Who are the Salafis, Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites and Wahhabis? The difference between Sunnis and Salafis

The Islamic world has many religious movements. Each group has its own views on the correctness of faith. Because of this, Muslims, having different understandings of the essence of their religion, come into conflict. Sometimes they gain strength and end in bloodshed.

There is even more internal disagreement among different representatives of the Muslim world than with people of another religion. To understand differences in views in Islam, it is necessary to study who are the Salafis, Sunnis, Wahhabis, Shiites and Alawites. Their characteristic features of understanding faith become the cause of fratricidal wars, which bring resonance to the world community.

History of conflict

To understand who the Salafis, Shiites, Sunnis, Alawis, Wahhabis and other representatives of Muslim ideology should understand at the beginning of their conflict.

In the year 632 AD. E. The prophet Muhammad died. His followers began to decide who would be the successor of their leader. Initially Salafis, Alawites and other directions did not exist yet. First there were Sunnis and Shiites. The former considered the personality of the prophet to be the successor of the prophet, elected in the caliphate. And there were a lot of such people. In much smaller numbers at that time there were representatives of a different view. The Shiites began to choose Mohammed's successor among his relatives. Imam for them was a cousin of a prophet named Ali. In those days the adherents of these views were called Shiite Ali.

The conflict escalated in 680, when the son of Imam Ali, whose name was Hussein, was killed by Sunnis. This has led to the fact that even today such disagreements affect society, the system of legislation, families, etc. The ruling elites subject the representatives of opposing views to oppression. Therefore, the Islamic world is restless to this day.

Modern divisions of views

Being the second largest religion of the world, Islam eventually gave birth to many sects, trends and views on the essence of religion. Salafis and Sunnis, the difference between which will be discussed later, arose in a different period of time. The Sunnis were originally a fundamental direction, and the Salafis appeared much later. The latter today are considered a more extremist trend. Many religious scholars claim that the Salafis and Wahhabis can only be called Muslims with great reserve. The emergence of such religious communities occurs precisely from sectarian Islam.

In the realities of the current political situation it is the extremist organizations of Muslims that cause bloody conflicts in the East. They have considerable financial resources and can carry out revolutions, establishing their dominance on Islamic lands.

The difference between Sunnis and Salafis is quite large, but this is at first glance. With a deeper study of their principles, a completely different picture emerges. To understand it, you should consider the characteristics of each of the directions.

Sunnis and their beliefs

The largest (about 90% of all Muslims) in Islam is a group of Sunnis. They follow the path of the Prophet and recognize his great mission.

The second after the Koran, the Sunna is the basic book for this direction of religion. Initially, its content was transmitted orally, and then it was decorated in the form of hadith. Adherents of this direction are very sensitive to these two sources of their faith. If there is no answer to a question in the Quran and the Sunnah, people are allowed to make a decision on their reasoning.

Sunnis differ from Shiites, Salafis and other currents in their treatment of the hadith. In some countries, following the precepts based on the life example of the Prophet came to a literal understanding of the essence of righteousness. It happened that even the length of the beard of men, the details of the garments should have been exactly the same as the instructions of the Sunnah. This is their main difference.

Sunnis, Shiites, Salafis and other directions look at the connection with Allah in different ways. Most Muslims tend to believe that they do not need an intermediary to perceive the word of God, therefore, power is transferred by election.

Shiites and their ideology

Unlike the Sunnis, the Shiites believe that the divine power is transferred to the heirs of the Prophet. Therefore, they recognize the possibility of interpreting its injunctions. This can only be done by people who have a special right to do so.

The number of Shiites in the world is inferior to the Sunni trend. Salafis in Islam are radically opposite in their views on the interpretation of sources of faith comparable to Shiites. The latter recognize the right of the Prophet's heirs, who are the leaders of their group, to mediate between Allah and people. They are called imams.

