Branches of Islam & Family Tree of Shia Imams
hi this is Matt Baker today I'm going to explain the various branches of Islam around 85 percent of Muslims in the world today belong to the Sunni branch which is generally considered to be the mainstream Islam however the remaining 15 percent belong to shiaism and are called shias shias form the majority in countries such as Iran and Iraq and form sizable minorities in other Muslim countries as well in this video we're going to take a look at the differences between shias and sunnis as well as the family tree of the various Shia imams and how this led to even more divisions in the end I'll also talk briefly about the third main sect of Islam as well foreign so the main Schism between shias and sunnis began as a political divide not a religious one to explain the early history of the Divide I'm going to use our Asian royal family trees chart which is available as a poster on our website usefulcharts.com as I'm sure you know the religion of Islam was founded by a man named Muhammad who was both a religious leader but also a political leader when he passed away in 632 he left behind a pretty sizable Empire which controlled most of Arabia according to the sunnis Muhammad left no designated successor since he didn't have any sons that survived Early Childhood there was a succession crisis in the chaos after his death his close friend and father-in-law Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph a word that literally just means successor Ali the prophet's closest living male relative was completely sidelined you can see here that he was a cousin of the prophet and he was also married to fatuma the prophet's daughter so many Muslims at the time believed that Ali deserved the caliphate according to Shia's Muhammad had actually declared Ali to be his political successor but sunnis dispute this Ali was overlooked for the caliphate twice more when Abu Bakr died Umar succeeded him and then after him utman it was only when utman died in 655 that Ali finally came to power so basically this is where the Divide between the shias and the sonis begins sunnis venerate all the companions of the prophet and consider them all to have been Pious Muslims shias however don't believe this they see Abu Bakr Umar and utman as not only usurpers who stole the caliphate from Ali but also as oppressors they don't see them as legit legitimate caliphs for them Ali was the first Caleb not the fourth okay let's now talk about the theological ramifications of this divide of course at the center of Islam is the Quran which Muslims consider to be the verbatim word of God however when it comes to interpreting the Quran sunnis and shias go to separate sources since sunnis respect all companions meaning anyone who followed Muhammad during his lifetime they can rely on what the companion said about Muhammad's sayings and actions these sayings and actions form something called the hadiths and these serve as the core of Islamic law also known as Sharia however for shias that's not really an option since they see a lot of the companions as being corrupt men who opposed and oppressed Ali so they largely rely on the imams for jurisprudence Imam literally just means leader or guide in addition to to the imams they also follow Hadith but only those narrated by the companions who sided with Ali sunnis have imams as well but for sunnis and Imam is just any man who has studied the Quran and the Hadith deeply and has made a large contribution to Islam maybe in the form of compiling the hadiths or expanding on the Sharia however for Shia's imams have to be descendants of Muhammad also for sunnis imams can be wrong or mistaken but for shias imams are infallible and divinely guided finally for sunnis there is the concept of each ma meaning consensus a number of Scholars can debate and reach a conclusion on a particular problem but for shias the imam's word is the final word sunnis have four main schools of Jerusalem Prudence based on four famous imams Imam Abu hanifa Imam Malik Imam as Shafi and Imam IBN humbal these four schools have their own divisions that branched off later but in general there are four however for shias there's only one main school and that was the one founded by Imam Jafar as Sadiq we'll get to him in a sec let's now take a look at the family tree of Shia imams so the family tree of the Shia imams begins with Ali the first Imam you can see here that both Muhammad and Ali descend from a man named Hashim their great grandfather it's because of him that the family of Muhammad is often called the hashemites it's also from him that the hashemite kingdom of Jordan gets its name the ruling Dynasty there claims descent from Muhammad through his grandson al-hassan another Dynasty that was Hashem was the Abbasid Dynasty which ruled the Abbasid caliphate from 750 to 1258. we have a separate video on them that you should certainly check out returning to Ali Ali had two sons with Fatima al-hasan and al-hussein as I mentioned Ali was skipped over for the caliphate three times but finally came to power after the death of utman in 655. his Reign was marked by a civil war between him and a man named muavia Ali was assassinated in 661 at which point his eldest son al-hassan became the second Imam some people consider al-hasan to be the next rightful caliph however he actually abdicated the caliphate in favor of muavia in order to end the civil war after this he mostly retired from public life until his death in 670 shias believed that he was poisoned by muavia at this point al-hassan's younger brother al-hussein became the third Imam unlike his brother all Hussein was more interested