Sunni Islam
Sunni Muslims are the
largest denomination of
Islam. They are referred to as
Ahl ul-Sunna (
Arabic: أهل السنة), the folks of the tradition. The word Sunni comes from the word
sunna (Arabic : سنة ), which means the tradition of the
Prophet of Islam,
Muhammad. Sunnis are also referred to as Ahl ul-Sunna wa-l-Jama'ah (Arabic: أهل السنة والجماعة) (people of tradition and congregation) which implies that the Sunnis are united.
Sunni (
Arabic: سني ) means follower of the sunna of the Prophet, with some details.
Present calculations indicate that about 85-90% of the world's Muslims are Sunni and 10-15% are
Shi'a (see Shi'a Islam page).
Britannica 2006 says: "The total Shiáite movement comprises probably less than 10 percent of the Islamic world."
There are four major Sunni schools of law:
*
Hanafi (founded by
Abu Hanifa)
*
Maliki (founded by
Malik)
*
Shafi'i (founded by
Shafi'i)
*
Hanbali (founded by
Ahmad bin Hanbal)
There are other Sunni schools of law, although many are followed by only small numbers of people and are relatively unknown due to the popularity of the 4 major schools of law; also many have died out or were not sufficiently recorded by their followers to survive.
Islamic law is known as the
Shari'ah, though those who ascribe to different schools pray in the same
mosques and little to no enmity exists between them. The Shari'ah is based on the
Qur'an and the
Sunnah. Interpreting the Shari'ah to derive specific rulings (such as how to pray) is known as
Fiqh, which literally means understanding. A
madhab is a particular tradition of interpreting Fiqh. These schools focus on specific evidence (Shafi'i and Hanbali) or general principles (Hanafi and Maliki) derived from specific evidences. The schools were started by eminent Muslim scholars in the first four centuries of Islam. As these schools represent clearly spelled out methodologies for interpreting the Shari'ah, there has been little change in the methodology per se. However, as the social and economic environment changes, new Fiqh rulings are being made. For example, when tobacco appeared it was declared as 'disliked' because of its smell. When medical information showed that smoking was dangerous, that ruling was changed to 'forbidden'. Current Fiqh issues include things like downloading pirated software and cloning. The consensus is that the Shari'ah does not change but Fiqh rulings changes all the time.
A madhab is not to be confused with a religious sect. There may be scholars representing all four madhabs living in larger Muslim communities, and it is up to those who consult them to decide which school they prefer.
Many Sunnis advocate that a Muslim should choose a single
Madhab and follow it in all matters. However, rulings from another Madhab are considered acceptable as dispensations (rukhsa) in exceptional circumstances. Many Sunnis however do not follow any madhhab, indeed some
Salafis reject strict adherence to any particular school of thought, prefering to use the Qur'an and the Sunnah alone as the primary sources of Islamic Law.
Some Islamic scholars faced questions that they felt were not specifically answered in the
Qur'an, especially questions with regard to philosophical conundrums like the nature of God, the possibility of human
free will, or the eternal existence of the Qur'an. Various schools of
theology and
philosophy developed to answer these questions, each claiming to be true to the Qur'an and the Muslim tradition (
sunnah). There were the following dominant traditions:
*
Mu'tazilah was the school established in Iraq by Wasil bin 'Ata (699-749), a student of the distinguished scholar Hasan al-Basri (642-728). The Mu'tazilites rose to prominence in 750, under the new Abbasid dynasty of caliphs. One caliph,
al-Ma'mun, declared Mu'tazilah doctrine to be the state creed, and persecuted dissenters. This completely alienated the Sunni Muslim clergy, the
ulema, and Mu'tazilism fell into disrepute after the death of al-Ma'mun. There are no current Sunni adherents of Mu'tazilism, though their texts are still read and preserved as important to understanding the history of Sunni theology. The
Shi'a follow a Mu'tazili tradition.
** The Mu'tazilites were heavily influenced by
Greek philosophy,
[The Dangers of Modernism, by Umm Abdullah, Mission Islam, retrieved March 24, 2006.] and attempted to establish religion and ethics on the basis of reason alone. While they accepted the authority of the Qur'an, they argued that it should be accepted because it was reasonable. They understood many Qur'anic passages metaphorically, particularly those implying that God has a human body. They stressed human free will, and taught that the Qur'an was created in time, existing only from the moment it was revealed to Muhammad.
*
Ash'ariyyah, founded by
Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (873-935). The dominant theology, and the tradition embraced by
al-Ghazali, a Muslim jurist and mystic whom many Sunnis follow and revere.