The Salafis and Sunnis believe that Shiites allowed themselves unauthorized innovations in the understanding of the Sunnah. Therefore, their views are so opposite. There is a huge number of sects and currents that have taken the basis of the Shiite understanding of religion. These include Alawites, Ismailis, Zeidites, Druze, Sheikhits and many others.

This Muslim direction is distinguished by dramaticism. On the day of Ashura, Shiites in different countries hold mourning performances. This is a heavy, emotional procession, during which participants beat themselves to the blood with chains and swords.

Representatives of both Sunni and Shiite directions have in their composition many groups that can even be attributed to a separate religion. In all the nuances it is difficult to understand even with a close study of the views of each Muslim trend.

Alawites

Salafi and Alawith are considered more new religious currents. On the one hand, they have many principles similar to orthodox directions. Alawites, many theologians refer to the followers of the Shiite teachings. However, due to their special principles, they can be identified as a separate religion. The similarity of the Alawites to the Shiite Muslim direction is manifested in the liberty of views on the prescriptions of the Koran and the Sunnah.

This religious group has a distinctive feature called "takoyya." It is the ability of the Alawite to perform the rites of other beliefs, while retaining their views in the soul. This is a closed group, in which there are many directions and views.

Sunnis, Shiites, Salafis, Alawites are opposed to each other. This manifests itself more or less. Alawites, called polytheists, in the opinion of representatives of radical trends, are more harmful to the Muslim community than the "infidels".

This is really a separate faith within religion. Alawites unite elements of Islam and Christianity in their system. They believe in Ali, Mohammed and Salman al-Farsi, while celebrating Easter, Christmas, honoring Isa (Jesus) and the apostles. In worship, the Alawites can read the Gospel. Sunnis can peacefully get along with the Alawites. Conflicts are started by aggressively-minded communities, for example, Wahhabis.

Salafi

Sunnis have spawned many directions within their religious group, to which belong a variety of Muslims. Salafis are one of such organizations.

They formed their basic views in the 9th to 14th centuries. Their main principle of ideology is the following of the way of life of ancestors who led a righteous existence.

In the whole world, including in Russia, there are about 50 million Salafis. They do not accept any innovations regarding the interpretation of faith. This direction is also called fundamental. Salafis believe in one God, criticize other Muslim currents, allowing themselves to make interpretation of the Koran and the Sunnah. In their opinion, if some places in these shrines are incomprehensible to a person, they should be accepted in the form in which the text is presented.

In our country there are about 20 million Muslims in this direction. Undoubtedly, the Salafis in Russia also live in small communities. Greater opposition to them is not caused by Christians, but by "unfaithful" Shiites and the currents derived from them.

Wahhabis

One of the new radical trends in the Islamic religion are Wahhabis. They look like Salafis at first glance. Wahhabis deny innovations in the faith, fighting for the concept of monotheism. They do not accept everything that was not in the original Islam. However, the distinctive feature of Wahhabis is their aggressive attitude and their understanding of the basic foundations of the Muslim faith.

Such a flow arose in the 18th century. This chaotic movement originates from the preacher Najad Muhammad Abdel Wahhab. He wanted to "cleanse" Islam from innovations. Under this slogan, they organized an uprising, which resulted in the seizure of neighboring lands of the oasis of Al-Qatif.

In the 19th century, the Wahhabi movement was defeated by the Ottoman Empire. After 150 years, ideology was able to revive Al Saud Abdelaziz. He defeated his opponents in Central Arabia. In 1932 he created the state of Saudi Arabia. When developing oil deposits, the American currency flowed into the Wahhabi clan.

In the 70s of the last century, during the war in Afghanistan, Salafi schools were established. They wore a radical type of Wahhabi ideology. The fighters, who were trained by these centers, were called mujahideen. This movement is often associated with terrorism.

The difference between Wahhabism and Salafism from Sunni principles

To understand who the Salafis and Wahhabis are, one should consider their basic ideological principles. Researchers argue that these two religious communities are identical in meaning. However, it is necessary to distinguish the Salafi direction from the Takfiri.

