Slides

1. Sunni Shia Difference
How are Sunnism and Shi‘ism different? What are these differences
based on? Does Shi’sim have a parallel set of intellectual traditions?
How are Shi’ intellectual differences different from Sunni ones on
account of these basic differences?

2. What/where are the Shia in Public Discourse
• Whether you are Sunni, or Shia, think a little about religious discourse
in Pakistan today.
• Newspapers, the back of rikshas, television, Islamiyat textbooks, etc.
• Do we talk about and acknowledge Religious Difference in Pakistan?
• How do we talk about religious difference in Pakistan? How do we
talk about sectarian difference in Pakistan?
• In public discourse, what perspective tends to be presented the
most? Do we label these perspectives as perspectives or not?
• Have you been told about this? What do you know about it?
• Is this difference a problem? If it's a problem, what's the solution?

3. Origins: Problem of Authority (Diagram)
• The Shi‘a from that of the Sunnis because of the differences between the
two over the question of who has authority after the Prophet and what is
the nature of that authority:
• For the Sunnis, it is the community, represented by its scholars, who are vested with
the religious authority of interpreting revelation (and collecting in terms of the
Hadith)
• For the Sunnis (eventually), the ruler need not have any special religious distinction
(though at least initially, he was meant to be a member of the Quraysh), and that it is
sufficient that the ruler is a Muslim, and willing to accept the ideal of the Shariah,
and is an efficient and successful political ruler. The rest the scholars can do and he
should allow them to do this work
• For the Shia, the answer to the question of authority after the Prophet is a
very different one, and is understood through the concept of the Imamate,
though things after the Imam resemble the Sunni scenario

4. Historical Memory
• The significance of Ali and his relationship to the Prophet
• Key moments throughout the Prophet’s life, including the event of Ghadir
Khumm, on the way back from the farewell pilgrimage, and controversial ones
like what he was going to write before is death
• Hadith reports that are held in the Sunni and the Shia traditions, but
interpreted differently
• Quranic verses that are revealed in relation to an event in which Ali is involved
• How different reports are interpreted by the Sunnis and the Shia
• Immediately after the Prophet’s death
• Caliphate decided on without participation of Ali and family of the Prophet,
some early differences and conflicts
• Ali passed up in leadership, disagreeable, but quiet overall to protected the
community’s integrity / Sunnis present him as having been more positive
• Very Small group of supporters of ’Ali, not prominent companions

5. The Early Imams
• Limited following
• A story of betrayal by supporters in Kufa – the movement of those who
seek tauba
• A story of violent/brutal suppression by political powers of the just cause
and the rightful leaders (history repeats itself)
• Politically quietest Imams / the introduction of the principle of taqiyya
(dissimulation) for self-preservation
• A number of movements of political rebellion, especially against
Ummayads
• People looking to the family of the Prophet, especially in the face of
injustice
• Trauma and memory of the death of Husayn and his family

7. Piety: Distinct Shia Rituals
• Ghadir Khumm – Eid e Ghadir
• Celebratory positive mood
• Ashura
• Mourning
• The visitation of the tombs of the Imams