Shiite Muslims are a minority within the Muslim community, making up about 10-15% of all Muslims worldwide. They separated themselves from the mainstream Muslim community soon after Mohammad’s unexpected death in AD 632 because they held a different position concerning who should succeed Mohammad as leader of the Muslims. The majority, which came to be called the Sunni Muslims, wanted the successor to be the most capable military leader who was also a member of Mohammad’s tribe, the Quraysh. The minority, later called the Shia Muslims, wanted the successor to be a close relative of Mohammad. However, at Mohammad’s death there was no son or nephew who could be appointed as Mohammad’s successor since his sons had all died previously and his two grandsons (Hassan and Hussein) were only children at that time.

 

The first three caliphs (successors) of Mohammad were Sunni caliphs, the fourth one was Ali, Mohammad’s nephew and son-in-law who had been married to Mohammad’s daughter Fatima many years before. Ali was able to maintain his position briefly before he was murdered in AD 661. The Shias believe that the rightful rulers of the Muslim community worldwide were actually Ali and his eleven descendants through Mohammad’s grandson Hussein who died as a martyr in Iraq in AD 680. A majority of Shias believe that Hussein’s line of succession continued till his descendant Mohammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth rightly guided Imam, mysteriously disappeared beginning in AD 874 at the age of five. He was supposedly accessible to certain people till AD 941. After that the Shia hope for ruling the Muslim community was totally transferred to the unseen world from which a hidden spiritual guide called the Hidden Imam (leader) or Mahdi (the one who guides), will eventually return.

 

This sinless leader, the Mahdi, will establish an Islamic empire of peace and justice at the end of time. According to most Muslims (including Sunnis), the Mahdi will be aided by Jesus who is also supposed to return to earth when the Mahdi appears. Both the Mahdi and Jesus will be opposed by the Masih ad-Dajjal, an evil, one eyed, anti-Christ figure, who will eventually be slain and the whole world will submit to Islam. Some time after the victory of the Mahdi there will be a general resurrection of the dead followed by the last judgement.

 

Muslims generally have a strong belief in a future life consisting of a paradise for believers and eternal punishment for unbelievers but their ideas differ very profoundly from Christian belief. Shia Muslims generally have a much more concrete and intensive expectation of the end times to come than the Sunnis.

 

 

The Shias generally believe that the Mahdi is presently living even though hidden and that he is guiding the community of Shia believers. The hidden Imam transfers his knowledge to the most famous and learned Shia men of today so they can teach the ordinary members of the community. Before the rise of the Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini the Shia community held the opinion that righteous leadership could not be established on earth before the return of the Mahdi, the rightly guided one. Khomeini himself claimed to be the representative of the hidden Imam (Mahdi) who had told him to establish this empire of peace and justice on earth by fighting against the enemies of Islam. The Shia Muslims were motivated to determine their own destiny instead of just passively waiting for the return of the hidden Imam. Waiting for the returning Imam, was replaced by action, in the form of revolution. Khomeini openly encouraged Shia clerics to become involved in the political struggle. He was enabled to do so by his new interpretation of Shia tradition. The expectations of a nation under Islam appeared to have been fulfilled in the person of Khomeini. Both the Iraqi and the Iranian national flags have the phrase Allah Akbar (God is Great).