Recitation of the Holy Scripture.

And surely We will test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits; but give good news to the patient ones.

And We do not burden any soul except to its capacity, and with Us is a Record which speaks with truth; and they will not be wronged.

The believers are but brothers, so make peace between your brothers and fear God so that you may receive mercy.

And He is the One Who multiplied you in the earth and to Him you will be gathered.

End of Recitation of the Holy Scripture.

In part 33 I concluded the major Sunni sects. Let’s talk about Shia Muslims. Shia Muslims are the second largest denomination of Islam after Sunni almost 20% of the World Muslim population. The word Shia comes from shiatu Ali which means followers of Ali or party of Ali. As I told you in part 30 that fundamental difference between Sunni and Shia sects is on the selection of Muhammad’s successor. Shias believe it should be members of Muhammad’s family and especially descendants of Muhammad. They say that prophet did announce Ali as successor at the event of Ghadir Khum Ghadir Pond of Khum. While the Sunnis believe that it doesn’t necessarily have to be that. Now because so much of this revolves around the family of Muhammad. This division becomes stronger and stronger specially after brutal incidents happened with Muhammad’s family during Ummayyah and Abbasids rule and because of more and more bloodshed between the two parties.

Shia Muslims are also subdivided into many sub-sects based on jurisprudence and theological differences. I will give you a brief introduction of almost all of them but before that let me also give you a summary of most important Shia books other than Quran. Starting from the books that are famous for commentary on Quran i.e Tafseer books. On top of the list is Tafseer e Masoomeen, then At-Tibyan Fi Tafsir al-Quran (التبیان فی تفسیر القرآن By Shaykh Tusi born in 995. Then comes Tafsir al-Mizan full name Al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qur’an الميزان في تفسير القرآن, by Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, died in1981, then comes Al-Bayan Fi Tafsir al-Quran by Ayatollah Abu Al-Qasim Al-Khoei.

Then there are books attributed to Imams either compiled by themselves or later. At the top of the list is Nahj al-Balagha which in English means The Peak of Eloquence. Believed to be the words of Ali bin Talib and is actually a collection of sermons speeches narrations letters and Tafseer compiled by tenth-century scholar Sharif Razi born in 970AD in Baghdad, over almost 300 years after Ali. It includes nearly 241 sermons, 79 letters, and 489 narrations ranging from the creation of the World, the creation of Adam, end of the Universe and the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi.

Then is another book Al-Jafr by Ali ibn Abi Talib which