i have a question for shias?
I have to admit i am no scholar or anything when it comes to religion, I have been browsing through last few posts and would like to ask shias if they are so sure of being right then why are not they the ones in majority? Why is that more than 50% of muslim population is sunni?
I will look forward to your replies. thanks
[This message has been edited by Mehar (edited November 19, 2000).]
Actually its less the 10% who are shia and more than 90% who are Sunni. I will have stats later inshallah…maybe in few mins.
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Take it easy.
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----*Priest-OF- Painful Truth*----
well thans watcher but its not the statistics i want, its the view of shias i am more interested to know. Thanks for replying anyway
Welcome Mehar, well its quality that matters rather then the quantity
Got some here, few years old though.
Many people mistakenly think that Muslims are divided into two halves: Sunnis and Shi’it. In reality Shia are between 7.5% to 11%. All the rest (93.5%) are Sunnis (ignoring the fact the Shi’ism is a totally different religion than Islam). The word Shia includes all kinds of Shi’it Sects such as (Twelvers Imami Rafidi Shia, Isma’ili Shia, Alawi (Nusairi) Shia, Druze Shia, Zaidi Shia).
**The first statistic was all taken from the British Encyclopedia for the year 1997. **However, we feel that it has some incorrect numbers for some countries such as Iran.
Country Name - Total Population - Percentage of Shia Number of Shia - Sect
Afghanistan 22,664,136 15% 3,399,620 Imami
Azerbaijan 7,676,953 75% 5,757,715 Imami
Bahrain 590,042 61.3% 361,696 Imami
India 952,107,694 3% 28,563,231 Isma’ili, Imami
Iran 66,094,264 93.4% 61,732,043 Imami
Iraq 21,422,292 62.5% 13,388,933 Imami
Kuwait 1,950,047 30% 585,014 Imami
Lebanon 3,776,317 41% 1,548,290 Imami, Druze
Oman 2,186,548 2% 43,731 Imami
Pakistan 129,275,660 20% 25,855,132 Imami
Qatar 547,761 5% 27,388 Imami
Saudi Arabia 19,409,058 3.3% 640,499 Imami
Syria 15,608,648 15.3% 2,388,123 Nusairi, Druze
Turkey 62,484,478 20% 12,496,896 Nusairi
United Arab Emirates 3,057,337 16% 489,174 Imami
Yemen 13,483,178 46.9% 6,323,610 Zaidi
Total 11.0% 163,601,094
This statistic was all taken from many independent sources for the year 1999. It is more accurate than the previous one. It is important to remember that Shia have a high birth rate since their religion allows adultery (Mut’a). The percentage of Shia this time is relative to the percentage of Muslims.
Country Name - Total Population - Percentage of Muslims - Number of Muslims - Percentage of Shia to Muslims - Number of Shia
Afghanistan 22,664,136 100 22,664,136 15 3,399,620
Azerbaijan 7,676,953 93.4 7,170,274 80 5,736,219
Bahrain 590,042 100 590,042 65 383,527
India 952,107,694 14 133,295,077 10 - 2 13,329,507
Iran 66,094,264 99 65,433,321 70 45,803,324
Iraq 21,422,292 97 20,779,623 65 - 30 13,506,755
Kuwait 1,950,047 89 1,735,542 30 520,662
Lebanon 3,776,317 70 2,643,422 65 1,718,224
Oman 2,186,548 100 382,000 2 7,640
Pakistan 129,275,660 97 125,397,390 15 - 2 18,809,608
Qatar 547,761 100 547,761 15 82,164
Saudi Arabia 19,409,058 100 19,409,058 5 970,452
Syria 15,608,648 90 14,047,783 15 - 9 2,107,167
Turkey 62,484,478 99.8 62,359,509 6 3,741,570
United Arab Emirates 3,057,337 96 2,935,044 15 440,256
Yemen 13,483,178 99 13,348,346 15 2,002,251
Total 7.58% 112,558,954
Take it easy…
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V~V~VHe came, He saw, He conqueredV~V~V**
----*Priest-OF- Painful Truth*----
You have quality when you follow quran and sunnah, and avoid things which are not part of Islam, and avoid practices which Mohammad avoided and asked us to avoide.
Sticking such statements that pagluu made every where to justify something is just not right. Islam is straight forward and does not need some quote to be justified that certain beliefs are islamic or unislamic.
Anyway, I don’t wanna argue, as it is and will lead to more discomfort among Muslims on the forum.
Remember the “donkey” example in my other post - thats it you got it.
