Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. Followers of the Sunni tradition are known as Sunnis or Sunnites, and often refer to themselves as the Ahlus Sunnah wal-Jamaa'h. Sunni Muslims constitute 80–90% of the global Muslim population.

The various Muslim denominations

Thirty years after Muhammad's death, the Islamic community plunged into a civil war, called the Fitna. Many Muslims (among them some of Muhammad's widows and companions) believed that Uthman, the third caliph, was favoring his kin and abusing his power. Discontented Muslim soldiers from garrisons in Iraq and Egypt surrounded Uthman's palace in Medina and demanded that he repent or resign. Uthman temporized, fighting broke out, and Uthman was killed as he sat reading the Qur'an. War broke out between various factions. The war ended when a new dynasty of caliphs, the Umayyads, relatives of Uthman, managed to re-unite most of the Muslim community (ummah).

The current Sunni Muslim tradition follows those who acquiesced in the rule of the Umayyads. Modern Sunnis will admit that Ali ibn Abi Talib, the leader of one faction that clashed with the Umayyads, was a rightful caliph, but they argue that after Ali's death, the caliphate passed to the Umayyads. The Sunni, then and now, are the majority group.

Other Muslims felt that injustice had triumphed. Later commentators gave them various names:

• Khwarij, or Kharijites, who declared that all the partisans involved in the Fitna were unbelievers. One branch of the Khwarij survives in Yemen and Oman as the Ibadi denomination of Islam.

• Rawafidh, or Rafidi, the partisans of Ali. This was the genesis of Shi'ah Islam. Shi'as are the majority in Iran and Iraq. There are many Shi'a sects. Some Sunni will not accept Shi'a as fellow Muslims, but an El-Azhar ruling in 1956 declared Shi'a to be within the Muslim fold. El-Azhar, in Cairo, is the pre-eminent Sunni institution of higher learning.

Other divisions have arisen since the Fitna of the 7th century C.E. Some groups are now extinct. Of the existing groups, Sunni Muslims do not accept members of the Nation of Islam, Ahmadiyya, and Zikri as fellow Muslims.

Sunni Islam worldwide

Need a table here with a list of majority Islamic countries, with total population, total Muslim population, percentage of population who are Muslim, and total Sunni population, percentage of Muslims who are Sunni. Previous list is confusing — not clear if percentages are of population or Muslims.

Sunni theological traditions (kalami)

Muslims of the centuries following Muhammad had to face many questions that 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 three dominant traditions:

• Mu'tazilah, 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 C.E., 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 adherents of Mu'tazilism, though their texts are still read and preserved as important to understanding the history of Sunni theology.

• • The Mu'tazilites were heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, 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 Quranic 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 (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 Quranic references to God as having physical attributes (that is, a body) were metaphorical. 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. One of the those tribes, the Seljuk Turks, migrated to Turkey, where they established the Ottoman Empire and claimed the Caliphate. Their preferred school of law achieved a new prominence throughout their whole empire.

• • Maturidiyyah argue that knowledge of God's existence can be derived through reason alone, thus following the Mu'tazilites.

Sunni view of hadith

The Qur'an as we have it today was written down in approximately 650 C.E., and is accepted by all Muslim denominations. However, there were many matters of belief and daily life that were not 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, identifying those which, in their opinion, were authentic, and worthy of imitation, and those which were later innovations. Most Sunni accept the hadith collections of Buhkhari and Muslim as sahih, or correct, and grant a lesser status to the collections of other recorders.

Sunni schools of law (madhab)

There are four Sunni schools of law:

• Hanafi (based on work of Abu Hanifa)
• Maliki (founded by Malik)
• Shafi'i (founded by Shafi'i, a student of Malik)
• Hanbali (founded by Ahmad bin Hanbal, a student of Shafi'i)

A madhab is a particular tradition of interpreting Islamic law, or shari'a. The schools were started by eminent Muslim scholars in the first four centuries of Islam. Most Sunnis believe that there are no living jurists of the stature of the founders of the four madhabs. Contemporary scholars can comment on the traditions, but they cannot start new ones. This belief is called "the closing of the gate of ijtihad".

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 Sunni Muslims have chosen to follow a certain madhab historically and believed it to be their sole interpretation of shari’ah. However, there is nothing that prevents a Sunni Muslim from accepting interpretations from more than one madhab in different questions. In other words, a Sunni can decide to take the answer of a certain issue from one madhab, and of another issue from another one.

Some modern Sunni, whether liberals or Salifis, reject some or all of the intricate structure of hadith and shari'a erected over the centuries.

Current trends in Sunni thought and practice

Sufism, Salafism, Wahabism, Liberal movements within Islam.Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimin). To be written.

External links

1. http://www.sunniforum.com/ Discuss Islam with Muslims
2. http://www.sunnipath.com Online Center for Traditional Sunni Islam
3. http://www.masud.co.uk Online Center with articles by Traditional Sunni scholars
4. http://zaytuna.org Online website of Traditional Islamic Institute
5. http://www.deenport.com Traditional Islamic Portal
6. http://www.abc.se/~m9783/ Living Islam Tradition – a leading Scholars webpage
7. http://www.rumibookstore.com/ Purchase Islamic Books Tapes Online
8. http://www.wardahbooks.com/ Books on Islam in English
9. http://www.meccaone.org/ Traditional Islamic Radio
10. http://www.sunniport.com/ Sunni Forums and Portal