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Kuwait
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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