RLG204H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Ibadi, Rightful Heir, Twelver
Document Summary
Islam like most world religions is a vast religious tradition that has many different elements in it. We can divide a tradition according to many criteria, like geography (there are muslims in africa, in indonesia etc), or time, like early islam or modern. But we can also recognize what we call sects in a religious tradition. A sect is a distinct religious group inside a larger tradition. There are at least three major sects in islam. The minority is called shiism, and a third very small sect called ibadism (don"t worry this third one is not part of the course). So the first thing to know about the history of islam is that it is a sectarian history. There are many sects in islam, some survived some disappeared. Sunnism made the community the source of authority. Sunnism presents itself as the preserver of the sunnah of. Muhammad and of the early community muhammad built in madina.
