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Sunni Islam |
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Beliefs |
Monotheism Prophethood / Messengership Holy Books · Angels Judgement Day · Predestination |
Five Pillars |
Declaration of Faith · Prayer Charity · Fasting · Pilgrimage |
Rightly Guided Caliphs |
Abu Bakr · Umar ibn al-Khattab Uthman ibn Affan · Ali ibn Abi Talib |
Schools of Law |
Hanafi · Maliki · Shafi'i · Hanbali · Zahiri |
Extinct Schools of Law |
Awza'i · Laythi · Thawri · Jariri |
Schools of Theology |
Maturidi · Ash'ari · Athari |
Movements |
Barelvi · Deobandi · Salafi |
Hadith Collections |
Al-Kutub Al-Sittah Sahih al-Bukhari · Sahih Muslim Al-Sunan al-Sughra · Sunan Abu Dawood Sunan al-Tirmidhi · Sunan ibn Majah |
Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam and are known as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘h or simply as Ahl as-Sunnah. The word Sunni comes from the word sunnah, which means the teachings and actions or examples of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Therefore, the term "Sunni" refers to those who follow or maintain the sunnah of the prophet Muhammad.
The Sunnis believe that Muhammad did not specifically appoint a successor to lead the Muslim ummah (community) before his death, and after an initial period of confusion, a group of his most prominent companions gathered and elected Abu Bakr Siddique, Muhammad's close friend and a father-in-law, as the first caliph of Islam. Sunni Muslims regard the first four caliphs (Abu Bakr, `Umar ibn al-Khattāb, Uthman Ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abu Talib) as "al-Khulafā’ur-Rāshidūn" or "The Rightly Guided Caliphs." Sunnis also believe that the position of caliph may be attained democratically, on gaining majority votes, but after the Rashidun, the position turned into a hereditary dynastic rule because of the divisions that started by the Shias and others. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, there has never been another caliph as widely recognized in the Muslim world.
Read more about this topic: Islamic Sects
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a fixed heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)