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Can anybody tell me more about the topic? They lifestyle, principles, habits. What makes them different from others? Thanks!

Although the subject is big and has lots of details in it, I will try to give you a broad picture to these groups.
1. The Main stream Islam is called Sunnah wal Jamaah (Sunnah) for short. These poeople are the main followers of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS). They have 2 MAIN refrences, the Quran and the Sunnah, which explain and interpret the Quaran. Sunnah is defined as ALL things said, done or decided by Prophet Muhammad (SAWS).
There are 5 pillars of Islam:
1. Testemony:( That there are Nogod but Allah and that Prophet Muhammad is his prophet and messanger).
2. Prayer: 5 times a day (Fajr, Duhr, Asr, Magreb and Eshaa)
3. Fasting: during the month of Ramadan
4. Zakat: give 2.5% of year cash mony, if a year lapsed on this amount as along as they are minimum of 84 grams of gold approx.
5. Haj: Performs religious ritual in Mecca for 6 days in ones life time.

* Before the prophet passed away, he told the followers to choose a succeesor among his followers, which means Baiaa (election). This was indicative that trnasfer of power was on merit and by Baiaa rather than inheritence or monarchy.

* Dress code for Men and women should be moderate. Especially women who are orderd by Allah (SWT) in the Quran to cover themselves and to show ony their face, hands and feet. Although a Man can marry more than one wife, up to 4 but this has conditions attached to it. i.e. for example if his wife cannot have children, he can remarry another woman but the first wife can ask for divorce if she does not like it. Also a woman can put in the marriage contract, that her husband cannot marry another woman.

2. Shia Islam:
Shia is language means a an ally. Shiasm was at the beginning a political movement who had lots of differences with Main stream Islam in the sense that they did not like the method of Baiaa (Election) but they say head of Islamic state shoud be one of Al AlBait (from the clan of Muhammad SAWS). Since Prophet Muhammad had no Male children, they said that Ali, the prophet' cusion and his wife Fatima (the prohet' daughter) and their childern should be the rulers of Islamic state.
After the prophet' death, people elected Abu Bakr, Muhammad companion and father in law. Then Omar bin Al-Khattab, was alected as Amir Al-Mumeneen (The prince of Believers). After that Uthman bin Affan was elected. And finally Ali Bin Abi Taleb, the prophet's cusion and son in law, was electd as the Fourth Khalife or Amir of Islamic state.
But he already inherited a state in termoil after a mob killed Uthman the thirs Amir. When Ali took over as the Amir, Uthman's cusion, the ruler of Damascus, Muawya did not accept this and declared mutiny against Ali. The Islamic world divided in 2 states one in Damascus and one in Madina.
Lot of battels between the 2 parties and their followers took place. It ended in Ali being killed by an outlaws who dicided to kill both Ali And Muawya. The whole thing now under the rule of Muawya who decided not to leave the system as Baiaa one but heriditary so he asked the people to make Baiaa to his son. The Shia political movement was born.
As years passed, the movement bacame more religiuos rather than political. The leaders of Shia started to make new religious practices to diffrenciate them selves of Main stream Sunna.

thanks for those explanation, yeah u r right about what u said, Mashallah u have good knowledge of Islam

Thanks a lot. Can you (or anyone) tell anything about Druse, Sufism?

3. Shia groups

Thank you for your nice remarks regarding this subject and I was coming to Druze and Sufism.

As time passed the Shia sect had evoloved to so many groups and went far and far from main stream Islam. According to main stream Islam prohets are human beings. To shia, the support to Ali and his descendant became more and more recerance to a degree that they considered them like prohpets and that they posses high devine powers. This contradicts Sunni Islam.
There are so many groups of Shia, here are some of them:
1. Imamieh : The ruler and head of religion is the Imam who are decedndant from Ali & Fatima. They are considerd "infalable"
2. Zaidieh: followers of one of other grandsons of Ali
3. Ismaeilieh: One of the Imams son called Ismail and when he died some of his followers believed that he did not die adn that he is around us and he will be back as a Savier.
4. Druze; is 4 sub-sects of the Fatiemed ( i.ei The followers of Fatima) movement which was created by a man called Ubaid allah al-Mahdi in 296 Hijri calnder. They held power in Egypt and split to 4 groups as mentioned, they are:
1. Nizarieh
2. Mustalieh
3. Durzieh; bacame to known as Druze and lived in Arabs Mountains in Syria
4. Muqanaah

They all have one thing in common, they astrayed from main stream islam and created alot of teachings and rituals that contradict the very heart of Islam.

