What two groups did Muslims divide into?

Answer 1

Answer 1

1. Ahl-i-Sunnat wal Jama'at

2. Shiya

Shia adherents and sunnies have the same basic belief except a few minor differences. The Shias claim that instead of first three Rightful Caliphs, the fourth Rightful Caliph Hazrat Ali (RAU) should have been chosen the First Caliph. The other differences are the creation of later people. The Sunni and Shia scholars have joined hands and sat together to solve the problems amicably. They have decided to tolerate each other and to avoid highlighting such matters as create hatred and enmity. May Allah Karim bless us with tolerance of all riligions and all humans! A'meen

Answer 2

The basic two groups are Sunni and Shiites Muslims. However, it is to be recognized that the differences between these two groups 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.
sunnite Muslims, and shiite Muslims

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Sunnis and Shiites. They are just to 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 differed on some side issues that are not critical.

Answer 2

Simple Answer:

The dominant two groups (>99% of the Muslim population) are the Sunnis and the Shiites. However, this is very simplified. Please see the Expert Answer which discusses this in more detail.

Answer 2

Shia and Sunni

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" (ا����) 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 (ا�غد�ر) 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, J�bir ibn Hayy�n (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.

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 3

• 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 to claim one is better but it needs reasoning and evidence based on Quran and Hadith and authentic history.
• When prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) 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 ابÙ� عبادÙ� 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 minor side issues. The world Imperialists know Islam is truth and if people know this they will lose 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 Shiites mosque and tell in media that Sunnis did it and so on. The two main groups are Sunnis and Shiites. Both groups agree upon basic Islam 5 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 difference is in Imamat. Shiites believe; 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.
• Refer to related question below.

Answer 3

Simple Answer:
The dominant two groups (>99% of the Muslim population) are the Sunnis (~85%) and the Shiites (~15%). There are also minority groups like the Kharijites (now extinct), Ibadi, Mu'tazilite, Ahmadi, etc. and there are many subdivisions within Sunni and Shiite Islam.

More Detail:
There are three main sects within Islam: Ahl Sunna (commonly called Sunni), Shi'a (commonly called Shiite) and Ibadi. The main distinction between them is who has the right to power over the community. However, as simple as that may seem at first blush, it lead to numerous smaller but significant differences.

Sunni Islam is the dominant sect of Islam worldwide and established the Rule of Intikhabat and Ashura (Elections) for Mohammed's successors. Sunni Islam has many different forms. The most common movement of Islam is Hanafi, which is dominant in South Asia, the Levant, north Mesopotamia, Turkey, and southeast Europe. Sunni also has a mystical movement called Sufism of which many submovements exist like the Turkish Dervishes. In recent times, Saudi Arabia has stimulated a submovement within the Hanbali movement called Wahhabism which is a fundamentalist strain of Islam.

Shiite Islam is the dominant sect of Islam in Iran and the surrounding area. It was originally the political faction supporting Ali as Mohammed's successor instead of the elections. This has led to the ascription of martyrdom to Ali's sons: Hassan and Hussein who wished to promulgate a Caliphate from what the Shiites see as the rightful line. The most prominent movement in Shiite Islam is the Ja'afari Movement. Shiite submovements have historically been quite varied leading to groups as different as the Ismailis and the Alawites, both groups existing outside of the majority Shiite area today. Former Shiite submovements have now exited the religion of Islam such as the Druze and the Baha'i. Shiite movements are unique in that the process of Ijtihad (Open Religious Jurisprudence) continues solely in Shiite Islam.

Ibadi Islam is the dominant sect of Islam in Oman. It is an offshoot of the third party in the Islamic Civil War (Fitna al-Kubra), the Kharijites (the other two parties were the Sunnis and the Shiites). Ibadi Islam is so small that it has no internal movements. Ibadi holds to a moderated version of the Kharijite purification requirements by limiting contact with unbelievers and increasing contact with proper believers. They also hold with the tradition Kharijite view of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, namely that Abu Bakr and Omar were proper rulers, Othman was not and Ali lost favor when he agreed to the Arbitration with Mu'awiya.

In addition to the three main sects of Islam, there are also minor sects like the Ahmadiyya which are considered blasphemous (takfir) by the remaining Muslim sects. Ahmadiyya was founded by a prophet (Mirza Ghulam) and, according to most Muslims, this violates the Islamic concept that Mohammed was the capstone of the Prophets: the last and final prophet. The difference between Ahmadiyya versus Baha'i and Druze is that the Ahmadiyya still see themselves as Muslims whereas Druze and Baha'i do not.

Answer 4

Simple Answer
The two dominant forms of Islam are SUNNIS and SHIITES, but there are many much smaller groups (Ibadis, Mu'tazilites, Ahmadis, etc.) and numerous subdivisions within both Sunni and Shiite Islam.

More Information
There are three main sects within Islam: Ahl Sunna (commonly called Sunni), Shi'a (commonly called Shiite) and Ibadi. The main distinction between them is who has the right to power over the community. However, as simple as that may seem at first blush, it lead to numerous smaller but significant differences.

Sunni Islam is the dominant sect of Islam worldwide and established the Rule of Intikhabat and Ashura (Elections) for Mohammed's successors. Sunni Islam has many different forms. The most common movement of Islam is Hanafi, which is dominant in South Asia, the Levant, north Mesopotamia, Turkey, and southeast Europe. Sunni also has a mystical movement called Sufism of which many submovements exist like the Turkish Dervishes. In recent times, Saudi Arabia has stimulated a submovement within the Hanbali movement called Wahhabism which is a fundamentalist strain of Islam.

Shiite Islam is the dominant sect of Islam in Iran and the surrounding area. It was originally the political faction supporting Ali as Mohammed's successor instead of the elections. This has led to the ascription of martyrdom to Ali's sons: Hassan and Hussein who wished to promulgate a Caliphate from what the Shiites see as the rightful line. The most prominent movement in Shiite Islam is the Ja'afari Movement. Shiite submovements have historically been quite varied leading to groups as different as the Ismailis and the Alawites, both groups existing outside of the majority Shiite area today. Former Shiite submovements have now exited the religion of Islam such as the Druze and the Baha'i. Shiite movements are unique in that the process of Ijtihad (Open Religious Jurisprudence) continues solely in Shiite Islam.

Ibadi Islam is the dominant sect of Islam in Oman. It is an offshoot of the third party in the Islamic Civil War (Fitna al-Kubra), the Kharijites (the other two parties were the Sunnis and the Shiites). Ibadi Islam is so small that it has no internal movements. Ibadi holds to a moderated version of the Kharijite purification requirements by limiting contact with unbelievers and increasing contact with proper believers. They also hold with the tradition Kharijite view of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, namely that Abu Bakr and Omar were proper rulers, Othman was not and Ali lost favor when he agreed to the Arbitration with Mu'awiya.

In addition to the three main sects of Islam, there are also minor sects like the Ahmadiyya which are considered blasphemous (takfir) by the remaining Muslim sects. Ahmadiyya was founded by a prophet (Mirza Ghulam) and, according to most Muslims, this violates the Islamic concept that Mohammed was the capstone of the Prophets: the last and final prophet. The difference between Ahmadiyya versus Baha'i and Druze is that the Ahmadiyya still see themselves as Muslims whereas Druze and Baha'i do not.