The Sunnis was the most dominant sect of Islam united in their belief in the legitimacy of the first three caliphs (successors to Muhammad) Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. The conflicts over leadership, belief, and practice enabled the Sunnis to develop what they believed to be correct religious positions, based on the Qur'an, hadith and the consensus of religious scholars, known as ijma. They believed that by following the Islamic

The less dominant sect of Islam was the Shi'ites. Shi’ties insisted on the importance of descent from Muhammad's family and feel that the role of the Prophet's first successor should have gone to Ali. Eventually, Ali did become the fourth caliph, but was assassinated by a member of another Muslim sect the Kharijites. In the course of its history, Shi'ites developed some distinctive doctrines and a number of sects. Probably out of its reverence for 'Ali, it came to regard the community leader, the imam, as an infallible being who alone knew the hidden and true meaning of the Qur'an revelations. Like the Sunnis, Shi’ites also recognized the Qur’an and the Hadith as the basic source of jurisprudence, but differ in some interpretations of the Qur'an and Hadith and even have a different canon of Hadith. Since the divine knowledge was mediated through the infallible teachings of an imam, the Shi'ites believed (in contrast to the Sunnis) that al

Some topics in this essay:
Umar Uthman, Orthodox Shi'ites, Qur'an Hadith, Eventually Ali, Islam Sects, Allah Muhammad, Afghanistan India, Shi'ites Shi’ties, , Shi'ites Sunnis, dominant sect, qur’an hadith, passion plays, qur'an hadith, dominant sect islam, sect islam, orthodox shi'ites,