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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Shi’ite Islam: Orthodoxy Or Heterodoxy? Second Amended and Amplified Edition Introduction: The Issue at Hand In a concise chapter dealing with Shī‘ism, Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb echoes a persistent prejudice: the categorical affirmation that Shī‘ite Islām, with respect to Sunnī Islām, is “the other main sect of Islām--the only important schismatic sect.”[^1] To him, Shī‘ism is the ubi consistam [essence] of the definition of sect which, according to his understanding, embraces diverse “systems of Islamic doctrines and beliefs which are generally repudiated by the orthodox...as heretical” (81).

To speak of “heresy” in Islām, however, requires a sufficiently clear understanding of its meaning.[^2] When Gibb uses the word “heretical,” however, he does not use it as descriptive adjective nor is he necessarily making a value judgement. For him, it is merely a matter of fact which needs to be analyzed. The most disturbing aspect of this conception of Shī‘ism, however, is not the simplistic explanation it gives to its historical development, but rather its excessively broad scope.

It does not say anything for want of saying too much. Gibb attempts to give a broad definition of “sect” and “heresy,” applying it to everything in Islām that remotely resembles other Eastern traditions. The evidence he provides, however, is far too scarce. He insists on demonstrating, at any cost, that Shī‘ism is inherently schismatic and sectarian.

He uses the literary elasticity of the word “sect” [in English] to explain that Shī‘ite Islām, due to its minority status in the Muslim world, must constitute a doctrinal off-shoot or a split from the Islamic majority. At the same time, he wishes to prove that true “orthodoxy” is to be found almost exclusively in the Sunnī doctrinal tradition.[^3] The erroneous application of the term “sect” to Shī‘ite Islām, however, does not resolve the problem of its historical origin.

A true understanding of Shī‘ite Islām cannot be obtained through insufficient scholarship. It can only be reached through a close analysis of its religious and spiritual psychology as manifested in the Islamic world.