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Bahrain Shia Islam
Shia Muslims hold the fundamental beliefs of other
Muslims
(see Sunni Islam
, this ch.). In addition to these tenets,
however, Shia believe in the imamate, which is the
distinctive
institution of Shia Islam. Whereas Sunni Muslims view the
caliph
as a temporal leader only and consider an imam to be a
prayer
leader, Shia Muslims hold a hereditary view of Muslim
leadership.
They believe the Prophet Muhammad designated Ali to be his
successor as Imam (when uppercase, Imam refers to the Shia
descendant of the House of Ali), exercising both spiritual
and
temporal leadership. Only those who have walayat
(spiritual guidance) are free from error and sin and have
been
chosen by God through the Prophet. Each Imam in turn
designated
his successor--through twelve Imams--each holding the same
powers.
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,
continue
the line of the Imams until the twelfth. Shia point to the
close
lifetime association of the Prophet with Ali. When Ali was
six
years old, he was invited by the Prophet to live with him,
and
Shia believe Ali was the first person to make the
declaration of
faith in Islam. Ali also slept in the Prophet's bed on the
night
of the hijra, when it was feared that the house would be
attacked
by unbelievers and the Prophet stabbed to death. He fought
in all
the battles the Prophet did, except one, and the Prophet
chose
him to be the husband of one of his favorite daughters,
Fatima.
Among Shia, the term imam traditionally has been
used
only for Ali and his eleven descendants. None of the
twelve
Imams, with the exception of Ali, ever ruled an Islamic
government. During their lifetimes, their followers hoped
that
they would assume the rulership of the Islamic community,
a rule
that was believed to have been wrongfully usurped. Because
Sunni
caliphs were cognizant of this hope, Imams generally were
persecuted under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties.
Therefore,
the Imams tried to be as unobtrusive as possible and to
live as
far as was reasonable from the successive capitals of the
Islamic
empire.
During the eighth century, Caliph Al Mamun, son and
successor
to Harun ar Rashid, was favorably disposed toward the
descendants
of Ali and their followers. He invited Imam Reza, the
Eighth Imam
(765-816), to come from Medina to his court at Marv (Mary
in
present-day Turkmenistan). While Reza was residing at
Marv, Al
Mamun designated him as his successor in an apparent
effort to
avoid conflict among Muslims. Reza's sister, Fatima,
journeyed
from Medina to be with her brother but took ill and died
at Qom,
in present-day Iran. A major shrine developed around her
tomb,
and over the centuries Qom has become a major Shia
pilgrimage
site and theological center.
Al Mamun took Reza on his military campaign to retake
Baghdad
from political rivals. On this trip, Reza died
unexpectedly in
Khorasan. Reza was the only Imam to reside in, or die in,
what is
now Iran. A major shrine, and eventually the city of
Mashhad,
grew up around his tomb, which is the major pilgrimage
center in
Iran. Several theological schools are located in Mashhad,
associated with the shrine of the Eighth Imam.
Reza's sudden death was a shock to his followers, many
of
whom believed that Al Mamun, out of jealousy for Reza's
increasing popularity, had the Imam poisoned. Al Mamun's
suspected treachery against Imam Reza and his family
tended to
reinforce a feeling already prevalent among his followers
that
Sunni rulers were untrustworthy.
The Twelfth Imam is believed to have been only five
years old
when he became Imam in 874 on the death of his father.
Because
his followers feared he might be assassinated, the Twelfth
Imam
was hidden from public view and was seen only by a few of
his
closest deputies. Sunnis claim that he never existed, or
that he
died while still a child. Shia believe that the Twelfth
Imam
never died, but disappeared in about 939. Since then, the
greater
occultation of the Twelfth Imam has been in force, which
will
last until God commands the Twelfth Imam to manifest
himself on
earth again as the mahdi or messiah. Shia believe that
during the
occultation of the Twelfth Imam, he is spiritually
present--some
believe that he is materially present as well--and he is
besought
to reappear in various invocations and prayers. His name
is
mentioned in wedding invitations, and his birthday is one
of the
most jubilant of all Shia religious observances.
