The Twelvers are the largest branch of Shia Islam. The term “Twelver” refers to the belief in twelve imams, the last being Muhammad al-Mahdi who lives in occultation and will reappear as the promised Mahdi. The Twelvers held that the known line of imams through Musa Al Kazim, the seventh imam, came to an end with the eleventh, Hasan Al Askaro who died in the year 874, leaving no heirs to succeed him. The Twelvers then developed a concept of a hidden twelfth imam, Muhammad, who would eventually appear as the Mahdi, the “guided one”, the messiah chosen by God to restore the true faith of Islam and to establish the reign of justice in the world. Until that day comes, and until the Mahdi descends, the

Sunnis have always claimed Ali’s acceptance and support of those preceding him, yet the Shia stress the opposite. This political dispute over leadership eventually exploded into a civil war between Ali and Mu’awiyah b. Abi Safyan (d.680) and marked the birth of a religio-political movement called the Shia, distinct from the main body of believers fully established after the battle of Karbala in 680.

The Shia are the earliest example of a sectarian community in Islam.

Their first spark was seen as early as 632, when succession to the prophet Muhammad raised many questions about leadership of the Muslim nation

In matters related to law, these primary sources, when not made explicit, are then complemented with secondary sources based on human interpretation made by the jurists. Such human efforts to interpret the law are based on ijtihad. The Sharia law as “raw” material is divine in nature, fiqh on the other hand is the human endeavor, the science, that interprets and explains this divine law.

The Quran and the Sunna of the Prophet are the two primary sources of Islamic law, faith, and thought in general. They govern absolutely all aspects of a Muslim’s life both privately and publically including, but not limited to, physical acts of worship, state administration, social life issues such as marriage and divorce, matters of creed (aqida), and spirituality.

There were four major orthodox Sunni schools of jurisprudence the Hanafi, the Maliki, the Shafi'i and the Hanbali. The majority of Muslims regard these four schools as equally legitimate as their interpretations of the law differ only in matters where the primary sources have been silent.

On leaving al-Hasan’s circle, Wasil and his fellows came to be known as those who separated themselves which gave the name mu’tazila, that is, the “withdrawers”. The Mu’tazila came to be known for their excessive rationalism and the incorporation of Greek philosophical concepts into their discussion of Islamic dogma. These discussions and interpretations of God’s qualities and nature proved to be far too controversial for the orthodox religious clergy.

This gave rise to the science of Kalam (theology) which got the Mu’tazila into theological discussions with an opposing school called the Ash’arriya. The Ash’riyya school of theology is named after its founder Abu al- Hasan al- Ash’ari (d.936) who insisted that reason is subordinate to revelation and thus assumed a more orthodox approach against the Mu’tazila. The Ash’riyya s eventually won acceptance within Sunni Islam as the official creed defeating the Mu’tazila.

The Abbasid era, deu it's diversity and multiculturalism, witnessed the birth of a school of theology in the circle of the scholar al-Hasan al-Basri (d.728) in the city of Basra. During a discussion on the status of a grave sinner, and whether or not he would be regarded as a believer based on his Islam or a disbeliever based on his sin, one of alHasan’s students, Wasil Bi Ataintroduced a new concept of the “intermediate state” (al-manzila)

al-Hasan al-Basri

They act with violence towards Muslims even though that they shouldn't

They are considered extremists of sunni Islam

Wahabbisim was based off the teachings of Ibn Taymiyya

Muhammad b Saud made an alliance with the founder of Wahabbism

Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab (1703-92) Started this movement

1932 was the year it had political dominance over the Arabian peninsula

Strict obedience to the religious law and imitation of the Prophet were basic for the mystics.

Mystics who expressed in their poetry their disinterest in, and even contempt of, the traditional formal religions never forgot that Islam is the highest manifestation of divine wisdom.

The mystics drew their vocabulary largely from the Qurʾān, which for Muslims contains all divine wisdom and has to be interpreted with ever-increasing insight. In the Qurʾān, mystics found the threat of the Last Judgment, but they also found the statement that God “loves them and they love him,” which became the basis for love-mysticism.

The theories of the perfect man were elaborated by al-Jīlī (died c. 1424) in his compendium Al-insān al-kāmil (“The Perfect Man”) and became common throughout the Muslim world.

Sufism originated after the death of Mohammed in 632, but it did not develop into orders until the 12th Century. The orders were formed around spiritual founders, who gained saint status and shrines built in their names.

In the mid-9th century some mystics introduced sessions with music and poetry recitals (samāʿ) in Baghdad in order to reach the ecstatic experience—and since then debates about the permissibility of samāʿ, filling many books, have been written.

al-Muḥāsibī

Junayd of Baghdad

Rābiʿah al-ʿAdawīyah

Mahmud al Naqurshi, accused to be assasinated by brotherhood

The Shia was fully fully established after the battle of Karbala in 680, during which Ali's son al-Hasayn was killed. This day - 10 Muharram - is known as Ashura

Further dynaistic as well as theological disputes prepared the ground for s schism within the Shia, the result of which was the developement of various branches between the eyars 680 and 900.

The Zaydiyya, who are currently the second largest Shia group after the Twelvers, are named after Zayd b. Ali (the grandson of al-Husayn b. Ali) who they consider their fifth imam. They are thus sometimes referred to as the “Fivers”

The Isma'ilis, from whom the Fatimid Caliphate would emerge, are named after Ismail b. Ja’far (d.762) who they recognize as their seventh imam after Ja’far al-Sadiq (d.765), as opposed to the Twelvers below, who follow Ja’far’s younger son Musa al-Kazim (d.799). The Isma’ilis were political activists leading rebellions against the Abbasids, and were devoted missionaries converting new peoples to their faith.

g00089971 Nadia Gul Gakim Gulzar
b00087670 Speenghar Mohammad Naeem
b00079912 Hassan Abdallah
b00083683 Hamzah Al Hareth
b00080983 Nasser Al Shammari