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What is Shi’ism?

In the contemporary period Shi’ah is the standard short form for Shi’ah Ali, the Partisans of Ali. The Shi’ah have a history that goes back as far as the time of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and form one of the two main schools of thought in Islam; the other group being the Sunni, short for Ahl us-Sunnah wa Jama’ah, the People of Tradition and Consensus. The main division between these two groups relates to questions of religious authority, and who has that authority. In this post I want to give a brief outline of Shi’ah understandings of authority. Rather than cover…

Navroz Mubarak – نوروز مبارك

Happy New Year to everyone. May the year bring you much joy and happiness. The springtime of a friend of Ali is always full of the efflorescence of Ali. None deserves eminence and praise among the people except he who befriends Ali. The heart of every Shi’i is protected from Satan in the fortress of Ali. As Ali is from the Prophet’s family, the true Shi’i belongs to the family of Ali. A hundred years of praise is not equal to even one in a thousand praises of Ali. Courage, knowledge, abstinence, generosity: these are the qualities I revere in…

Muharram

Last Friday, January 19, 2007 was the first of Muharram, the beginning of the New Year according the Muslim Hijri Lunar Calendar. It is also significant because on the 10th of Muharram the Prophet’s grandson, Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, was martyred at Karbala. The day is know as Ashura, and while commemorated mostly by Shi’ah, Sunnis take part, and the Nizari Isma’iis, because they have a present Imam, do observe the sanctity of the time, but do not commemorate it in any particular way. The famous Anglo-Indian dictionary, Hobson-Jobson, got it’s name from the author mis-hearing the chanting…