Sunni, Shia and ???

No one wants to tackle this one?

I am going to stay well away from this one. I once said something and offended a lot of people.

Sunni is Islam, shia is far from away it. Can't paint all shias with the same brush tho
It's a very lengthy discussion.

Salafi is a group within the sunnis. Most of them are good people

format_quote Originally Posted by LaSorcia

Can someone give me a brief explanation of what Sunni and Shia are? All I know is that they disagreed on who should be the successor for the Prophet (PBUH), and that Shia celebrate one holiday that the Sunni don't.

The division between AhlusSunnah (those who follow the tradition of the Prophet , in short: Sunni) and Shi'a (those who formed a different sect) is not just political. The Shia believe in several false assumptions such as (but not limited to):

• Gibra'eel (the angle) mistakenly delivered the revelation to Prophet Muhammad instead of Ali .
• They accuse the mother of the believers, 'Aishah of adultery even though Allah Himself has revealed verses in the Qur'an regarding her chasteness.
• They believe in the corruption of the Holy Quran

And many more such wrong beliefs. Anyone who believes in any of the above is not a Muslim.

Shias themselves are divided in to several groups. Some of them do not have such false beliefs and they simply consider Ali to be more worthy of caliphate than Abu Bakr and Umar . If it is a simple difference of preferring some companions over others, then they will still be considered Muslims, as long as they do not hold any false beliefs which can take them outside the folds of Islam.

Please see this thread for more detailed discussion: http://www.islamicboard.com/sects-an...i-discord.html

Also, are there different sects/denominations/schools within each one? I've heard of Salafi and a few others which names I forget right now. What are these? I've looked online, but just got more confused lol. Thanks.

Among AhlusSunnah (Sunni), we have different schools of thoughts, known as madhhab. A madhhab is a methodology adopted by scholars of jurisprudence to derive Islamic rulings from the Qur'an and Sunnah. All the Madhhabs within AhlusSunnah are valid and correct. They only differ in certain rulings based on difference in understanding the texts and their application.

There are four main madhhabs: Hanafi, Shaf'i, Maliki and Hanbali. Salafi is not madhhab, but they are those who do not ascribe themselves to any madhhab and they follow the contemporary scholars in most cases, or directly try to follow the Qur'an and Hadith.

Salam. The major difference is about the companions so yes political but there are heretical groups within Shi'is who go beyond the limits. These groups venerate Ali more than what should be. They are Christians who venerates Jesus more than what should be.