ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Discovering Shi'i Islam Chapter 3: Doctrines Throughout the history of Islam, Muslims in spite of their differences, have had great agreement, not only in many principles of Islam, but also in many of its practices.

The Qur’an and the great personality of the Prophet on the one hand, and the sincere love and devotion of all Muslims towards them, have unified Muslims and made out of them a real nation that has its own identity, heritage, aims, objectives and destiny. The hostility of the enemies of Islam, who have always been trying to uproot Islam as a whole, along with challenges of the age, have also helped to awaken and strengthen the sense of unity and brotherhood among Muslims.

The Qur’anic and prophetic call for unity and brotherhood has always been echoed by great leading Islamic personalities of different schools of Islam. With respect to beliefs, all Muslims share the belief in God and His unity, in the prophets in general and the mission of the in particular which is to deliver the final message of God for human beings, along with the Resurrection, and the just and equal treatment of everybody on the Day of Judgement.

These are the most fundamental principles of Islam which are agreed upon by all Muslims. An outside view about the extent of the agreement between Shi’a and Sunni Muslims is expressed in the following passage: Since the Iranian Revolution everyone knows that Shi’ites are Muslims, like the Sunnis respecting the central dogma of the oneness of God, the same sacred writing (the Koran), the same Prophet Mohammad, the same belief in the resurrection followed by the last Judgement and the same fundamental obligations, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, almsgiving, and jihad (holy war).

These common points are more important than the differences: there is no longer any theoretical objection to a Shi’ite performing his prayers with a Sunni, or vice versa although many difficulties have existed in the past and in practice still remain. (Richard, p. 5; with abbreviation) In what follows, we will proceed by outlining principles of religion or articles of faith.

Some of the characteristic beliefs of the Shi’a will be examined thereafter.[^1] Principles of religion (1) Unity of God The Islamic faith is formulated by the declaration of two facts, i.e., that there is no god (i.e., no one worthy of worship) but God (Allah) and that Muhammad is His messenger. (La Ilaha Illallah Muhammadur-Rasululla h).