Shia and Sunni Islam: What They Share and How They Differ

What Shia and Sunni Muslims share

Both believe in one God, in Muhammad as His final Prophet, and in the same Quran. Both pray five times a day facing the Kaaba in Makkah, fast in Ramadan, give zakat, make the Hajj, and celebrate Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Most of daily religious life looks the same in both.

The Quran recited in a Shia mosque and in a Sunni mosque is the same text, in the same order of chapters. The mainstream Shia position, stated for example by the scholar Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, is that the Quran in Muslims' hands is complete.

Shia theology arranges these duties differently. It speaks of roots of religion (oneness of God, divine justice, prophethood, the Imamate and the Day of Judgement) and branches of religion (the acts of worship). One branch differs in practice: Shia Muslims pay khums, a fifth of yearly surplus income, citing Quran 8:41. Sunni scholars read the same verse as applying to the spoils of war and, in the Hanafi school, to buried treasure.

Where the difference began: who would lead after the Prophet

When the Prophet died in 632 CE, a gathering in Madinah chose his companion Abu Bakr as caliph. Sunni Muslims accept this choice and honour the first four caliphs. Shia Muslims hold that the Prophet had already appointed his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib to lead after him.

The meeting took place at the Saqifah, the meeting hall of the Banu Sa'idah clan. The second caliph, Umar, later described it in a sermon recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari 6830, including that Ali and al-Zubayr were not with the group that went to it. In Sunni teaching the four Rightly Guided Caliphs (al-Khulafa al-Rashidun) are Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, in that order, and leadership of the community rests on consultation and the pledge of allegiance.

Shia Muslims point above all to the sermon the Prophet gave at Ghadir Khumm, on the way back from his Farewell Pilgrimage in 632. Sunni collections record it too. In Sahih Muslim 2408, the Prophet tells the people he is leaving among them "two weighty things", the Book of God and his family. In Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3713 he says that whoever has him as mawla has Ali as mawla.

The two traditions read these words differently. Shia scholars understand mawla here as master and leader, a designation of Ali as the Prophet's successor. Sunni scholars understand it as a call to love and stand by Ali, a statement of his rank, not an appointment to rule. Historians such as Wilferd Madelung have written at length on the succession; their accounts are cited below.

Karbala and Ashura

On 10 Muharram 61 AH (October 680 CE), the Prophet's grandson Husayn ibn Ali was killed with most of his family and companions at Karbala, in today's Iraq, by the army of the Umayyad ruler Yazid. Both traditions grieve Husayn; Shia Muslims make his martyrdom the centre of their year.

Shia communities mark the first ten days of Muharram with gatherings of remembrance (majalis), recitations of elegies and processions, culminating on Ashura, the tenth.

Sunni Muslims also honour Husayn as the beloved grandson of the Prophet. Many fast on Ashura, a Sunnah that goes back to the Prophet's time: he fasted on the day God saved Moses and the Israelites (Sahih al-Bukhari 2004). In South Asia many Sunni communities, especially in the Ahle Sunnat (Barelvi) tradition, also hold gatherings in Muharram that recall Karbala.

Religious authority: the caliphs and the Imams

Twelver Shia Muslims follow twelve Imams, from Ali to Muhammad al-Mahdi, whom they regard as divinely guided and protected from error. Sunni Muslims hold that no one after the Prophet is protected from error; authority lies in the Quran and the Sunnah as interpreted by scholars.

In Twelver belief the twelfth Imam went into hiding (ghaybah) in 874 CE and will return. In his absence, Shia believers follow a senior living jurist, a marja al-taqlid, on questions of practice.

In Sunni Islam the caliph was a political and communal leader, not a source of revelation or infallible teaching. Religious questions are settled by the scholars (ulama) of the four schools of law, with the consensus (ijma) of the community as a guide.

There is more than one Shia tradition. Twelvers are the largest, in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and India. Ismailis, among them the Dawoodi Bohras of Gujarat and Mumbai, follow a different line of Imams, and Zaydis live mainly in Yemen.

Hadith collections and schools of law

Sunni Muslims rely on six major hadith collections, led by Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, and follow one of four schools of law: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i or Hanbali. Twelver Shia Muslims rely on their own Four Books of hadith and follow the Ja'fari school.

The six Sunni collections (al-Kutub al-Sittah) are those of al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah. Most Sunni Muslims in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Central Asia follow the Hanafi school.

The Shia Four Books are al-Kafi by al-Kulayni, Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih by Ibn Babawayh (al-Shaykh al-Saduq), and Tahdhib al-Ahkam and al-Istibsar by al-Tusi. Shia hadith come chiefly through the Prophet's family and the Imams. The Ja'fari school is named after Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, a great-grandson of Husayn whom Sunni scholars also respect as a scholar of Madinah.

One well known difference in family law is temporary marriage (mut'ah), which Twelver law recognises and the Sunni schools hold was prohibited.

How the prayer (namaz) differs

Both pray the same five prayers with the same number of rakats. The differences are in the details: Shia Muslims commonly pray in three sessions by combining prayers, keep their arms at their sides, prostrate on a tablet of earth, and pray Maghrib a few minutes later than Sunnis.

Combining Zuhr with Asr and Maghrib with Isha rests, for Shia jurists, on reports that the Prophet did so in Madinah "without fear or journey", such as the one from Ibn Abbas in Sahih Muslim 705. Sunni schools allow combining on a journey (and, for some, in rain or illness); the Hanafi school allows it only at Arafat and Muzdalifah during the Hajj.

Placing the right hand over the left goes back, for most Sunnis, to the report in Sahih al-Bukhari 740 that people were ordered to do so in prayer. Many Malikis, like Shia Muslims, pray with their arms at their sides.

The kalima (shahada)

The core testimony is identical: there is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Many Shia Muslims add an affirmation that Ali is the wali (friend or guardian) of God, which Shia jurists teach is not part of the obligatory testimony.

The Prophet's family and his Companions

Both traditions love the Prophet's family, the Ahl al-Bayt: Sunnis send blessings on them in every prayer. They differ on the Companions. Sunnis regard all of them as upright and honour the first caliphs; Shia scholars judge Companions one by one, especially by how they stood with Ali.

This is the most sensitive difference, and for many Muslims in both communities it is a reason for restraint rather than argument. Classical Sunni creeds, such as the one explained by al-Taftazani, teach respect for all the Companions and holding back from criticising them.

How many Shia and Sunni Muslims are there, and where

The Pew Research Center estimated that 87 to 90 percent of the world's Muslims are Sunni and 10 to 13 percent Shia. Shia Muslims are a majority of the population in four countries: Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Iraq. India has one of the largest Shia communities, estimated at 16 to 24 million.

Large Shia communities also live in Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province and Kuwait. In India, Lucknow, once the capital of the Shia Nawabs of Awadh, is known for its Muharram observances, while most Indian Muslims are Sunni and follow the Hanafi school.

Shia and Sunni at a glance

The table sums up the main points above. It describes each tradition in its own terms; it is not a judgement between them. Within each tradition there is variety, and individual scholars and communities may hold positions different from those listed here.

Common questions