, nor is there a Hadith upon which Muslim schools have agreed.

The second issue has root into the first one. The Shia bound themselves to refer to Ahlul-Bayt for deriving the Sunnah of Prophet (P). They do this in conformity with the order of Prophet reported in the authentic Sunni and Shi'i collections of traditions beside what the Quran attests to their perfect purity.

The disagreement about the caliphate should not be a source of division between the two schools. Muslims agree that the caliphate of Abu Bakr came through election by a limited number of people and was a surprise for all other companions. By limited number, I mean, the majority of the prominent

companions of prophet had no knowledge of this election. Ali, Ibn Abbas, Uthman, Talha, Zubair, Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqqas, Salman al-Farsi, Abu Dhar, Ammar Ibn Yasir, Miqdad, Abdurrahman Ibn Owf were among those who were not consulted nor even informed of. Even Umar confessed to the fact that the election of Abu Bakr was without consultation of Muslims. (See sahih al-Bukhari, Arabic-English, Tradition 8.817)

On the other hand, election implies choice and freedom, and that every Muslim has the right to elect the nominee. Whoever refuses to elect him does not oppose God or His Messenger because neither God nor His Messenger appointed the nominated person by people.

Election, by its nature, does not compel any Muslim to elect a specific nominee. Otherwise, the election would be coercion. This means that the election would lose its own nature and it would be a dictatorial operation. It is well known that the Prophet said: "There is no validity for any allegiance given by force."

Imam Ali refused to give his allegiance to Abu Bakr for six months. He gave his allegiance to Abu Bakr only after the martyrdom of his wife Fatimah al-Zahra, Daughter of the Holy Prophet, six month after the departure of Prophet. (see Sahih al-Bukhari, Arabic-English version, Tradition 5.546). Fatimah al-Zahra, the daughter of the holy prophet never gave her allegiance to Abu Bakr until she passed away. If refusal to give allegiance to an elected nominee was prohibited in Islam, Imam Ali would not have allowed himself to delay in giving his allegiance and Fatimah al-Zahra would not have refused to give allegiance. In the same tradition in Sahih al-Bukhari, Imam Ali (AS) said that he had some rights in Caliphate which was not honored, and he complained why Abu Bakr should have not consulted him in deciding upon the ruler. He later gave his allegiance when he found that the only way to save Islam is to leave the isolation which occured due to his refusal of giving the oath of allegiance.

What's more? The well known companions, Abdullah Ibn Umar and Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqqas, refused to give their allegiance to Imam Ali for the entire duration of his caliphate. (Ibn Al-Athir, his history Al-Kamil, v3, p98). But the Imam did not punish these companions.

If it was permissible for a Muslim, who was a contemporary of the caliph, to refuse to give his allegiance, it would be more permissible for a person who came in a later century to believe or not to believe in the qualifications of that elected caliph. In doing so, he would not be sinning, provided that the Caliph is not assigned by Allah.

The Shia say that Imam must be appointed by God; that appointment may be known through the declaration of the Prophet or the preceding Imam. The Sunni scholars say that Imam (or Caliph, as they prefer to say) can be either elected, or nominated by the preceding Caliph, or selected by a committee, or may attempt to gain the power through a military coup (as was in the case of Muawiyah).

The Shi'a scholars say that a divinely appointed Imam is sinless and Allah does not grant such position to the sinful. The Sunni scholars (including Mu'tazilites) say that Imam can be sinful as he is appointed by other than Allah. Even if he is tyrant and sunk in sins (like in the case of Muawiyah and Yazid), the majority of the scholars from the schools of Hanbali, Shafi'i, and Maliki discourage people to rise against that Caliph. They think that they should be preserved although they disagree with the evil actions.

The Shia say that Imam must possess above all such qualities as knowledge, bravery, justice, wisdom, piety, love of God etc. The Sunni scholars say it is not necessary. A person inferior in these qualities may be elected in preference to a person having all these qualities of superior degree.
today there is near 260 sect in Islam and they are all in two main title shia and sunny.

refer to question below:
Sunni or Shia what? Are you asking which group of Islam you would like to be? Just believe in this: Allah (SWT) and the message of Allah (SWT), the Holy Qur'an and its message, the Prophets and their messages, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the last messenger, proven hadith, proven sunnah, and if you like the Ahlul Bayt, read the history of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Bibi Fatima (as), and the 12 Imams, and if you just honor them, then read only about Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
The Sunnis are the true Muslims who follow the sunnah(way of the prophet) And the Shiites are a false sect claiming to be Muslims.They attribute high qualities to Ali (a companion of the prophet) such as God.They also speak bad of the other companions of the prophet.
shiites and sunnies are two important branches of islam.The original split between Sunnis and Shia occurred soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, in the year 632.

Most of the Prophet Muhammad's followers( sunis ) wanted the community of Muslims to determine who would succeed him.but shia thought that someone from his family should take up his mantle according the prophet hadith and gadir kom event . They favored Ali, who was married to Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah.

"Shia believed that leadership should stay within the family of the Prophet,". "And thus they were the partisans of Ali, his cousin and son-in-law. Sunnis believed that leadership should fall to the person who was deemed by the elite of the community to be best able to lead the community.

The Sunnis prevailed and chose a successor to be the first caliph.

Answer 2

they are two sects in Islam religion.the sunni counted as majority and the the shiite counted as minority.