Are Shia and Sunni brothers?

 

I was recently asked by a brother in Yahushua to explain certain facts of the two main branches of Islam because of my own background, the points he brought up were as follows.

  1. Do the Shias and Sunnis agree on the monotheistic faith of Islam?
  2. Do the Shias and Sunnis share the same Qur'an or have differing texts?
  3. Do the Shias and Sunnis pray for the Christians and Jews at all in any way?
  4. Do the Shias and Sunnis hate Jews and Christians if so is this by one group or both and the reasons?

You would wonder why a person would be interested in such things but essentially he is trying to understand the two groups how best we can reach them and what we need to know i.e. points of conflict and points of truth to establish where we stand today.

He had been told by some that the Sunnis pray for the Jews and Christians and are actually very mild while the Shias have corrupted the Qur'anic text and are the haters of Jews and Christians.

Well let's start looking at the creed of Islam for these people whether Sunni or Shia.  Do they believe in one Allah and the answer is yes they both unanimously believe Allah is god and Muhammad is his prophet.

Do they share the same Qur'an?

The answer is yes though the Shias claim vehemently that the Quraish (Muhammad's tribal clan) corrupted the Qur'an in that they removed verses which would have established Ali as a Caliph after Muhammad's death and also claim many Suras were modified even some being expunged which no longer exist in the Qur'an.  This issue runs deep, first of all we have to understand that during Muhammad's time the Qur'an was not yet compiled as this compilation took place later and that is when these charges arose. 

The Hadith are themselves proof that such corrections were done by the hands of men as can be seen in the following example.

According to Ibn Umar and Aisha, Muhammad’s wife, one chapter, Surah al-Ahzab [33] had 200 verses in Muhammad’s time. Yet, once Uthman was finished only 73 verses remained, eliminating nearly 140 verses. This tradition is also confirmed by Ubay b. Kabb. (True Guidance, p. 61- citing Al-Suyuti’s al-Itqan fii ulum al-Qur'an on nasikh wa mansukh; Darwaza’s al-Qur'an Al-Majid) 

Let's look at the Hadiths for further evidence.

Narrated Zaid bin Thabit Al-Ansari:

who was one of those who used to write the Divine Revelation: Abu Bakr sent for me after the (heavy) casualties among the warriors (of the battle) of Yamama (where a great number of Qurra' were killed). 'Umar was present with Abu Bakr who said, 'Umar has come to me and said, The people have suffered heavy casualties on the day of (the battle of) Yamama, and I am afraid that there will be more casualties among the Qurra' (those who know the Qur'an by heart) at other battle-fields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an MAY BE LOST, unless you collect it. And I am of the opinion that you should collect the Qur'an." Abu Bakr added, "I said to 'Umar, 'How can I do something WHICH ALLAH’S APOSTLE HAS NOT DONE?' 'Umar said (to me), 'By Allah, it is (really) a good thing.' So 'Umar kept on pressing, trying to persuade me to accept his proposal, till Allah opened my bosom for it and I had the same opinion as 'Umar." (Zaid bin Thabit added:) Umar was sitting with him (Abu Bakr) and was not speaking. me). "You are a wise young man and we do not suspect you (of telling lies or of forgetfulness): and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle. Therefore, look for the Qur'an and collect it (in one manuscript). " By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) had ordered me to shift one of the mountains (from its place) it would not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Qur'an. I said to both of them, "How dare you do a thing WHICH THE PROPHET HAS NOT DONE?" Abu Bakr said, "By Allah, it is (really) a good thing. So I kept on arguing with him about it till Allah opened my bosom for that which He had opened the bosoms of Abu Bakr and Umar. So I started locating Qur'anic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who knew it by heart). I found with Khuzaima two Verses of Surat-at-Tauba WHICH I HAD NOT FOUND WITH ANYONE ELSE, (and they were) 1

The manuscript on which the Qur'an was collected, remained with Abu Bakr till Allah took him unto Him, and then with 'Umar till Allah took him unto Him, and finally it remained with Hafsa, Umar's daughter. (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 60, Number 201) 2

The number of memorizers that died was 450:

Points to note

  1. A great many people had memorised the Qur'an since no single copy existed, there were several copies floating around.
  2. At least 450 of these reciters died in the battle of Yamama therefore much of the Qur'an they had recited was lost permanently which means today's Qur'an can never be reliable as an original document.
  3. There were individual copies of the Qur'an with both Abu Baker and Umar besides other people like Kab and Abdullah who were the two topmost reciters of the Qur'an.
  4. There was not one standard copy of the Qur'an in Muhammad's time.

