Shia (Shiite) Muslims | Middle East And North Africa

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SHIAS (SHIITES)

Shia (Shiite) Muslims in Iran

Shia are members of the second largest Muslim sect. In the early days of Islam, they believed in the hereditary succession of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, to lead the community, whereas their rivals, the Sunnis, now Islam’s largest sect, held that the caliph as leader of the community should be elected

Shia (also known as Shiites and Shi’ites) make up about 10 percent of the world's 1.8 billion to 2 billion Muslims (2023, Associated Press). They make up more than a third f the Muslim population in the Middle East. Most Shia reside in Iran and Iraq. They form the majority in Azerbaijan and Bahrain. A large number also live in Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and some of the Persian Gulf states, There are also sizable populations in Turkey, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan and small pockets in India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. There are virtually no Shia in North Africa and Southeast Asia.

Shias made up 15.4 percent of the global Muslim population of 1.57 billion in 2009 according to one estimate and made up 37.5 percent of the Muslim population of 253 million (2006) in the Middle East. Shia rule only in Iran. In other countries, even where Shia are a majority, they are ruled by Sunnis. That was the case in Iraq under Saddam Hussein but now Shia are politically strong there.

Shia numbers in the 2000s: 1) Iran (61.4 million); 2) Pakistan (30.8 million); 3) Iraq (16.5 million); 4) Turkey (6 million); 5) Afghanistan (5.1 million); 6) Azerbaijan (5.1 million); 7) Yemen (3.1 million); 8) Saudi Arabia (2.4 million); 9) Syria (1.3 million); 10) Oman (0.9 million); 11) Lebanon (0.8 million); 12) Kuwait (0.6 million); 13) Bahrain (0.5 million); 14) United Arab Emirates (0.4 million).

Shia (percentage of the population in the 2000s): 1) Iran (89 percent); 2) Oman (75 percent); 3) Bahrain (70 percent); 4) Iraq (65 percent); 5) Azerbaijan (61 percent); 6) Lebanon (55 percent); 7) Yemen (36 percent); 8) Kuwait (30 percent); 9) Pakistan (20 percent); 10) Afghanistan (18 percent); 11) Syria (17 percent); 12) United Arab Emirates (16 percent); 13) Turkey (15 percent); 14) Saudi Arabia (15 percent).

Websites on Shia Muslims (Shiites) Divisions in Islam archive.org ; Shi’a History and Identity shiism.wcfia.harvard.edu ; What is Shi'a Islam? iis.ac.uk ; History of Shi'ism: From the Advent of Islam up to the End of Minor Occultation al-islam.org ; Shafaqna: International Shia News Agency shafaqna.com ; Roshd.org, a Shia Website roshd.org/eng ; The Shiapedia, an online Shia encyclopedia web.archive.org ; Imam Al-Khoei Foundation (Twelver) al-khoei.org ; Official Website of Nizari Ismaili (Ismaili) the.ismaili ; Official Website of Alavi Bohra (Ismaili) alavibohra.org ; The Institute of Ismaili Studies (Ismaili) web.archive.org ; Four Sunni Schools of Thought masud.co.uk

Muslim Sects

There are a number Islam sects and groups. Sunnis make up the overwhelming majority of Muslims. Shia are the second largest group. They are divided by the Hanafi, Shafe’i, Maleki and Hanbali schools. Wahhabis are a conservative Sunni sect most active in Saudi Arabia. Sufis practice a mystical form of Sunni Islam. Ismaelis are a Shia sect led by Aga Khan. The views of some groups are radically different from those others. Members of some groups regard members of rival groups as heretics.

Early leadership controversies within the Muslim community led to divisions that still have an impact on the body of believers. When Muhammad died, leadership fell to his father-in-law, Abu Bakr, who became the first caliph (khalifa , or successor), a position that combined spiritual and secular power. A separate group advocated the leadership of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, who had married his daughter Fatima. Leadership could have fallen to Ali's son Husayn, but, in the power struggle that followed, in 680 Husayn and seventy-two followers were murdered at Karbala (now in modern Iraq). [Source: Library of Congress *]

The leadership dispute over who would be caliph after Ali formed the most crucial dividing point in Islamic history: the victorious party went on to found the Umayyad Dynasty (661-750), which had its headquarters at Damascus, leading the majority of Muslims in the Sunni path. The disaffected Shiat Ali (or Party of Ali) viewed only his line as legitimate and continued to follow descendants of Husayn as their leader.