** Ash'ariyyah theology stresses divine revelation over human reason. Ethics, they say, cannot be derived from human reason: God's commands, as revealed in the Qur'an and the practice of Muhammad and his companions (the
sunnah, as recorded in the traditions, or
hadith), are the source of all morality.
** Regarding the nature of God and the divine attributes, the Ash'ari rejected the Mu'tazilite position that all Qur'anic references to God as having physical attributes (that is, a body) were metaphorical.
[Ash'ariyyah Theology, Ashariyyah, by Bülent Þenay, BELIEVE Religious Information Source, retrieved April 01, 2006] Ash'aris insisted that these attributes were "true", since the Qur'an could not be in error, but that they were not to be understood as implying a crude anthropomorphism.
** Ash'aris tend to stress divine omnipotence over human free will. They believe that the Qur'an is eternal and uncreated.
*
Maturidiyyah, founded by
Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d.944). Maturidiyyah was a minority tradition until it was accepted by the Turkish tribes of
Central Asia (previously they had been Ashari and followers of the
Shafi school, it was only later on migration into
Anatolia that they became
Hanafi and followers of the Maturidi creed). One of the tribes, the
Seljuk Turks, migrated to
Turkey, where later the
Ottoman Empire was established.
[Maturidiyyah, Philtar, retrieved April 01, 2006] Their preferred school of law achieved a new prominence throughout their whole empire although it continued to be followed almost exclusively by followers of the
Hanafi school while followers of the
Shafi Maliki and
Hanbali schools followed the Ashari school. Thus, wherever can be found
Hanafi followers, there can be found the Maturidi creed.
** Maturidiyyah argue that knowledge of God's existence can be derived through reason.
*
Athariyyah (meaning Textualist) or
Hanbali, no specific founder.
** This school differs with the Ash'ariyyah in understanding the names and attributes of God, but rather affirms all of God's names and attributes as they are found in the Qur'an and Sunnah (prophetic traditions), with the disclaimer that the "how" of the attribute is not known. They say that God is as He described Himself "in a way befitting of His majesty." Thus, regarding verses where God is described as having a "yad" (hand) or "wajh" (face), the textualists say that God is exactly as He described himself in a way befitting of His majesty, without inquiring as to the "how" of these attributes.
** The Athariyyah still believe that God does not resemble His creation in any way, as this is also found in the texts. Thus, in the Athari creed, it is still prohibited to imagine an image of God in any way. The Athariyyah say that the "yad" (hand) of God is "unlike any other yad" (since God does not resemble His creation in any way) and prohibit imagining what God would be like, even though this attribute of a "yad" is still affirmed.
The
Qur'an as we have it today was written down in approximately 650 A.D, and is accepted by all Muslim denominations. However, there were many matters of belief and daily life that were not directly prescribed in the Qur'an, but simply the practice of the community. Later generations sought out oral traditions regarding the early history of Islam, and the practice of Muhammad and his first followers, and wrote them down so that they might be preserved. These recorded oral traditions are called
hadith. Muslim scholars sifted through the hadith and evaluated the chain of narration of each tradition, scrutinizing the trustworthiness of the narrators and judging the strength of each hadith accordingly. Most Sunni accept the hadith collections of
Bukhari and
Muslim as the most authentic (
sahih, or correct), and grant a lesser status to the collections of other recorders. There are however, six collections of
hadith that are held in particular reverence by Sunni Muslims:
*
Sahih al-Bukhari*
Sahih Muslim*
Sunan an-Nasa'ii*
Sunan Abu Dawud*
Sunan at-Tirmidhi*
Sunan ibn Majah''
There are also other collections of hadith which, although less well-known, still contain many authentic hadith and are frequently used by specialists such as:
*
Muwatta of
Imam Malik*Musnad of
Ahmad ibn Hanbal*Sahih Ibn Khuzaima
*Sahih Ibn Hibban
*
Mustadrak of Al Haakim
*
Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq*
Barelvi*
Deobandi*
Muslim Brotherhood*
Salafism and
Wahabism*
Sufism*
Islam*
Historical Shi'a-Sunni relations*
WahabiArticles and instruction:
*
Islam a True Religion *
Al-Azhar Islamic University* Sunni Students' Federation (SSF) [
1]
* The way to the right path [
2]
*
Down load and Watch very Interesting Islamic Sunni Videos*
Masud Ahmed Khan - One of the Web's Leading and Original Resources for Traditional Islam since 1996*
Islam From Various Aspects in Light of Quran & Sunnah*
Indian Sunni students*
SunniPath: An online Islamic Academy*
Living Islam- Islamic tradition*
Raza AcademyBooks and Resources:
*
FonsVitae- Books on Sufism, Sufi life, Islam and spirituality
