Who caused the split between Sunni and Shiites?

Answer 1

Ali is the central figure at the origin of the Shia / Sunni split which occurred in the decades immediately following the death of the Prophet in 632. Sunnis regard Ali as the fourth and last of the "rightly guided caliphs" (successors to Mohammed (pbuh) as leader of the Muslims) following on from Abu Bakr 632-634, Umar 634-644 and Uthman 644-656. Shias feel that Ali should have been the first caliph and that the caliphate should pass down only to direct descendants of Mohammed (pbuh) via Ali and Fatima, They often refer to themselves as ahl al bayt or "people of the house" [of the prophet].

When Uthman was murdered while at prayer, Ali finally succeeded to the caliphate. Ali was, however, opposed by Aisha, wife of the Prophet (pbuh) and daughter of Abu Bakr, who accused him of being lax in bringing Uthman's killers to justice. After Ali's army defeated Aisha's forces at the Battle of the Camel in 656, she apologized to Ali and was allowed to return to her home in Madinah where she withdrew from public life.

However, Ali was not able to overcome the forces of Mu'awiya Ummayad, Uthman's cousin and governor of Damascus, who also refused to recognize him until Uthman's killers had been apprehended. At the Battle of Suffin Mu'awiya's soldiers stuck verses of the Quran onto the ends of their spears with the result that Ali's pious supporters refused to fight them. Ali was forced to seek a compromise with Mu'awiya, but this so shocked some of his die-hard supporters who regarded it as a betrayal that he was struck down by one of his own men in 661.

Mu'awiya declared himself caliph. Ali's elder son Hassan accepted a pension in return for not pursuing his claim to the caliphate. He died within a year, allegedly poisoned. Ali's younger son Hussein agreed to put his claim to the caliphate on hold until Mu'awiya's death. However, when Mu'awiya finally died in 680, his son Yazid usurped the caliphate. Hussein led an army against Yazid but, hopelessly outnumbered, he and his men were slaughtered at the Battle of Karbala (in modern day Iraq). Hussein's infant son, Ali, survived so the line continued. Yazid formed the hereditary Ummayad dynasty. The division between the Shia and what came to be known as the Sunni was set.

An opportunity for Muslim unity arose in the 750's CE. In 750 except for a few who managed to flee to Spain, almost the entire Ummayad aristocracy was wiped out following the Battle of Zab in Egypt in a revolt led by Abu Al Abbass al-Saffah and aided by considerable Shia support. It was envisaged that the Shia spiritual leader Jafar As-Siddiq, great-grandson of Hussein be installed as Caliph. But when Abbass died in 754, this arrangement had not yet been finalised and Abbas' son Al Mansur murdered Jafar, seized the caliphate for himself and founded the Baghdad-based Abbassid dynasty which prevailed until the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258.

Answer 2

shia and sunni have mostly same beliefs and both believe in fundamental beliefs of Islam. today there is up to 260 sect in Islam that are in two category of shia and sunni.

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 3 pray a day. there is some differences in details of pray like how to hold hands in pray and on what do the 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 selects the successive for prophet who is the leader of Muslim community and people can not select it.

shia believe the Caliph (Representative of God in earth after prophet) is appointed only by God and can not be selected by people because God said in Koran: "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority." (Quran 2:30)

this means only God can select an Islamic leader.

in shia they are only fourteen infallible (12 Imams and prophet and his daughter Fatimah Zahra (sa))

and all of them are the same and have no mistake and have the knowledge of everything (this knowledge is from God and by permission of God and is not absolute knowledge. absolute knowledge is only for God and they still do not know many things. but they know anything human may need to know.) and they never die and they hear all sayings and even thinks of all humans after their death by permission of God and they are intermediates between God and human.

and shia Muslims always support them and forgive their lives for them.

shia Muslims do not consider selection of Abubakr as Caliph valid because God did not select him. they believe God ordered prophet to declare Ali is selected as successor of prophet (Quran 5:3) and prophet did this mission in Ghadir event that was in last Hajj of prophet in his life and prophet did a speech for 120,000 Muslims participating that Hajj with prophet. the famous shia book Al-Ghadir is a collection of evidences and proofs for Ghadir Hadith from 100,000 sunni references and read all of 10,000 sunny books. one sunni scholar said if we want to reply Al-Ghadir book (by Allameh Amini) we should first destroy all our books.

Shia doctorin has root in Karbala. when tragedy of Karbala happened most of iranians became shia.