Zuhri reports, 'We have heard that many Qur'an passages were revealed but that those who had memorised them fell in the Yemama fighting. Those passages had not been written down, and following the deaths of those who knew them, were no longer known; nor had Abu Bakr, nor `Umar nor `Uthman as yet collected the texts of the Qur'an. (Burton: The published text ought here to be amended: for "fa lamma jama`a Abu Bakr", I propose to read: "wa lamma yajma` Abu Bakr", to follow: "lam yuktab".) Those lost passages were not to be found with anyone after the deaths of those who had memorised them. This, I understand, was one of the considerations which impelled them to pursue the Qur'an during the reign of Abu Bakr, committing it to sheets for fear that there should perish in further theatres of war men who bore much of the Qur'an which they would take to the grave with them on their fall, and which, with their passing, would not be found with any other. (John Burton, The Collection of the Qur'an, pp. 126-127, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, Kitab al-Masahif’, ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 23; bold emphasis ours) 5

As can be seen in numerous Muslim writings they attest that several hundred reciters or memorizers had died thus taking some portions of the Qura'n with them to the grave.

Abdullah bin ‘Amr mentioned ‘Abdullah bin Masud and said, “I shall ever love that man, for I heard the Prophet saying, ‘Take (learn) the Qur'an from four: 'Abdullah bin Masud, Salim, Mu'adh and Ubai bin Ka'b.’” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61, Number 521) 6

The top four reciters of the Qur'an were Abdullah, Salim, Mu'adh and Kab and yet they had their own copies of the Qur'ans that differed from each other.

Hudaifa said, 'The Kufans say, "the text of `Abdullah"; the Basrans say, "the text of Abu Musa". By God! if I reach the Commander of the faithful, I WILL RECOMMEND THAT HE DROWN THESE READINGS." (var. Masahif) `Abdullah said, 'Do and God will drown you, but not in water!' (Burton, pp. 146-147- citing Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 13)  

We can see that the need to bring the Qur'an together arose because the two groups of Muslims one in Iraq and the other in Syria disagreed upon their curent readings i.e. there were variant readings which the Muslims disagreed upon.

We can see that the charge of the corruption of the Qur'an actually falls into the camp of the so called Sunnis not Shias but never the less they still agree on the Qur'anic document in existence today albeit a few points of grievances.

For a minute I thought seems like a nice idea that one group i.e. Shias hates the Jews and Christians and the other doesn't but surely our experience from around the world tells us something completely different!  I can honestly speak for both, the Sunnis being a former Sunni Muslim myself and the Shia's since I grew up with them so I know exactly how they both think.  In fact what maybe shocking to most is that the idea of Shias corrupting the Qur'an is just an idea with no historical truth to it.

First of all are the Shias more violent than the Sunnis?  The assessment of this is important.  Here is a report I received from a Christian in Iraq that concerns the fatal wounding and shooting down of a woman's entire family that came through early October 2006.  They were Shias and of course no marks for guessing the ones who did the horrific act were Sunnis or usually incorrectly labelled insurgents instead of jihadi warriors.  Here is what he writes, "this woman was shot in the face through the eye, stabbed and cut up", she was left for dead.  Now you know what I mean by violence!  This is not your typical Friday night violence after the boys come out from the pub where they end up in a punch up for a girl and have a brawl but this is very sinister type of violence and it is extremely wicked indeed.  Frankly to be honest I must say I know many moderate Sunni Muslims who would have a problem with this type of violence but here we are not talking about the moderates but about very religious Sunni zealots who would have no problem with such acts.  They even behead people and roll their heads on the ground as footballs, you don't believe me, let me show you the proof.  This is from one of the atrocities committed against the Serbs.