in public life when muavia died in 680 al-hussein came to the Forefront of the political drama that was about to engulf the Islamic caliphate muavia chose his son yazid to be his Heir this was the first hereditary appointment of a caliph and it was seen as extremely unislamic as it would lead to the formation of an official Dynasty which became known as the umayyad dynasty al-hussein refused to swear allegiance to the Umayyads and as a result he was killed in the Battle of karbala in 680. the events of the Kabbalah have been hugely commemorated to such an extent that the anniversary of the battle is still observed all over the Islamic world and Hussein is venerated as a great innocent martyr among the survivors of the battle was Al Hussein's son Ali IBN al-hussein who became the fourth Imam he is the last of the imams that are considered to be an Imam by all shias at this point imams became secluded and didn't take part in politics for the most part instead they lived quiet lives in Medina or Mecca and passed on their teaching to their pupils who eventually formed the Corpus of the Shia Faith Ali IBN al-hussein's death marks the beginning of the first Schism within the Shia Community the first Branch here is the zaidi shias they consider Zaid IBN Ali to be the fifth Imam he rebelled against the umayyad caliphate and was killed but he is still considered to have been a legitimate caliph by the zaidi shias he stands in contrast to the twelver Imam as being militant and not spending a quiet life of patience and teaching instead he wanted to overthrow the oppressive umayyad rule in fact to this day you see the spirit of fighting for what's right among the zaidis they formed various Empires throughout the Islamic World primarily on the periphery in areas such as Northern Iran Morocco and Yemen they're still found in Yemen in large numbers in fact the houthi movement which is a major player in the yemeni Civil War is primarily a zaidi group among other Shia groups Ali IBN al-hussein's other son Muhammad al-baqir is considered the fifth Imam he lived a quiet life in Madina and passed away in 732. he was succeeded by Jafar as Sadiq as the sixth Imam he lived during the time when power shifted from the umaya dynasty to the Abbasid Dynasty which was also the period in which the various Sunni schools of law developed as a result he developed his own School known as the Jafari school it wouldn't be wrong to say that Jafar as Sadiq was the most influential Imam since al-hussein IBN Ali that's because not only do a majority of shias follow his law code but he is also revered among the sunnis he was the teacher of the founders of two Sunny schools as well namely Abu hanifa the founder of the hanifa school and Malik even and unas the founder of the Maliki School many of his followers also founded their own Sufi orders Sufi Islam being a mystical form of Islam it's not really its own Branch as sufis can be found among both sunnis and shias anyway Jafar as Sadiq was also a renowned transmitter of hadiths and many scientific works are attributed to him as well his death in 765 created yet another Schism it is said that during his lifetime he had declared his son Ismail to be his successor however Ismail died during his lifetime so there was a question over the succession many believed that the successor should now be his other son Musa but others believed that the Imam was infallible and that therefore the succession should pass from Ismail to ismail's descendants those who followed Musa later known as became known as twelvers whereas the followers of Ismael and his son Muhammad are known as the ismailis during Musa al-khadim's time the abbasids decided to crack down on the descendants of Ali called alids because of a Revolt led by an elite named Muhammad al-nus al-zakiyah he was a descendant of al-hasan IBN Ali the second Imam this resulted in a serious breakdown of relations between the abbasids and the allieds Musa al-qadim along with other allieds had to pay the price Musa spent prolonged periods of time imprisoned in Baghdad according to the twelvers all 12 imams were murdered the first Imam Ali was assassinated and the third Imam al-hussein died in battle the rest according to them were poisoned for example Musa al-qadim is said to have died in prison in Baghdad by poisoning the next Imam was Ali al-rida at this point the Abbasid caliph al-mamoon tried to repair the relationships between the alides and the abbasids he declared Ali al-rida to be his Heir and even married one of his daughters to him however al-rida died before the caliph again she is claimed that he was poisoned the next three imams all LED fairly quiet lives with varying degrees of relations with the abbasids at Hassan al-ass Curry's death in 874 the twelvers had another succession crisis mainstream twelvers believed in a secret child and heir of al-ascari named Muhammad who was later known as Muhammad al-madi however he's said to have remained in hiding for his entire life only publicly communicating through others for this reason he is known as the hidden Imam from 873 3 to 9 41 he is said to have been in minor occultation which means that he was alive and in hiding however in 941 he is said to have gone into what's called major occultation which means that he's alive through God's will and his life has been prolonged but he is hidden from everyone and does not communicate twelvers believe that he will return from major occultation near the end of time this is the reason why he's called al-madi Ahmadi is a Messianic figure that was prophesied by Prophet Muhammad to appear near the end of days throughout history various people have claimed