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Take it easy…
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V~V~VHe came, He saw, He conqueredV~V~V**
----*Priest-OF- Painful Truth*----
[This message has been edited by The Watcher (edited November 19, 2000).]
salaam Mehar,
The recognition of truth and falsehood is not based on the fewness or greatness of its followers. In today’s world, unfortunately the Muslims happen to be only a fifth or one sixth compared to the non-Muslims. Most of the inhabitants of the far-east are idol-worshippers, cattle-worshipers and others who deny the true faith with their belief being attached to some baseless religion or a belief of some weird kind that we don’t even know of and which only happens to be unassuming!
China, which consists of a population over one million, is part of the atheist communist community, and most of the people in India (consisting a population close to a million) are cattle and idol-worshippers.
On the other hand, being the majority is not a sign uses to be counted as the true religion. The Holy Qur`an often reproaches the majority and praises some of the minorities. Let us refer to some of the examples related to this subject:
….., and thou shalt not find most of them thankful.”
“….., its guardians are only those who guard (against evil), but most of them do not know.”
“……., and very few of my servants are grateful.”
After looking at all these examples, it becomes clear that a practical human being never ought to fear the number of followers, even though they be few, or even become haughty if it was the other way round. This calls for one to use his intellect when deciding between wrong and right, and derive the benefit from its light.
A man came to the commander of the faithful and said:
“How can it be that the people who were not on your side in the battle of the camel, who happen to be constituted among the majority, be wrong?”
Imam Ali (p) replied:
“Truth and deception is not known by the number of followers; Get enlightened so that you can know who are the truthful ones and likewise, be aware of falsehood so that you can easily catch hold of the liars.”
It is necessary for a Muslim to analyze this matter in a logical and scientific manner by applying the verse that follows,
“And follow not that of which you have no knowledge of…”
This serves a torchlight to pave their way.
Furthermore, even though the Shia population is lesser than the Sunnis, an exact census proves that one fourth of the Muslims in the world happen to be Shia, living in Muslim inhabited countries;
Along the annals of history, there have been scholars and famous writers and authors counted amongst the Shias.
It is worthy to mention that the founders of Islamic sciences mostly happened to be Shias, such as: Abu Al-Aswad Al- doali who was the founder of the knowledge of ‘Nahw’ (Arabic grammar), Khalil bin Ahmad, the founder of ‘Orud’ (prosody), Ma’ath bin Muslim bi Abi Sarah Al-Kufi who was the founder of the knowledge of ‘Sarf’ (morphology) and Abu Abdullah Muhammed bin Orman Katib Khurasani (Marzbani) one of the pioneers in the science of ‘Balaghat’ (rhetoric’s).
For further information of the vast writings of the different Shia scholars whose enumeration is almost impossible, one can refer to the book of ‘Al-Thareekh Al-Tasaneef Al-Shia’, the book of ‘Aayan Al-Shia’, and for acquaintance of the great Shia scholars and their biographies, as well as acquisition of information about the Shia history, one can refer to the ‘Tareekh Al-Shia’
(A’araf :17)
(Anfal : 34)
(Saba : 13)
(Isra : 36)
I hope that helps.
salaam
ramesha
This topic can really get out of hand, if not treated properly.
I agree with most of you that majority alone does not make it right. Otherwise we could conclude that Christianity or Buddhism is better than Islam. I was kinda surprised about the figures provided by Watcher. I would have assumed that sunnis are 75% of muslims and the remaining are predominanly shias. I was wrong. I would rather go along with the figures provided by Watcher, as they are properly referenced. My source for shia population, by the way, was the shia website www.al-islam.org.
Going on the assumption that the birthrates of shia and sunni households is roughly the same, we can safely assume that this 9:1 ratio between sunnis and shias go back to the original split.
Let me rephrase the question a bit. Lets back track 1500 years, from the time our Prophet (SAWW) departed. During the times of Khilafat-e-Rashida the ummah started getting divided between the followers of righteous caliphs (Abu Bakr and Umer (RA))and those who revered the ahle-bayt more. Later on these two groups were identified by the titles sunni and shias, respectively. During the time of khilafat of Hazrat Usman (RA) these differences really came to fore and in the time of Hazrat Ali (RA) there was an outright war. Do everyone agree with me up to this point?
Now my question is, all those people who benefitted from the companionship of the Prophet and the ahle-bayt are much more fortunate than us, and arguably more knowlegable than we are about Islamic matters and religious rulings. So, why did more muslims became the followers of the interpretation of the righteous caliphs than those who believe ahle-bayt had a stronger claim to political and intellectual rule?