This public document was issued by:

Committee for the Collection of Data 
on Crimes Committed Against Humanity and International Law  10, Vlajkoviceva St. Belgrade 

Date: August 23, 1995

In her entry of September 29, 1992, she wrote that the Moslems had taken Glipova Glava, and stated, inter alia:     "... On that same day I saw something I never ever imagined I would see, a chopped off head of a Chetnik [a Serb]. Safet (Devletin) told Hido how some guys had brought a Chetnik head and were playing ball with it. I and Lalo immediately went downtown to see whether that was true. And indeed some guys downtown were really carrying a wrapped head.  Down by Bahro's shop they unwrapped it and I saw it... The face was black and the hair was horrible ... they say that the lad had been young, 22 at most. Nothing is surprising in this fratricidal war. There are lots of heads rolling about..." Proof: 471/95.

This above picture taken by radical Muslims cutting of Serbians heads.

The one taken from the Armenian genocide committed by your friendly Turkish Muslims who by the way are majority Sunnis. 

This is indeed very sobering.  The violence is equally committed by both groups but it appears at least that the Sunnis are definitely the more radical bunch.  We can see Osama bin Laden who is also from a Sunni sect, the band of 19 suicide hijackers that he sent at least fifteen were from Saudi Arabia and of Sunni extraction with a Salafiyya background.  The Afghans who are fighting the war with the US again are mostly Sunni's and not into Shiism.  Abu Musab Al-Zaraqawi was a Sunni jihadi outlook too who was recently killed (2006) by the US Armed forces, he was also actively promoting a jihad against not only Jews and Christians aka the crusaders as they term it but against Shias also and considered them infidels.  However Osama bin Laden was not all to happy with the number of Muslims that were being killed even if they were Shias since in the suicide bombings that ensued the bomb could not differentiate between a walking Sunni or Shia and would kill either.

To be honest in my up bringing I have seen that the Sunnis are more violent than Shias, why do we see Shia mosques being fire bombed or grenades thrown in them, these things are quite common in Muslim nations such as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.  Many Sunnis hate the Shias because they think Shias are causing dissention by doing some practices that give bad name to Islam and the hatred is inbred a bit like the Catholics and Protestants where the one hate the other because of such things as the reformations but again is an inbred thing not necessarily because today Catholics kill Protestants as such.  This is not to say that the Shias do not act the violence because we can see Hizbullah (the party of Allah) in Lebanon that recently fought a war with Israel 2006 whose majority are Shias raised and funded by Iran (Shias) and Syria (Sunnis).  These two sects are the two horns of Revelation 13 that many have failed to recognise!

Revelation 13:11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.

The Beast is Islamic and the horns one is Shia and one is Sunni, it is important for us to understand some realities from the Bible and not just treat it like an ancient book of myths and legends.

Does the Bible teach that these two Muslims brothers would kill each other?  Absolutely it does.

Ezekiel 38:21 "I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,'' says the Lord God. "Every man's sword will be against his brother.

You might rightly question me by saying where is your proof of a second witness because nothing in scripture should be established by one witness alone such as the one verse in Ezekiel.

Deuteronomy 19:15 "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.

Revelation 6:4 And another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.

These people who are killing one another is a typical picture of Muslim killing Muslim as in Iraq so the precedent is set for the beast just like the paradigm in Iraq they kill their own whom they disagree with.

Obadiah 1:7 All the men in your confederacy shall force you to the border; the men at peace with you shall deceive you and prevail against you. Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you. No one is aware of it.

For good measure I have given you three witnesses from the scriptures that totally apply to the Islamic beast who will kill each other.

Do the Shias believe in the same god?

The Shias believe in the same god as Sunnis do, they believe in the Hadiths but there differences vary and stem from the fact that Shias say that Ali who became the son in law to Muhammad should have been the successor after Muhammad's death but Abu-Baker became the Caliph (leader) instead so this is the very heart of the issue to start with.  The fight was all about whether it should be Ali or Abu Baker for the caliphate seat to govern the Muslim Umma (community of the faithful).  The secondary bits are really secondary, i.e. slight variances in worship and other things.

Do the two groups pray for the Christians and Jews? 

Here is the truth and I speak from personal experience of hearing many such sermons.  They do pray for these two groups but wait a minute the prayer is not like the Christians praying for the Muslims to come to know Yahushua but for the Christians and Jews to be annihilated by Allah.  The other prayer is for the infidels to be annihilated as well in which one can also fit the category because according to the Qur'an we are the worst of people who did not believe in Allah.