4. Sufism
Sufism is a Religious movement started in the 13th Hijri century. It started by indviduals who were not happy with the high luxury life style and decadence that the muslim world was experiencing in those days. They reverted to live life as monks and spend most of their time worshiping Allah and show repent.
Their practices evolved to a way that they wanted to keep worshiping god in order to bacome very rightous and be able to see Allah by their eyes.
These people became what is known as "Awlia" and that they dont use the Quran and the Sunnah to reach Allah. Rather, by thier spiritual power and mysic faith. Each one of them had followers who considerd them to have powers and mystry.
This of course contradict Sunni/Main stream Islam which consider people who spend thier lives doing so is not what Allah and the prohet asked us to do. As Muslims we should have a balanced life of worship and live our daily lives in moderation. Not to isolate our lives from life it self. We should live and enjoy our life in accordancr with the moderate simple teaching of Islam

Ma'sha'allah U have a good knowledge of the history of Islam. Whats more impressive, is that you summarized it in an uncomplicated way

The Wahhabiyya...

http://www.dubaiforums.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

kanan wrote:4. Sufism
Sufism is a Religious movement started in the 13th Hijri century. It started by indviduals who were not happy with the high luxury life style and decadence that the muslim world was experiencing in those days. They reverted to live life as monks and spend most of their time worshiping Allah and show repent.
Their practices evolved to a way that they wanted to keep worshiping god in order to bacome very rightous and be able to see Allah by their eyes.
These people became what is known as "Awlia" and that they dont use the Quran and the Sunnah to reach Allah. Rather, by thier spiritual power and mysic faith. Each one of them had followers who considerd them to have powers and mystry.
This of course contradict Sunni/Main stream Islam which consider people who spend thier lives doing so is not what Allah and the prohet asked us to do. As Muslims we should have a balanced life of worship and live our daily lives in moderation. Not to isolate our lives from life it self. We should live and enjoy our life in accordancr with the moderate simple teaching of Islam

Thanks for the great effort. BUT.. Sufism is not this at all !!

Dude, you have to be careful here since you are mixing lots of stuff togather.. in gerneral this is not Sufism at all !!

Intimacy wrote:

kanan wrote:4. Sufism
Sufism is a Religious movement started in the 13th Hijri century. It started by indviduals who were not happy with the high luxury life style and decadence that the muslim world was experiencing in those days. They reverted to live life as monks and spend most of their time worshiping Allah and show repent.
Their practices evolved to a way that they wanted to keep worshiping god in order to bacome very rightous and be able to see Allah by their eyes.
These people became what is known as "Awlia" and that they dont use the Quran and the Sunnah to reach Allah. Rather, by thier spiritual power and mysic faith. Each one of them had followers who considerd them to have powers and mystry.
This of course contradict Sunni/Main stream Islam which consider people who spend thier lives doing so is not what Allah and the prohet asked us to do. As Muslims we should have a balanced life of worship and live our daily lives in moderation. Not to isolate our lives from life it self. We should live and enjoy our life in accordancr with the moderate simple teaching of Islam

Thanks for the great effort. BUT.. Sufism is not this at all !!

Dude, you have to be careful here since you are mixing lots of stuff togather.. in gerneral this is not Sufism at all !!

Then why don't you enlighten us, and tell us what is Sufism, so we can understand it better.

kanan wrote:4. Sufism
Sufism is a Religious movement started in the 13th Hijri century. It started by indviduals who were not happy with the high luxury life style and decadence that the muslim world was experiencing in those days. They reverted to live life as monks and spend most of their time worshiping Allah and show repent.