Power Struggle That Resulted in the Sunni-Shia Split

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Shia arc
Following the death of the Prophet in 632, the Muslim community failed to reach consensus on who should succeed him as the caliph. A majority of Muhammad's close followers supported the idea of an elected caliph, but a minority believed that leadership, or the imamate, should remain within the Prophet's family, passing first to Muhammad's cousin, son-in-law, and principal deputy, Ali ibn Abu Talib, and subsequently to Ali's sons and their male descendants. The majority, who believed they were following the sunna of the Prophet, became known as Sunni Muslims. To them, the caliph was the symbolic religious head of the community; however, caliphs would also rule as the secular leaders of a major empire for six centuries. [Source: Library of Congress *]

The first four caliphs — Abu Bakr, Omar, Osman, and Ali — were chosen by a consensus of Muslim leaders. Subsequently, however, the caliphate was converted by its holders into a hereditary office, the first two dynasties being the Umayyad, which ruled from Damascus, and the second being the Abbasid, which ruled from Baghdad. After the Mongols captured Baghdad and executed the Abbasid caliph in 1258, a period of more than 250 years followed when no one was recognized as caliph by all Sunni Muslims. During the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Dynasty resurrected the title, and gradually even Muslims outside the Ottoman Empire came to accept the Ottoman sultan as the symbolic leader — caliph — of Sunni Islam.*

According to Encyclopedia.com: The chief division, between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, rose over the question of who would succeed Muhammad. When he died in 632, Muhammad left no instructions about who would follow him. Shiite Muslims believed that Muhammad's successor needed to be a direct descendant of the Prophet. Sunni Muslims did not share that belief. This central difference led to the split. The majority of Muslims are Sunni. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]

What followed the election of Abu Bakr — Muhammad's good friend, father-in-law, successor and first caliph — was a long period of conflict in Islam. When the second caliph, Umar, was murdered in 644, a power struggle developed among several possible successors. Out of this struggle Uthman (d. 656), an early convert to Islam, became the third caliph. Uthman, though, came from a powerful, aristocratic Meccan clan called the Umayyads and was resented by the Shiites. Their resentment grew when he moved the capital of the Islamic empire from Mecca to Damascus, Syria. When Uthman was assassinated by Shiites in 656, ʾAli finally became the fourth caliph.

The disputes between Sunnis and Shiites, however, were not put to rest. After a civil war between the two parties, ʾAli was assassinated in 661. This allowed the Umayyads, whom the Shiites believed were corrupt and unfaithful to the teachings of Muhammad, to regain control of the empire. Civil war broke out again in 680, when ʾAli's son, Hussain ibn Ali, led the Shiites against the Umayyads. The war ended when he and his family were killed in a historic battle at Karbala, south of Baghdad (in present-day Iraq).

Evolution of Shia After the Sunni-Shia Divisions

The division between Sunni and Shia dates back to purely political struggles in the seventh century, but over time between the two major communities many divisive differences in ritual and legal interpretations have evolved. The vast majority of Muslims are Sunni, and in contemporary India 90 percent of Muslims follow this path. Sunnis have recognized no legitimate caliph after the position was abolished in Turkey in 1924, placing the direction of the community clearly with the ulama. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Muhammad's letter to Muqawqi
The partisans of Ali — the Shiat Ali — evolved into a separate Islamic denomination that became known as the Shia. By the ninth century, however, the Shia Muslims split into numerous sects as a result of disagreements over which of several brothers was the legitimate leader, or imam , of the community. The major divisions occurred over the question of succession to the fourth, sixth, and twelfth imams. Consequently, the origins of almost all Shia sects can be traced to the followers of the fifth, seventh, or twelfth imam. By the fifteenth century, the sect known as the Twelve Imam Shia — a group that recognized Ali and eleven of his direct descendants as the legitimate successors to the Prophet — had emerged as the predominant Shia sect. [Source: Library of Congress *]

In addition to the orthodox Twelve Imam Shia, several sects that revered the twelve imams but otherwise subscribed to heterodox beliefs and practices emerged between the ninth and twelfth centuries. One of these heterodox sects, the Nusayri, originated in the mid-ninth century among the followers of the religious teacher Muhammad ibn Nusayr an Namiri. The Nusayri became established in what is now northern Syria and southern Turkey during the tenth century when a Shia dynasty based in Aleppo ruled the region. Because of the special devotion of the Nusayri to Ali, Sunni Muslims historically and pejoratively referred to them as Alevi.*