Sura 98:6  Surely those who disbelieve from among the followers of the Book and the polytheists shall be in the fire of hell, abiding therein; they are the worst of men.

This is the sort of sermon's we often hear.

In my 35 years of life as a Sunni Muslim before I became a disciple of Yahushua I attended many Islamic gatherings and numerous prayer sessions and I can honestly say not one of them had prayers for non-Muslims to know truth.

In fact the Qur'an has this to say on friendship with the people of the book that is for both Jews and Christians.

Sura Al-Maida 5:57 O you who believe! do not take for guardians those who take your religion for a mockery and a joke, from among those who were given the Book before you and the unbelievers; and be careful of (your duty to) Allah if you are believers.

The Qur'an even goes further instructing Muslims not to take guardians from people of the Book i.e. Christians or Jews.

Sura Al-Maida 5:51 O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.

What about the present state?

The Sunnis and Muslims may have their differences but they always come together when the cause is a common one such as killing Jews and Christians and we see this all the time.  I have heard them say many times to fight jointly when the US or UK or any other Western nations are involved.  For Israel the Muslims have a special term, the little Satan and they use terms such as the Zionist entity, the Saturday people, even some deceived Christians use the term the Zionist entity in hatred for Israel as I have heard this from some Palestinian Christians.  The Muslims call the the US the Great Satan, or for Christians the term Sunday people and collectively for them it is the Crusaders.  I think after this we can quite clearly say that when we look at the Islamic world we cannot really say one group of sect such as Sunni is more peaceful than the other such as Shia.

I did not go into the details of Osama Bin Laden, Aman Al-Zawahiri, the late Al-Zaraqawi and the 15 homicide bombers who crashed planes into the US buildings.  The reason is this that all of these are from the Sunni sect of Islam from a Salafiyya background, I don't want to bore you with their family backgrounds, in short it means that they follow a literal interpretation of the Qur'an which by the way is a more accurate translation.  In the Bible also our first rule of thumb is a more literalist interpretation followed by the Remiz, Drash and Sod levels.  However I will say this, in order to accurately interpret the Bible we must put our Hebraic hat on and Greek hat off.  The same way to understand the Qur'an our Arabic 7th century hat needs to come on and 21st century Greek hat off else we will not be able to fully understand the stories and the narrations in the Qur'an.  The second most difficult thing for the Western reader is the lack of chronological order and the historical precedence i.e. what was said where and why and how it applies to the world today and why Muslims do what they do. 

It is too exhaustive to go into all these kind of details but in brief what the so called terrorist e.g. Osama bin Laden and his cohorts do today or what the Afghan brotherhood or the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt practice is far closer to early Islam then what most Muslims want you to believe so be warned and be prepared because a lot worse is yet to come.

 

Shalom Shalom

Rabbi Simon Altaf

For groundbreaking articles…  www.abrahamic-faith.com Truth unleashed but can you handle it?

This article may be distributed freely without alteration and is copyright to Abrahamic-Faith Ministries International.

If you wish to invite Rabbi Simon to your congregation then by all means leave a message or send me a mail at the e-mail address below. Call +44 (0) 1296-486 089.

Snail mail address: BM Abrahamic-Faith, London, WC1X 3NN, England (UK).

Simon Altaf was chosen by G-d for the special End-Times prophetic calling. A lone voice in the wilderness, one taught by G-d (Ps 119:120-121), a Messianic Rabbi, writer. He is an ex Sunni Muslim from the tribe of Levi called out of Islam to rejoin His people after his long exile.

We hope this article has been a blessing to you.  Please write to us and let us know if this has been a help to you and if you have any other questions or wish to receive our ground shattering quarterly Newsletter.  Send the mail to shimoun63@yahoo.com.  For prophecy books and DVDs that will help many understand the Bible more.

http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/Books/books.html

Get the best Hebrew Roots Torah; this will become your Torah of choice opening up many areas of the Renewed Covenant (NT) writings which will give you a whole new understanding.  The Torah is now available to order on site.  The AF Complete Bible being released in June 2010.

 

To order click here…. http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/Books/af-Bible.html

 

 

 

1,2,3,4,5,6,7 - The Compilation of the Quran - Sam Shamoun