As we all know, the two main sources of revealed laws for Muslims are the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of Prophet pbuh. Most, if not all Muslims, agree on the content/text of Quran, as Allah has indeed swore that Quran will not be corrupted.
Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian. (Al-Hijr:9)
The Sunnah are those acts that were acted upon, sayings or an agreement on acts that the companions did. If any act was in contrast with the Shariah, Rasulullah pbuh would have objected to it as its his sifat(nature) to convey the truth and object falsehood. When it comes to following the Sunnah, the Sunnis and Shia have big differences.
Shia, originates from the word Shi’atu (followers of Ali ra), is second largest branch after Sunni. They basically believe that Muhammad Pbuh explicitly appointed Ali bin Abi Talib as his successor, the twelve imamates and messianic return of the last recognized Imam.
When it comes to the Prophetic acts or sayings, one need to analyse the worthiness of the narrators, also known as the science of narrators or ‘Ilmul Rijal’. Normally authentic narrations starts from the Prophet pbuh himself down to narrators, via the companions. These narrations will reach the compilers where the characteristics of narrators were scrutinized. Hence derived the six main book of hadiths by Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood, Ibn Majah and An-Nasai, known as ‘Kutub as-Sittah’
In contrary, the Shia follows separate collection of hadith books. Kitab Al-Kafi, Man La Yahduruhu Al-Faqih, Tahdhib Al-Ahkam and Al-Istibsar are its 4 major hadith books, considered equal to Sunni’s six main hadith books. These books were authored by their imams, whom are considered undisputable and correct. For an example, Al-kafi (16199 hadith) is considered the most authentic by the Shias. However, its reported that the book was written by Muhammad Ya’qoob Al-Kulaini in the 4th century after Hijrah.
The main difference was that he attributed the hadiths to Prophet saw without the chain of narration. Secondly, it were connected to the 12 imams without connected chains – to Ja’far As-Sadiq, to his father Muhammad Baqir, let alone to Hasan, Husain, Ali as well as to the prophet pbuh. Since the Shias believe that Ahl al-Bayt (household and progeny of Rasulullah saw) were the most knowledgeable and pious, it’s needless to validated the narrators of the ‘allegedly’ sayings of their imams.
Another approach of the Shias, are that the main focus is on Ali bin Abi Talib. As long as the ‘narrations’ stops at Ali ra, its considered as good as authentic Sunnah.
Since they believe that Ali ra was the rightful inheritor of the Caliph, the other 3 Caliphs were traitors and enemies. So any narrations that originated from them or mentioning them are deem as false. Some other Sahabis who are ‘seemed’ not to be aligned to Ali ra are also are given the same status as the earlier 3 Caliphs. Some of the examples would be the likes of ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, al-Mughirah ibn Shu’bah and Bisr ibn Arta’ah. They were labelled as murderers of the innocent and supported the rule of the Umayyads
The Imams, according to the Shias, were from among the Prophet’s progeny, hence were the chosen inheritors for the Ummah’s leadership . They argued this based on the verse revealed
“Then We gave the Book for an inheritance to those whom We chose from among Our servants;…” (Sura Fatir, 35:32).
According to the tafsir of Ibn Katsir, ‘servants’ above refer to the Ummah, which are divided into three categories. As explained further in the full verse (which the Shia scholars did not quote), the ‘servants’ are either wronged themselves, following the middle path and those who are highly righteous.
In a hadith by Imam Muslim, the Shia scholars further justified their undisputed allegiance to the statement of their Imams,
The Prophet saw (S) said:
“… The Book of Allah and my Household (Ahl al-Bayt), I urge you to remember Allah regarding my Ahl al-Bayt (He repeated the last statement three times)”.
When the Prophet pbuh said “my family” or ‘my household’ it literally means those who stayed in his house or his bloodline. This is stated clearly in some versions of the hadith, such as the version which says, “my family are the members of my household.” Naturally this means primarily his wives – including Aa’ishah ra, Ummu Salamah ra, Ummu Habibah amongst others. However their narrations are not recognized by the Shiahs. If Ali ra is included as Rasulullah’s pbuh household by virtue of a cousin, then Ibn Al-Abbas ra & Jaafar Abi Talib ra should perhaps be included as well. Likewise if his status as son-in-law, Uthman al-Affan should be included too. The fact that the Shi‘ah restrict the meaning of “ahl al-bayt” to ‘Ali, Faatimah, al-Hasan and al-Husayn (may Allah be pleased with them), clearly distorts the meaning of Prophet’s household to justify their extreme inclination towards Ali ra.
As claimed by the Shias in above points, the leadership is inherited not elected. By strictly adhering to the teachings of their twelve imams, they mostly have one ‘consistent’ view, as opposed to the Sunni. Here, they are primarily referring to the four main schools of fiqh – where its common to have disagreements amongst the sects. In essence they are claiming their superiority or correctness due to this consistency.
The Sunni schools would argue, the disagreements are normally minor as Prophet pbuh may have acted/said differently of different occasions. Also these are not fundamental issues like belief & Imaan but rather on the application of Ibadah acts. That’s why in the view of Sunnis, the science of hadith narrators is crucial in validating hadiths.
The authors of Sunni Sihah (authentic books for Sunnis) have very often narrated from people who were known for their hatred and enmity for Ahlul-Bayt (a.s). Such people undoubtedly are sinners and their narrations should not be accepted. The following are only a few examples:
1. Abu-Horaira. He converted to Islam only about 20 months prior to the demise of the HolyProphet of Islam (p), yet, Sunnis have narrated over 5000 narrations from him, but only 58 narrations from Imam Ali (a.s) who had lived with the Prophet (P) from his childhood! Isn’t this strange?! Bukhari even narrated a Hadith from Abu-Horira that he has confessed it’s his fabrication! (Bukhari, vol.6 p.190, the Book of Nafaqat, chapter 1)