to be al-madi going back to Hassan al-ascari at his death another disciple of his named IBN nusair claimed to be the agent of the Hidden Imam himself hence breaking away from the mainstream twelvers he was excommunicated by them and therefore founded the alawite sect which is a very secret branch of shias found mainly in Syria let's now return to Jafar as Sadiq remember upon his death one group of his followers believed in the imamet of his son Ismail and therefore founded the ismaili sect the ismailis themselves broke into many subgroups one group believed that the imamate had ended with the son of Ismail Muhammad IBN Ismail so they believe in only seven imams they are known as seveners the other group claimed that several of the descendants of Ismael went on to become imams but remained in hiding due to the threat of the Abbasid caliphate from 765 to 909 these hidden imams communicated only through agents known as the da e the Dai formed a secret network of preachers who were trying to win allies for their cause this changed in 909 when a man named Abdullah IBN al-hussein declared himself to be the hidden Modi the Dai broke apart in their support some recognized Abdullah well others rejected him among those who rejected him was a man named hundan kermat who founded the carnation subsect the carnations are famous for the revolt against the Abbasid caliphate they used gorilla tactics and raided in southern Iraq Eastern Syria and Eastern Arabia they were mostly hated by almost everyone because they attacked Mecca itself in 9 30 and stole the sacred Black Stone this put a huge Target on their back and they were slowly defeated to the point that the order was eventually completely destroyed but back to Abdullah al-madi he founded the Fatimid caliphate which ruled a large part of North Africa and even the holy cities of Mecca Madina and Jerusalem they kept ruling as caliph imams until 1094 when there was another succession crisis between two climates to the throne one claimant was nizar who was arrested and executed by his brother al-musthali the followers of Nazar are known as nazaris while the followers of al-mustali are known as the mustali the nazari are famous for two things the first thing is the Assassins who followed the nazari subsect and acted as an order of trained Killers it's from them that we get the word assassin the second thing is the AGA khans who are currently the imams of the nazari ismaili shias they claim to be the successors of the Fatimid caliphs and this chart here made by a fan of the Channel shows their family tree from the first Aga Khan in 1817 to the fourth and current agakon Shah Karim al-husseini now while these are some of the major subsecs of Shia Islam there are actually two groups that descend from shiaism but no longer identify as Muslims first there are the druze who are quite secretive they began with two men known as Hamza IBN Ali and Muhammad al-darazi who saw the sixth Fatimid caliph al-hakim as the Madi the great leader who is to appear at the end of days to them Al Hakim was even Divine in 1021 al-hakim disappeared and supposedly went into a cultation or Heidi however according to the druze he will return another more recent Faith to come out of Shia Islam is the Baha'i it started with a man named Saeed Ali Muhammad shirazi who declared himself to be the door to the hidden Imam of the twelvers he hence took the name of Bob which literally means door eventually his claims escalated to the point where he declared himself prophet and even a manifestation of God he was executed by the Persian government government but Bob had prophesied the appearance of a Messianic figure which would be claimed by a student of his named bahaula from whom the Baha'i get their name he's believed to be the founder of the faith he spent many years in Exile preaching to people and gaining followers he died in 1892 after which the leadership of the group was taken up by his eldest son Abdul Baha nowadays the Supreme ruling body of the Baha'i faith is the nine member Universal house of justice based in Haifa Israel finally as a bonus I want to talk a little bit about the courageites the third main sect of Islam after the sunnis and shias the courageites were actually the first sect to Branch off they were strict Puritans who believed in a rigid interpretation of Islam the name karijit comes from the word kawarage which means those who left because they were the people who left Ali's supporters because they didn't want him to negotiate with muavia during the first Civil War to them negotiating with a man rebelling against a legitimate ruler was prohibited by Islam and so Ali deserved to die so they assassinated him they stayed around being a hassle for various rulers till the year one thousand or so after which they started to evolve into various more moderate branches most of which have died out these days most Muslims both Sunni and think of them as a radical Ultra conservative militant cult that is often disassociated from Islam so much so that religious Scholars use the term courageite as a derogatory term but they were a legitimate branch of the religion nowadays they do exist in a moderate version known as the ibadi most of whom actually don't like being called courageites okay so that was a look at the various branches of Islam mostly those that exist within Shia Islam I'm currently working on a chart of Christian denominations which as you can imagine will be pretty big so keep an eye out for that sometime in the first half of 2023 and don't forget to check out blinkist by using the link in the description or pinned comment thanks for watching foreign
2022-10-22 18:27