I am not saying followers of ahle-bayt are wrong or that those who follow the interpretations of righteous caliphs are right.
The answer to this question may not be available to us. There are many things about Islamic history which are shadowed in incomplete information and secrecy. To my knowledge, there is no conclusive evidence to pinpoint which hadith came first and which came later, that is why, although the four imams of ahle-sunnah (Hanafi, Maaliki, Shafai and Hambli) all had the same source and their teachings are 80-90% same, but in 10-20% matters they have slight differences. These differences are primarily bcz there is no conclusive evidence to pinpoint exactly how the Prophet (SAWW) performed the actions in his last days of the most mature form of Islam. The followers of Imam Abu Hanifa do claim that they follow the most perfect and complete form of Islam. Obviously this claim can be disputed by anyone.
So back to the topic. My question is above in bold. Feel free to bless us with your freely expressed opinions…
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[This message has been edited by Pristine (edited November 19, 2000).]
Aik question ka sawal hain baba
ok guys here i go again yes again
quality or no quality i want ans
why the way u (shia) say prayers n give adhan is different from the way its said n given in Khana Kaba of which protection Allah promised to do Himself.
i hope some one can give me a reasonable ans which my moty akal can accept
Allah Hafiz
nick so I ask again.Is this just the difference in the fajar azan of the words "AsSalatu-kahairum min An-Noum".Or is it some difference found in all azans i.e. for all 5 prayers.Anyway the example of khana kaaba is definitely not a good example if it is just the first.
I think It was farhina who said......
"Imam Hussain was hevily outnumbered by yazids army so does that make yazid right?"
Again Not most of the world is Muslim so does that make the non-muslims right?
93.5%?????? Another of Watchers "true"sites that claimed Shias belive Imam ali was the last prophet!
OUR LORD! WE HAVE INDEED HEARD THE VOICE OF A CRIER(MESSENGER)CALLING TO THE FAITH: "BELIVE IN YOUR LORD" SO WE BELIVED. OUR LORD! FORGIVE US THEN OUR SINS, AND REMOVE FROM US OUR EVIL DEEDS, AND CAUSE US DIE ALONG WITH THE VIRTUOUS
(3:193)
A few things to ponder!
Iran 90%shia
Bahrain40%shia
Pakistan 20% shia
Iraq 35% shia
Azerbijan 65% shia
I went to watcher "true' site and the page was not there!
Thanks for the reply ramesha. I absolutely agree with you. I have a shia father and a sunni mum so i kind of follow both. I just had this question in my mind for long time and thanks for getting me out of the confusion. Thank you indeed. Is ramesha your real name??may i ask.
thank you
[This message has been edited by Mehar (edited November 19, 2000).]
ramesha dear u dont write here that often but whenever u do its a pleasure to read ur posts..thanks alot…shah jahan thanks brother i benefit alot from reading ur posts..keep posting
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pristine there was alot of politics after the death of our Prophet…u agree?
mehar in future if there is anything in ur mind..just ask
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..none of us here are scholer but we all love our religion Islam..thats why we come here..and its always good to talk bout Islam, then most of the other things
[quote]
Originally posted by Ahmed:
nick so I ask again.Is this just the difference in the fajar azan of the words "AsSalatu-kahairum min An-Noum".Or is it some difference found in all azans i.e. for all 5 prayers.Anyway the example of khana kaaba is definitely not a good example if it is just the first.
[/quote]
no there is a difference in their azan not just fajar coz when i was in pak there was a shia mosque close n they had this azan totally different from ours n way too long
never got a chance to find out wat their azan means, i think some of our shia friends might be able tp shed some light.
i don't know wat u meant by "not a good example if it is just the first"
i had been posting this ques for a long time but have got any ans.
so i think they don't have one then.
Fi Aman Allah
another thing to ponder shah Jehan
Saudia Arbia 99% sunni
the base of Islam the markaz (centre )for all muslims. Kibla for our prayers. the land where the House Of Allah is.
salaam Mehar,
No "ramesha" is not my real name. You can drop me an email any time you wish if you have any queries.
Salaam
[quote]
Originally posted by nick:
**another thing to ponder shah Jehan
Saudia Arbia 99% sunni
the base of Islam the markaz (centre )for all muslims. Kibla for our prayers. the land where the House Of Allah is.**
[/quote]
Stay Young Have fun
and drink lotsa milk
Sugar
[This message has been edited by Sugar and spice (edited November 20, 2000).]