Sufism was around before then,8th century in fact. It was only recognised as a stable body during the 13th.

kanan wrote:Their practices evolved to a way that they wanted to keep worshiping god in order to bacome very rightous and be able to see Allah by their eyes.
These people became what is known as "Awlia" and that they dont use the Quran and the Sunnah to reach Allah. Rather, by thier spiritual power and mysic faith. Each one of them had followers who considerd them to have powers and mystry.

Hmmm
First time i have heard that they aim to see with their eyes. far as i understood, Sufism was about Love and beauty and promotes the way to reach allah via the heart not only reading just the quran and the sunnah.
The spiritual power was something incorporated and is used for the good reasons and was also very attractive to many of the later converts in Asia.
I dont believe Sufism uses spirituality and mysticism to to reach allah, as Sufism uses similar doctrines to Sunni;s and sometimes Shia's however i do agree that there weer saints who were believed to possess powers.

kanan wrote:This of course contradict Sunni/Main stream Islam which consider people who spend thier lives doing so is not what Allah and the prohet asked us to do. As Muslims we should have a balanced life of worship and live our daily lives in moderation. Not to isolate our lives from life it self. We should live and enjoy our life in accordancr with the moderate simple teaching of Islam

Again Sufism does not ask a follower to abandon all and meditate. It is more encouraging them to remember more often given the opportunity.
of course there are some who will devote a larger part of their life, but that is more the individual and does not reflect the movement as a whole.

This is what i have learned by the way, so i am not saying your perspective is wrong at all, as i still have much to learn about it myself.

Kanan, dude, what on earth are you on about ? No offence or anything, this is, after all, supposed to be an open discussion so I hope we all stay objective and take nothing to heart.
Your information on the Shiia is near 75% completely flawed. The reason is that you got it from schools that were established by people who belong to the other team. It's like asking a Democrat to teach you about Republicans or asking Picasso to teach you nuclear physics.

Try to read some independent books that don't side with anyone out of prejudice and sharpen up your arsenal on that particular subject.

I'm not about to type a detailed reply because I only have another few minutes of time on my hands, but I will give you a couple of pointers pertaining to some of the misconceptions you have.

1) To call a believer deviant or an infidel is itself an act of deviance and infidelity - (Prophet Mohammad PBUH). So the next time you decide to declare that anyone who disagrees with your interpretation of Islam has "astrayed from main stream islam and created alot of teachings and rituals that contradict the very heart of Islam", please do a little unbiased research first.

2) Ali Bin Abi Talib did not invent the idea of making himself "Commander of the Faithful". The responsibility was bestowed upon him by the prophet himself infront of over 200,000 muslims in a ceremony known as the "Al Ghadeer" speech. If your great great...great grandfather went with the flow and decided to deny it ever happened out of fear of the self-appointed, wine-drinking, monkey-petting, harem-dwelling, state funds-wasting Umawite "Caliphs" , well then too bad for you, you got the wrong news my friend.
The prophet never said that the Caliphate was to be voted upon, Islam is not a classical democracy. In Islam, the most knowledgeable rules, and when it comes to knowledge, do not waste your time attempting to compare anyone to a man who was adopted, raised, and EDUCATED by Prophet Mohammad as his own son and who said "The prophet taught me a thousand doors of knowledge, and each door opens up another thousand doors", and about whom the prophet said "I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate". its all there in your beloved Sahih Muslim & Bukhari, how come you choose to ignore certain things and amplify others?

1400 years ago, Ali Bin Abi Talib was giving lessons in literature and science so advanced that no one understood most of what he said. His sons and grandsons taught the world the basics of most of the sciences it operates on today; Chemistry, Physics, Algebra, Biology, Opthalmology, Medicine, Alchemy, Sociology, Astrology, etc etc... with the exceptions being Mathematics, which was partially credited to Sanscrit scholars, and Philosophy, which they cannot claim full credit for due to the strong presence of the Greeks in that field. Books written by him are still being taught in top universities around the civillized world. Are you trying to tell me that it's wrong to pledge allegiance to a man who spoke about electricity a millenium and a half ago when europeans were still hanging from trees and living in caves? I beg to differ.

3) The man that killed Imam Ali was did NOT kill Mu'awya, he was SENT BY Mu'awya. Again, research your facts before you throw them around in public, or else you are spreading false information on purpose among those who don't know.

