The Encyclopedia of World Religions

420 S Shi’ite Islam

unrest at the time. His grasp on the government was never firm. Upon Ali’s death, his son Hasan abdicated in favor of the powerful, ambitious, and militarily successful Muawiyah (caliph, 661–680). He lived the rest of his life in retirement and died in 669. At that point Hasan’s brother Husayn became the rightful IMAM , the name Shi’ites give the leader of the community. Muawiyah died in 680, and Husayn saw an opportunity to assert his claims. But while he was traveling to gather supporters, he and his family were intercepted at a place in southern Iraq called Karbala. Negotiations failed, and a massacre followed. Husayn’s head was sent to the new caliph, Yazid, in Damascus. Only one of his sons survived. Throughout the world Shi’ites remember this event every year with mourning in an observance known as Ashura. During the next several generations the Shi’ite community split over who was the rightful imam. Three major groups emerged. They are commonly called “fivers,” “seveners,” and “twelvers.” Fivers favor the claims of a grandson of Husayn named Zayd to have been the fifth imam. He and his followers insisted that it was their duty to overthrow illegitimate rulers with force. They had limited success. In the late ninth century they established a state in Yemen, where fivers contin ued in power until 1963. Seveners and twelvers differ over the question of who was the seventh imam. Seveners say it was Ismail, the older son of the sixth imam. His father had appointed him imam, but he died before his father did: Seveners insist that Ismail’s appointment stands anyway, and they followed Ismail’s son. In the 10th century a sevener established the Fatimid dynasty, and seveners ruled Egypt for roughly 200 years. From the Fatimids came the Nizari Ismailis, a group known in the Middle Ages as the ASSAS SINS , and a small community with its own religion known as the D RUZE . Today the Nizari Ismailis are a peaceful and peace-loving community. They rec ognize the A GA K HAN as their imam. The twelvers are the largest Shi’ite group. They recognize the 12th imam as the last. In 873 C . E ., they say, the 12th imam went into hiding.

Eventually he will emerge from hiding and restore true Islam. In the meantime he inspires religious scholars, known as mujtahidin or AYATOLLAHS , who lead the community. In the 16th century a twelver Shi’ite dynasty, the Safavids, took control of Iran. The Shi’ite community was instrumental in bring ing about the Iranian revolution of 1979. BELIEFS, PRACTICES, AND ORGANIZATION Like all Muslims, Shi’ites practice the five pillars of the FAITH . They accept the Q UR ’ AN as authentic. They also recognize the authority of the proph et’s words and deeds as recorded in the (Shi’ite) H ADITH . The major difference between Sunni and Shi’ite Islam is over who should govern the com munity and how. As already noted, the Shi’ites say a single person known as the imam should rule both politically and religiously. For them, the imam is God’s own witness on Earth. He possesses perfect religious knowledge. As a result, Shi’ites also differ from Sunnis on how the Muslim community learns what is right. According to Sunnis, the Qur’an and the Hadith of the prophet teach what is right. The consensus of religious scholars determines what they mean. When one confronts situations not found in the Qur’an and the Hadith, as happens today, religious scholars determine what is right by reasoning from analogy. Shi’ites reject both the consensus of schol ars and reasoning from analogy. They add to the Hadith of the prophet the pronouncements of imams. To determine what is required today, some communities, such as the Nizari Ismailis, consult their imam; others, such as the twelvers, consult a recognized religious scholar, who rea sons independently. This reasoning results in the issuing of a legal pronouncement known as a fatwa. One of the most notorious fatwas of the 20th century was pronounced by the leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He called upon Muslims to kill a novelist, Salman Rushdie, because, Khomeini claimed, Rushdie had blas phemed God and the Qur’an in one of his books. One should emphasize that this particular fatwa