abu_rashid wrote on Jul 28
th, 2008 at 5:26pm:
I don't think too many Muslims would consider Iran anything like a Caliphate. For a start the Shi'a generally reject the concept of the Caliphate, and this is their main problem with the mainstream Muslims, that we established a Caliphate, instead of a hereditery Imamate, which is what they believe in.
I might clarify what I meant by Caliphate here before more questions are raised.. By caliphate I meant the Islamic State. And we consider the Imam by the same name as our brothers from the Sunni banner would name the Caliph, they are the Amir ul-Mumin'een or Commander of the Faithful.
The Shia school of thought's way of choosing a Caliph is to choose them from the Prophet pbuh's decendents only, it is not simply a matter of a father handing the leadership down to his son and continuing it that way like Muawiyah did to Yazid, but it's a criteria of being eligible to lead the Nation, in Yemen the Caliph used to be elected from amongst the many families who were the Prophet's decendents. It was a form of choosing the best of the Prophet pbuh's family to lead us and upon really thinking about the issue I realised that I would prefer that instead of having someone who is not from the decendents of the prophet pbuh's family.
I do believe Iran is the closest thing we have to an Islamic State, that's not saying that Iran is perfect, instead it's really showing how far the Muslims have strayed.. Iran needs a great deal of work but has made some very positive steps in the last 30 years which I certainly applaud.
abu_rashid wrote on Jul 28
th, 2008 at 5:26pm:
Islam is really not as fragmented as the media would have us believe. The vast majority of Muslims belong to the mainstream, which is about 80-90% of all Muslims, they are often mislabeled as "Sunni" but this is an incorrect designation, and one we never really use to describe ourselves. The Shi'a are about the only real major sect (the word Shi'a itself actually means sectarians or partisans), and then there are some smaller groups who are pretty much mainstream Muslims, but perhaps dabble in a little sectarianism, like Salafi (wahabi) and Sufi groups, but they are a tiny minority. There are also some historical sects that are now extinct like the Khawarij, but they thankfully only exist in the history books.
While I subscribe to the Shia schools of thought I do have the utmost respect for Muslims from the other schools of thought and don't hold any animosity at all against them. I certainly don't like Wahabi's but neither do most from the Sunni schools either. The Shia also have an equivelant and it goes to show that extremism in any shape or form is detrimental to Islam.
I will also mention that while the Shia schools are about 20% of the Muslim population of the world, at least 85% of that number are from the Ithnāˤashariyyah school of thought of thought, when considering that the remaining 80% of the Muslims of the Sunni school of thoughts are made up of 4 different schools one would understand that the Ithnāˤashariyyah itself is actually quite a considerable size in comparison.
I will also mention that those of the Shia schools don't formerly call themselves 'shia', they consider themselves to follow the schools of Ahlul Bayt or the Family of the Prophet pbuh. Furthermore from my understanding the etymology of the word Shia is that it can be translated into the words sect, followers, party etc.
Furthermore, I do believe that no one school has it 100% right and all the others are wrong. The schools were the teachings of very pious and educated people may God reward them, but none of them claimed to have the perfect system nor claimed perfection themselves, therefore I believe that it's important for Muslims to continuously work together and accept that there are differences of opinion on this issue and not let it divide us.
I personally believe that when Imam Al-Mahdi reveals himself, he would look at Muslims from all schools of thought and think to himself 'What are these guys doing? That aint right!' and he'll have to direct us to the straight and narrow path again, removing any doubt about any issue that creates division amongst us and making all schools of thought null and void so that we'd all know the correct way God willing.