4) How can Sunnis consider the Prophet as "only human" and then attribute to him the miracle of Israa & Mi'raaj, whereby he is said to have ridden a flying horse up to the seventh sky to be shown heaven and hell with his own eyes. How can you contradict yourself so blatantly? You might as well tell me that he wrote the Quraan himself and passed it off as divine inspiration.
How many "only human" people do you know who have been spoken to by God through the actual voice of an angel ?

5) How did Abu Bakr become the first Caliph when the Prophet clearly stated "Ali is to me what Aaron was to Moses, except there is no prophet after me" ? (For those who don't know, Aaron was Prophet Moses' younger brother, and his adviser and successor in rule).
So saying that Imam Ali had a right to the Caliphate is blasphemy because someone, who disobeyed a direct order from the prophet and altered the Muslim state's pre-set political system so he can be Caliph instead, said so? People who deliberately broke the ribs of the prophet's own daughter by crushing her behind her own house door and forcing her to have a miscarriage so as to sever Ali's blood line? ... Please, don't insult my intelligence.

For people who don't know their history, everything you said might seem like the pinnacle of knowledge. But some people DO know what really happened. They do know that Mu'awya changed the sunnah of having the friday speech after the Friday prayers to having it before the prayers so that the people there were forced to sit there and listen to him swear and curse at the prophet's children and grandchildren for an hour. They know that his son Yazid poisoned Imam Ali's oldest son and successor Al Hasan Bin Ali, and that Yazid's son attempted repeatedly to humiliate and subdue Al Hussain bin Ali, Imam Ali's younger son, and finally trapped him, his family (including women and young children) in the heat of the Iraqi desert, just a stone's throw away from a river, and deprived them from water for 10 days, and then slaughtered all 72 of them with an army of 30 thousand men, brutally slaying his infant son, and then him and every other man that stood with him.

You want to talk about going astray? Explain to me how a someone who calls himself a Muslim, better yet the Caliph of all Muslims, could do that to the prophet's own family, when it was the prophet who strictly forbade Muslim soldiers from hurting non-Muslim enemy women and children or soldiers who didn't have weapons, or animals or even trees, so how much worse is going ahead and doing what's worse than that to Muslims ?

Ironklad,

From my perspective, both Sunni and Shia revere Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) as a pious, courageous believer and a rightful leader of Muslims.

He faithfully followed the first 3 Khalifas and it seems strange to me for me to second guess him and denounce Khalifas that he pledged allegiance to and fought for. But this is way in the past.

There is a clear and undisputed Hadith that states that if one dies without pledging allegiance to the rightly guided Imam of the time, one dies a death of 'jahiliyya' (a 'cursed' death).

Now, all accounts say that Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) did not accepts pledges of allegiance (baiat) during the Khilafat of the first 3 Khalifas. This means that Ali (nauzobillah) was responsible for the cursed deaths of all those who died in the first 3 Khilafat - something that I personally cannot accept of a pious, unfearing personality such as Ali (may Allah be pleased with him).

The Shia movements also geographically were centred in non-Arab areas and arose in populations which contained many Jewish people whose ideas and traditions were carried over into Shia thought - these included the concept of a hereditary leadership (Imams) which came from the concept of priesthood in Judaism. Another example is the Torah's food restrictions - no shellfish and fish without scales, a dietary requirement that is adhered to by Shia and not Sunnis (as the restriction is not in the Quran).

Note, I am not saying that Shia are Jewish - far from it - just that the theology was heavily influenced by converts from Judaism and Zoroastrianism in the early days - these people were in Persia, i.e. Iran today.

Initially the schism was political and only took on a theological bent many centuries later.

I , as a Sunni, actually do think the Shia Imams are pious leaders of men - certainly an opinion I have formed after reading the lives and teachings of the first 6/7 Imams - my research has led me to the conviction that they did not subscribe to the Shia theology that is being ascribed to them by later 'scholars'.

At the end of the day, Shia and Sunni have been having this debate for well over a millennium now and we aren't going to solve this here. We should concentrate on the common beliefs and pray to God for his guidance.

