Explainer

Sunni and Shia: how Islam’s two main branches differ

Where the division between Sunni and Shia Muslims came from, what the two branches share, how they differ on leadership, law and devotion, and where each lives today.

Islam

In brief

I.Sunni and Shia Muslims share the Qur’an, the Five Pillars and belief in one God and in Muhammad as the last prophet.
II.They divided over who should lead the community after Muhammad’s death in 632.
III.Shia Muslims follow a line of Imams descended from Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law; Sunnis accept the first four caliphs.
IV.About 85–90 percent of Muslims are Sunni and 10–15 percent Shia, who form the majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Bahrain.

Almost every Muslim is either Sunni or Shia. The two branches agree on far more than divides them: one God, the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad, prayer towards Mecca, the fast of Ramadan and the pilgrimage. What separates them is, at root, a question about leadership that arose in the hours after the Prophet’s death, and that grew over centuries into differences of law, devotion and memory.

Chapter I

A question of succession

When Muhammad died in Medina in 632, the young community had to choose a leader. A gathering of his companions chose his close friend and father-in-law Abu Bakr as khalifa, “successor” or caliph. Others believed that the Prophet had designated his cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib, married to his daughter Fatima, at a place called Ghadir Khumm.

Those who supported Ali became known as Shi‘at Ali, “the party of Ali”, or simply the Shia. Ali did become the fourth caliph in 656, but his rule was contested and he was assassinated in 661. The decisive break came in 680, when his son Husayn and a small band of family and followers were killed by the army of the Umayyad caliph Yazid at Karbala, in today’s Iraq. Karbala became the defining memory of Shia Islam: a story of suffering, loyalty and resistance to injustice.

The majority, who accepted the first caliphs and later dynasties, came to be called Ahl al-Sunna wa’l-Jama‘a, “the people of the Prophet’s example and the community”: the Sunnis.

One God
One qibla
One Qur’an

Both branches share the Qur’an, the Kaaba and the shahada.

Chapter II

What each branch teaches

For Sunnis, religious authority lies in the Qur’an and the sunna The example of the Prophet Muhammad, in his words and actions, recorded in the hadith. Glossary, the Prophet’s example, as interpreted by the community of scholars. There is no clergy in a strict sense. Four schools of law, the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i and Hanbali, developed by the 9th century, and all are accepted as valid.

For Shia Muslims, the community also needs an imam One who leads the prayer. In Shia Islam the Imams are the divinely guided successors of the Prophet. Glossary, a leader descended from the Prophet through Ali and Fatima, guided by God and free from error. The largest Shia group, the Twelvers, recognise twelve such Imams. They believe the twelfth, Muhammad al-Mahdi, went into hiding in 874 and will return at the end of time to bring justice. Until then, senior scholars, the ayatollahs, guide the faithful, and each believer follows a living scholar as a model. Smaller Shia branches include the Ismailis, led today by the Aga Khan, and the Zaydis of Yemen.

Chapter III

Devotion and memory

Day to day, the practice of the two branches is close. The differences show most in devotion. Shia Muslims honour the Imams and their family with great love: pilgrimages to their shrines at Najaf, Karbala, Mashhad and Qom draw millions every year. During the first ten days of the month of Muharram, culminating in Ashura, Shia communities mourn Husayn with sermons, processions and passion plays. Forty days later, the pilgrimage of Arbaeen to Karbala is among the largest gatherings of people in the world.

Many Sunnis, especially those influenced by reformist movements, are wary of shrine devotion, though visiting the tombs of saints is also widespread in Sunni lands, from Morocco to South Asia.

Chapter IV

Where they live today

Sunnis form the large majority of Muslims, roughly 85 to 90 percent, from Indonesia and Pakistan to Egypt, Turkey and Nigeria. Shia Muslims, about 10 to 15 percent, are the majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Bahrain, and large communities live in Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Political rivalries in the modern Middle East have sometimes been framed as Sunni against Shia. But for most of history, and in most places today, Sunni and Shia Muslims have lived as neighbours, intermarried and prayed side by side, above all at Mecca, where the hajj gathers every branch of Islam around the same House.

Mosque
Ramadan
Hajj

Shared practice: prayer, the mosque, the crescent month of fasting.

Questions people ask

Do Sunni and Shia Muslims pray differently?

The prayers are almost identical. Small differences include the position of the hands, and many Shia combine the five daily prayers into three sessions and place their forehead on a small tablet of clay.

What is Ashura?

The 10th of the month of Muharram. For Shia Muslims it is the anniversary of the death of Husayn at Karbala in 680, marked with mourning rituals; many Sunnis fast on the day, recalling Moses and the Exodus.

Can Sunni and Shia Muslims marry or pray together?

Yes. Mixed families are common in many countries, and Sunni and Shia Muslims pray side by side at the hajj in Mecca.

Sources and further reading

Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Sunni”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Shi’i”
Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shi‘i Islam (Yale University Press, 1985)
John L. Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path (Oxford University Press, 5th ed. 2016)

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