Why did the religion of Islam split into two branches?

Answer 1

[Because the "two groups" are not specified in this question, it has been kept separate from the question: Why did Islam split into Sunnis and Shiites? which is a much better-written answer and for which a link is provided below.]

Answer 1

They divided into more then two groups. Like Christianity there are always differences of opinion about interpretation and disagreement about who wields power over the faithful. Over time rifts develop and you end up with different groups under the same religion all claiming to have it right and often committing acts of violence upon each other in order to get more power over those that are just not interested.

Answer 2

Because the Shiites and the Sunni had trouble picking a leader so they split into two groups.

Answer 3

It is not a real split. It is just two different schools that looking differently to some minor issues that not belonging to the main Islam principles. Refer to related question below.

Answer 4

Ali was a member of the Hashim Clan. Ali was Muhammad;s causin and his son-in-law. Mu'awaiya was upset because Uthman's death, which was caused by an angry group of Egyptians. Ali was elected caliph, but Mu'awaiya was pressuring him to charge the people who had killed Uthman. This caused a split between the Muslims. They became the Sunnis and the Shiites.

Answer 5

Sunnis- they feel that decout Muslims can be caliphs. They support the rolde of the first three caliphs, who were not blood-related to Muhammad.

Shiites- NEVER accepted caliphs who werent blood related decendents of Muhammad.

Answer 6

Muslims did not split into two groups. They split into many, many more than that.

According to Muhammad (peace be upon him) the Muslims would break up into many sects. He said "seventy-three", but in the classical Arabic language, the numbers seven, seventy, seven hundred, etc., simply means "a lot".

Then Muhammad said that ALL of those sects are headed for Hell - except ONE.

When he was asked, which one, he replied: The one that remains on what I and my Companions are on today. It is the Majority.

A solid 85% of all Muslims follow the Qur'an and the example of the Prophet. We are referred to as "Sunni" Muslims; but, in fact, we are the original, orthodox, pure Muslims.

In my understanding, ALL of the others have deviated from Islam.

Of course, a Shiite, a Sufi, a Zaydi, an Ahmadi, a Druze, an Alawi, woulddisagree with me. BUT . . . read the Qur'an, and the teachings of Muhammad, and you can see where they have gone astray. My opinion, of course.

Answer 7

The end of the Rightly Guided Caliphs

It was after the sorrowful death of the third Rightful Caliph Hazrat Usman RAU by the rebels that the Muslims split occured. The two groups are now known as Sunni (almost 85%) and Shias (10%).

The rebels killed the third Rightful Caliph and forced Hazrat Ali RAU to become the caliph. It was rumoured about that Hazrat Ali RAU didn't want to save Hazrat Usman RAU from the rebels. While the fact was that Hazrat Ali RAU had deputed two of his sons -Hazrat Hassan RAU and Hazrat Hussain RAU to watch the house of the Caligh and try to defend him. This misunderstanding resulted into bloodshed of thousands of Muslims fighting against one another. Those who favoured Ali were called Shiyan-i-Ali and those who opposed and demanded that the rebels and killers of the caliph should be brought to book were the other group. A third group-Khawarjis- also appeared out from this split.

Answer 8They divide into two schools or groups as the Shiites believed that Ali Ibn Abou Taleb should be the first Caliph after prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) death. However, when Abou Bakr was elected all Muslims; including those opposing Abou Bakr; were all one unity. Again, when Omar and Othman were elected, all Muslims were one unity. Then, Ali Ibn Abou Taleb was elected as the fourth Caliph. All Muslims; irrelevant to their schools; should remain as one unity irrelevant to their minor side differences. It is to be recognized that the differences between these two groups; Suniis and Shiites; are minor and side differences. The basic Islam beliefs are the same for Islamic groups or schools as well as they have the same holy book Qur'an, they have the same ritual worships of praying, fasting, pilgrimage (or Hajj), same direction when praying. It is to be emphasized that the persuasion of the west to deepen differences between Islamic different schools and agitate conflicts among them to help in implementing their policies of the creative disturbance will never succeed. The differences among Islamic schools are never the same as the Christian different denominations and sects. Refer to related question below,