Shia Beliefs

Shia Muslims hold the fundamental beliefs of other Muslims. In addition to these tenets, however there are some differences. All Shia Muslims believe there are seven pillars of faith, which detail the acts necessary to demonstrate and reinforce faith. The first five of these pillars are shared with Sunni Muslims. They are shahada, or the confession of faith; namaz, or ritualized prayer; zakat, or almsgiving; sawm, fasting and contemplation during daylight hours during the lunar month of Ramadan; and hajj, or pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina once in a lifetime if financially feasible. The other two pillars, which are not shared with Sunnis, are jihad — or crusade to protect Islamic lands, beliefs, and institutions, and the requirement to do good works and to avoid all evil thoughts, words, and deeds. [Source: Library of Congress *]

One distinctive and frequently misunderstood Shia belief is taqiyah, religious dissimulation. Taqiyah, condemned by the Sunnis as cowardly and irreligious, is the hiding or disavowal of one's religion or its practices to escape the danger of death from those opposed to the faith. Persecution of Shia Imams during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates reinforced the need for taqiyah. A further belief of Shia Muslims concerns divine justice and the individual's responsibility for his acts, which are judged by a just God. This contrasts with the Sunni view that God's creation of man allows minimal possibility for the exercise of free will. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1988 *]

Islam by country: Sunni (Green); Shia (Shiite, Purple), Ibadi (blackish green)

Shia Imams

The distinctive dogma and institution of Shia Islam is the Imamate, which includes the idea that the successor of Muhammad be more than merely a political leader. The Imam must also be a spiritual leader, which means that he must have the ability to interpret the inner mysteries of the Quran and the shariat. In Sunni Islam an imam is the leader of congregational prayer. Among the Shia of Iran the term imam traditionally has been used only for Ali and his eleven descendants. [Source: Library of Congress *]

The Shia doctrine of the Imamate was not fully elaborated until the tenth century. The Imamate began with Ali, who is also accepted by Sunni Muslims as the fourth of the "rightly guided caliphs" to succeed the Prophet. Shia revere Ali as the First Imam, and his descendants, beginning with his sons Hasan and Husayn (also seen as Hosein), continue the line of the Imams. *

Shia believe that their imam are infallible leaders like a pope who disclosed the true meaning of the Qur’an and provided in guidance for daily life. Various groups of Shia recognize different numbers of “imams” . The largest sect acknowledges 12 and they are known as the Ithnasharo ("Twelver") sect. They believe the 12 imans are descendants of the Prophet and perfect teachers, who were inspired by God to provide authoritative guidance and guide the faithful from paradise. Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Shia Religious Obligations

In addition to the seven principal tenets of faith, there are also traditional religious practices that are intimately associated with Shia Islam. These include the observance of the month of martyrdom, Moharram, and pilgrimages to the shrines of the Twelve Imams and their various descendants. The Moharram observances commemorate the death of the Third Imam, Husayn, who was the son of Ali and Fatima and the grandson of Muhammad. He was killed near Karbala in modern Iraq in A.D. 680 during a battle with troops supporting the Umayyad caliph. Husayn's death is commemorated by Shia with passion plays and is an intensely religious time. [Source: Library of Congress, December 1987 *]

Pilgrimage to the shrines of Imams is a specific Shia custom. The most important shrines in Iran are those for the Eighth Imam in Mashhad and for his sister Fatima in Qom. There are also important secondary shrines for other relatives of the Eighth Iman in Rey, adjacent to south Tehran, and in Shiraz. In virtually all towns and in many villages there are numerous lesser shrines, known as imamzadehs, which commemorate descendants of the imams who are reputed to have led saintly lives. Shia pilgrims visit these sites because they believe that the imams and their relatives have power to intercede with God on behalf of petitioners. The shrines in Iraq at Karbala and An Najaf are also revered by Shia. *

Twelver Shia reverence for the Imams has encouraged distinctive rituals. The most important is Ashura, the commemoration of the death of Husayn. Other practices include pilgrimages to shrines of Ali and his relatives. According to strict Wahhabi Sunni interpretations of Islam, these practices resemble the pagan rituals that the Prophet attacked. Therefore, observance of Ashura and pilgrimages to shrines have constituted flash points for sectarian problems between the Saudi Wahhabis and the Shia minority in the Eastern Province. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Saudi Arabia: A Country Study, U.S. Library of Congress, 1992 ]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Islamic History Sourcebook: sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Arab News, Jeddah; “Islam, a Short History” by Karen Armstrong; “A History of the Arab Peoples” by Albert Hourani (Faber and Faber, 1991); “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); Metropolitan Museum of Art, Encyclopedia.com, National Geographic, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Library of Congress and various books and other publications.

Last updated April 2024