The Shia doctrine of the imamate was not fully
elaborated
until the tenth century. Other dogmas developed still
later. A
characteristic of Shia Islam is the continual exposition
and
reinterpretation of doctrine.
A significant practice of Shia Islam is that of
visiting the
shrines of Imams in Iraq and in Iran. In Iraq, these
include the
tomb of Imam Ali in An Najaf and that of his son, Imam
Husayn, in
Karbala, because both are considered major Shia martyrs.
Before
the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), tens of thousands made the
visits
each year. Other principal pilgrimage sites in Iraq are
the tombs
of the Seventh Imam and the Ninth Imam at Kazimayn near
Baghdad.
In Iran, pilgrimage sites include the tomb of the Eighth
Imam in
Mashhad and that of his sister in Qom. Such pilgrimages
originated in part from the difficulty and the expense of
making
the hajj to Mecca in the early days.
In commemoration of the martyrdom of Husayn, killed
near
Karbala in 680 during a battle with troops supporting the
Umayyad
caliph, processions are held in the Shia towns and
villages of
southern Iraq on the tenth day of Muharram (Ashura), the
anniversary of his death. Ritual mourning (taaziya)
is
performed by groups of five to twenty men each.
Contributions are
solicited in the community to pay transportation for a
local
group to go to Karbala for taaziya celebrations
forty days
after Ashura. There is great rivalry among groups for the
best
performance of the taaziya passion plays.
Shia practice differs from Sunni practice concerning
divorce
and inheritance in that it is more favorable to women. The
reason
for this reputedly is the high esteem in which Fatima, the
wife
of Ali and the daughter of the Prophet, was held.
Like Sunni Islam, Shia Islam has developed several
sects. The
most important of these is the Twelver, or Ithna-Ashari,
sect,
which predominates in the Shia world generally. Not all
Shia
became Twelvers, however. In the eighth century, a dispute
arose
over who should lead the Shia community after the death of
the
Sixth Imam, Jaafar ibn Muhammad (also known as Jaafar as
Sadiq).
The group that eventually became the Twelvers followed the
teaching of Musa al Kazim; another group followed the
teachings
of Musa's brother, Ismail, and were called Ismailis.
Ismailis are
also referred to as Seveners because they broke off from
the Shia
community over a disagreement concerning the Seventh Imam.
Ismailis do not believe that any of their Imams have
disappeared
from the world in order to return later. Rather, they have
followed a continuous line of leaders represented in early
1993
by Karim al Husayni Agha Khan IV, an active figure in
international humanitarian efforts. The Twelver Shia and
the
Ismailis also have their own legal schools.
Another group, the Kharijites, arose from events
surrounding
the assassination of Uthman, the third caliph, and the
transfer
of authority to the fourth caliph, Ali. In the war between
Ali
and Muawiyah, part of Ali's army objected to arbitration
of the
dispute. They left Ali's camp, causing other Muslims to
refer to
them as "kharijites" (the ones who leave). The term
Kharijites also became a designation for Muslims
who
refused to compromise with those who differed from them.
Their
actions caused the Sunni community to consider them
assassins.
In the eighth century, some Kharijites began to
moderate
their position. Leaders arose who suppressed the fanatical
political element in Kharijite belief and discouraged
their
followers from taking up arms against Islam's official
leader.
Kharijite leaders emphasized instead the special benefits
that
Kharijites might receive from living in a small community
that
held high standards for personal conduct and spiritual
values.
One of these religious leaders, or imams, was Abd Allah
ibn Ibad,
whose followers founded communities in parts of Africa and
southern Arabia. Some of Abd Allah's followers, known as
Ibadis,
became the leaders of Oman.
Data as of January 1993
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