Answer 2

Answer 1

It was not a real split. You may say two different schools. The two branches are the Sunnis and the Shiites. They both worship same God, believe in same prophet, recite the same Quran, believe in same God, prophets, angels, holy books, the 2nd eternal life, and God destiny. The two branches differ in some minor details. The claimed split is just historical. After prophet death, majority of Muslims elected Abou Bakr to rule the Islamic State while some minority (the called Shiites) found that It should be Ali Ibn Abou Taleb; the Cousin of the prophet and the husband of prophet daughter Fatma. However, the Shiites at that accepted the majority choice of selecting Abou Bakr, and the Omar Ibn AlKhattab, and then Othman Ibn Affan, and finally Ali Ibn Abou Taleb. Refer to question below.

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

Some soldiers under the army of Ali believed that Ali should have been the leader / khalifa after the Prophet Mohammads death (pbuh), but Othman (from the sahaba and the closest companion of the Prophet) was given the position. Despite Ali (the son in law of the Prophet) being very close to Othman and accepting his position as Khalifa, the group pushed the subject, threatening Othman that if he did not give up his position they would kill him. Othman did not give it up because when the Prophet was alive he told Othman that there will come a day when he will 'wear a cloak and some would try to take it away from him-if they try to take it do not give it no matter what'-this is interpreted as his position as Khalifa. So he refused, and Ali begged Othman's permission to kill the ones trying to kill Othman (only with the Khalifa's permission could he kill anyone), but Othman said 'No blood should be shed over me', so he was killed. What then happened was the cousin of Othman - Muawiyah, was intent on killing the murderers. He asked Ali to kill the group, but Ali said 'I will kill them but can only do this if you make me Khalifa', but Muawiyah said 'I will make you Khalifa after you kill them'. The problem was that Ali could not kill them witout being the khalifa, but he wanted them killed, but Muawiyah could not give the power to him due to anger and greif. The group that killed Othman understood this in the wrong way, believing Ali was on thier side, and this is how shiism began, the ones that killed Othman were the founders of shiism, one of thier main beliefs is that Ali was supposed to be the next Imam / khalifa after Mohammads death, depsite the countless evidences that Othman was the next appointed. The Shiia have gone as far as to have fabricated hadith and changed the last sermon of the prophet in an attempt to enforce this belief. The Sunni muslims are the muslims who follow the Quran and the teachings of the prophet.

Answer 4

Because they disagreed on who should be the next caliph (the leader). One group, Shia, said it had to be a descendant of Muhammed. The others, sunni, decided to choose a new leader without him having to be a descendant.

Answer 3

It is important to note that the split between the Sunnis and the Shiites was not the only split in Islam; Islam split into a number of different branches. To read about other splits, please see this Related Question: Why did the Islam branches separate?

However, most Muslims today belong to the Sunni or Shiite branches, so it should be discussed as to why these two branches separated.

Answer: Disagreements over Succession after Muhammad's Death.

The Muslim community was united while Muhammad was the leader of this community. Most Muslims hold, however, that he never specifically chose a successor to his leadership. There was a minority in the community that supported the candidacy of 'Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law, this political faction became known as the "Supporters of 'Ali" which in Arabic is Shiat 'Ali (where the modern term "Shiite" comes from). They derived their support from specific hadiths and events that they claimed showed that God had revealed to Muhammad that 'Ali would succeed him. The majority of Muslims held that these hadiths and events showed nothing more than that 'Ali was very pious, something they did not deny. Therefore they gave power to the man who was Muhammad's second-in-command and father-in-law Abu Bakr. This majority were called the People of the Customs [of the Prophet] which in Arabic is Ahl Sunna (from where the modern term "Sunni" comes from.)