Today the reality is that Salafis do not accept new interpretations of ancient religious principles. Acquiring a radical direction of development, they lose their fundamental concepts. Even to call them Muslims can be a stretch. Their connection with Islam is only the recognition of the Quran as the main source of the word of Allah. In other respects, Wahhabis are completely different from the Sunni Sunite. Everything depends only on who is meant by the common name. True Salafis are representatives of a large group of Sunni Muslims. Do not confuse them with radical sects. Salafis and Wahhabis, whose difference cardinally, have different views on religion.

Now these two opposing groups are mistakenly synonymous. Wahhabi Salafis arbitrarily accepted the fundamentals of their faith as completely alien to Islam. They reject the whole amount of knowledge (nakl), transmitted by Muslims from the most ancient times. Salafis and Sunnis, the difference which exists only in some views on religion, is opposed to Wahhabis. From the latter they differ in their views on jurisprudence.

As a matter of fact, Wahhabis replaced all ancient Islamic principles with new ones, creating their sharihad (subject to religion territory). They do not respect monuments, ancient tombs, and the Prophet is considered simply a mediator between Allah and people, not experiencing before him the inherent in all Muslims reverence. According to Islamic principles, jihad can not be declared arbitrarily.

Wahhabism, however, allows one to lead an unjust life, but after accepting "righteous death" (blasting oneself to destroy "infidels"), a person is guaranteed a place in paradise. Islam also considers suicide a terrible sin that can not be forgiven.

The essence of radical views

The Salafis are mistakenly correlated with the Wahhabis. Although their ideology still corresponds to the Sunnis. But in the realities of the modern world, it is customary to mean wahhabites-taksfritov under the Salafis. If we take such groups in a mutilated sense, we can distinguish a number of differences.

The Salafis, who abandoned their true nature, share radical views, consider all other people to be apostates who deserve punishment. Salafi Sunnis, on the contrary, even Christians and Jews are called "people of the Scriptures" who profess early belief. They can coexist peacefully with representatives of other views.

To understand who the Salafis are in Islam, one should pay attention to one truth that distinguishes real fundamentalists from self-proclaimed sects (which, in fact, are Wahhabis).

Sunnis-Salafis do not accept new interpretations of the ancient sources of Allah's will. And the new radical groups reject them, replacing the true ideology with principles that are advantageous for themselves. It's just a means of managing people for their own mercenary purposes to achieve even greater power.

This is not Islam at all. After all, all of its main principles, values and relics were swept away, trampled and found to be false. Instead of them, the concepts and models of behavior beneficial to the ruling elite were artificially laid in people's minds. It is a destructive force, recognizing the good deed of killing women, children and the elderly.

Overcoming hostility

Drowning in the study of who the Salafis are, one can come to the conclusion that using the ideology of religious trends for the selfish purposes of the ruling elite foments wars and bloody conflicts. At this time, there is a change of power. However, people's faith should not cause fratricidal enmity.

As the experience of many states of the East shows, representatives of both orthodox trends in Islam can coexist peacefully. This is possible with the appropriate position of the authorities in relation to the religious ideology of each community. Any person should have the opportunity to profess the faith that he believes is right, not claiming that dissenters are enemies.

The example of peaceful coexistence of adherents of different beliefs in the Muslim community is the family of President of Syria Bashad Assad. He confesses the Alawite direction, and his wife is a Sunni. He celebrates both the Muslim Sunni Eid al-Adh and the Christian Easter.

Deepening into the Muslim religious ideology, one can understand in general terms who the Salafis are. Although they are generally identified with the Wahhabis, the true essence of this faith is far from such views on Islam. The gross replacement of the basic principles of Eastern religion by beneficial principles of the ruling elite leads to aggravation of conflicts between representatives of various religious communities and bloodshed.