Apologies if I offend anyone with my words, but this is what I believe after having carried out careful study (in conjunction with Shia Alim - I try and go to sources from amongst religions I am studying for information rather than relying solely on competing views).

Wasalaam,
Shafique

I find this weird as I was having a similar conversation with a friend this morning.

What you have all mentioned has been very informative. However, I always do prefer to stick to the core because as soon as we deviate from that we become lost in not-so-important details.

Ironklad,

my friend.. with all respect to what you have mentioned, its really not how it goes all around the place.

from both sides there are many sects which are considered to be built to hit a wedge in a small unclear crack.

who doesn love ali doesnt love abu baker or the prophet or others...

now we all know Mo'wayah... but i dont believe that what is all mentioned was true.. Changing the firday's speech to CURSE!!! come on for God's sake!! and whom?! the prophet's grandsons?!!!! and all the other Companions who are considered to be top of the line kind of people where just listening and picking their noses while Mo'wayah is doing that?! then if there is anyone who believes that ..then with all respect.. his mind is not functioning well.

at the same time kanan has mentioned many untrue, false information about manythings here speically about Shia and sofism....

**please people if you are not aware about what you are talking about...THEN DONT MENTION IT**

at the other hand, Shiat and Sunnis are living in perfect harmoney since 1400 years with no conflicts at all.... now out of the blue they start fighting!!!! i think all of us are missing the point here.

There are many more important things which we should be focusing on instead of doing this

Hi guys!

First of all, excuse me bumping an old thread.
I am from Brazil and I am going to Dubai next month (for the first time), for business and I shall stay for 3 months max. So I have been "googling" about Dubai. Today I searched about "sufism" and found this thread.
At Dubai, there is a place where I could go at my free time to know a bit more about Sufism? Could you please give me the directions or how to find this place?

Thanks!
Eduardo

First of all, I want to thank Brother Kanan for the efforts he had put. His posts, in general, were informative. Jzaakallah akhi.

But I beg to differ with him on the origin of Shi'ites, as historians, both Muslims & Shi'ites trace the origin of Shi'ism as a creed to the Jew Abdullah bin Saba'.

The Shi'ites so-called "Imams", as brother Shafique has stated before, were indeed pious scholars, and have none to do with the Shi'ites whatsoever. The Shi'ites have simply attributed to them statements they have never made, and virtues they have never claimed. May Allah be pleased with them all.

The other point, I beg to differ on, is that Muawiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, refused to submit to the leadership of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him. The fact of the matter is that he demanded the killers of Othman, may Allah be pleased with him, be brought to justice right then & there. Ali [ra] on the other hand wanted to do so in due time as the political situation was electrified, and the state's security was at risk. Tension eventually led to war, and Ali [ra] was assasinated by his own Shi'ites.

We, as Muslims, rever and honor all the Companions of the Messenger [pbuh] and say as Allah [swt] has tought us in the Qur'an:

And those who come after them say: Our Lord! forgive us and those of our brethren who had precedence of us in faith, and do not allow any spite to remain in our hearts towards those who believe, our Lord! surely Thou art Kind, Merciful. [59:10]

As for Sufis, it is safe to say that the overwhelning majority are deviants from the pure teaching of Islam, but vary in the degree of their deviation. To a great extent however; Sufis are infatuated with practices of Bid'ah (Innovation in faith).

And Allah knows best.

Edited by Mod

Edited by Mod

All of us here are keen to understand what have been written by both side of the divide yet no one from amongst you have cited even a single reference to back up your claims/counter-claims. It would be worthwhile dont you think if reference were mentioned for the readers sake.

I cite this one bit

kanan wrote:When Ali took over as the Amir, Uthman's cusion, the ruler of Damascus, Muawya did not accept this and declared mutiny against Ali. The Islamic world divided in 2 states one in Damascus and one in Madina.
Lot of battels between the 2 parties and their followers took place. It ended in Ali being killed by an outlaws who dicided to kill both Ali And Muawya.

Reference none?

Ironklad wrote:The man that killed Imam Ali was did NOT kill Mu'awya, he was SENT BY Mu'awya.

Reference none?

Habib wrote:Ali [ra] was assasinated by his own Shi'ites.

Reference none?