Quote:
Originally Posted by Tully Mars
What's your view on the main differences between Shi'a and Sunni?
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its a good question. everyone has different takes, depending on where you come from. And depending on which side of the fence you sit on, your views would be skewed.
ktsp has his take on it as a lebanese national. but for me the lines are little more defined.
ktsp is right in that the split occured after the death of muhammad, and after the caliphat of abu bakr on who would be the next caliph. what started as a power struggle, ended up being a split in the religions based on this. the shia's followed Ali, the prophets son in law who belived that the caliphate should be based on the family lineage, wheras the sunnis based their arguments on who was better suited for the job.
whilst the principles are the same, the shias have differnt schools of thought to the sunnis, and the emphasis and main difference is the idea that the 'ahl al bayt' should have ruled and the martyrdom of Ali and his son Hussein. theological diferences stem from this main difference.
i can expand a little bit more if you like, im not sure how deep you want me to delve into this. but it does go back 13 centuries.