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Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy, and The Islamic Tradition: Duncan Stone
Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy, and The Islamic Tradition: Duncan Stone
Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy, and The Islamic Tradition: Duncan Stone
Duncan Stone
Within any religion there are often two or more groups, one of which represents
the mainstream version of the religion, and others which represent minority beliefs or
opinions that while similar to those of the mainstream are none the less fundamentally
different. In Islam there are two main branches: Sunni and Shiite. Sunni is the larger of
the two and is often portrayed as the orthodox version of the religion due to its size
and political power, while the Shiite religion is considered heterodox due to its smaller
size and regional scope. However, since there is no centralized church hierarchy in the
Islamic faith to interpret which version of Islam is most in line with the teaching of
Muhammed, it has been argued that labeling one branch as orthodox and the other as
further compounded by the many different schools and religious leaders, such as the
Caliph and Imam, within the Sunni and Shiite communities. These schools and leaders
have different jurisprudence and interpretations of the Koran and Hadith, which only
describe any one sect of Islam as orthodox or heterodox due not only to the division
between Sunni and Shiite, but also as a result of these groups own internal splits and
factions.
The split between the Sunnis and Shiites in the first centuries of Islamic history
highlights how the lack of a rigid hierarchy from the very formation of the Islamic faith
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led to the original fracturing of Islam, and underscores just how difficult it is to determine
which group to even consider orthodox or heterodox in their beliefs after only shortly
after the death of the prophet. While he was alive, the prophet Muhammed was
recognized as the only leader of the Islamic faith. However, when he died in 632 AD a
conflict broke out between his subordinates over who would succeed him as both the
political and spiritual leader of the Muslim people. This resulted in the initial spit in the
Muslim faith between those who supported Abu Bakr, the leader elected from a group of
Muhammeds lieutenants and close advisors and those who support Ali, who as
Muhammeds cousin and son-in-law claimed that Muhammed had chosen him as his
successor. Because both sides have scriptures and sources that support both of their
claims as to who is truly following the path of Islam and the succession of power as
Muhammed would have wished it, it becomes difficult to identify just which of the two
groups to consider orthodox and heterodox, and as Islam spread throughout the Middle
East and North Africa, the differences between the beliefs of these two groups became
only more exacerbated as the empire grew, and communication between the leaders of
A counter argument is often put forth to counter the previous point is that as there
heterodoxy do apply. If one examines the beginnings of Islam during the time of the
rightly guided caliphs, it is seen that the caliph was both a political ruler and the Imam of
the ummah. In other words, he was the chief secular figure and head of the religion.
This combination of political and theological power in one supreme leader was the same
in many Muslim countries. Consequently, even absent a church hierarchy there was
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already a high centralized system of secular and religious government focused in the
authority of the caliph. The role that the caliphs played as a spiritual leader in Islam also
increased as their political power waned under the sultans, which allowed
determinations of orthodoxy and heterodoxy to be made purely based on the faith of the
caliph.
Yet today the situation is much different. There is no acknowledged caliph within
Islam except for a few that are either small in size or rogue terrorist states (ISIS), and
the religious authority of the caliph has been replaced by councils and national groups
that interpret and administer Islam on a country by country basis. Within the Sunni and
Shiite branches there are transnational interactions that define the faith, but these
collaborations are a pale shadow of the centralized spiritual authority that was vested in
the office of caliph. Even in Iran which is closest to an Islamic theocracy of all Muslim
countries the ayatollahs have little influence beyond their Shiite allies, and no sway at
all with Sunni Muslims. In addition, developments in Islam over time have placed
emphasis on serving Allah directly without any intermediaries making the believer
responsible for their spiritual lives and less reliant on the teachings of others.
The disconnect in beliefs between various Islamic groups and the emphasis on
theology and law on the part of Imams, jurists, and theologians. In the Sunni sphere of
thought) and numerous subgroups each with their own interpretation of Islamic legal
texts and the teachings of the Koran as applied in a legal context. There are at least
twenty different schools of Islamic theology, some of which are against one another
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over ideas and concepts such as predestination and the nature of the Koran. The
diversity of opinions in both Islamic law and theology highlight the deep divides that
separate the Islamic faith, even amongst those who consider themselves to be Sunni or
Shiite. While there are certainly different factions of theologians within organizations
such as the Catholic or Orthodox Christian churches, they differ from one another only
very slightly, and the rigid hierarchy of these organizations prevents them from making
radical interpretations of scriptures and texts that deviate from the official line. Due to
the lack of such a hierarchy in Islam, this has allowed what first began as a simple
disconnect due to the lack of communication between the various jurist and imams of
the Islamic world to develop into a fractured and highly regional interpretation of Islamic
texts and scriptures by different schools of jurists and theologians. While some of these
schools have only small followings and have waned in influence and power over the
years, others such as Wahhabism have grown in power and influence all while claiming
Another argument that is often put forward is that as there were and still are
Islamic groups that are considered to be heretical, that therefore there should be groups
that are considered orthodox. While this argument does have some merit, and seems to
make a good case for there being a way to determine orthodoxy in the Islamic tradition
it overlooks the centuries old conflict that has existed between Sunnis and Shiites, each
attempting to eradicate the other whenever they get the chance. Instead it can be
argued that at almost any point in the history of Islam the various groups and sects have
always sought to remove and eradicate each other once they gained any sort of real
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political power. Because of this conflict either all of the various branches of Islam are
While many look at the Islamic faith and say that it is easy to determine
that Sunni Islam is the orthodox version of Islam, and Shiism a heterodoxy it is in fact
impossible to determine such a thing between these two groups, let alone the various
smaller sects and schools that make up each of these faiths. While there was structure
to the Islamic religion in the form of the Caliph, this is no longer the case today. There is
a plethora of Islamic judicial traditions and theological schools of thought in both the
Sunni and Shiite traditions, all of which claim to be the pure and correct representation
of Islam while being at odds with one another. It is even difficult to determine orthodoxy
between early Sunni and Shiite as both have arguments showing that their founders
were appointed by Muhammed as the new leaders of the Islamic faith after his death.
The lack of communication between the various groups that make up Islam throughout
its history and the failure on the part of Muhammed and the early caliphs to develop a
religious structure within the religion have led to the house of Islam becoming fractured
even further than the Sunni Shiite split. The fractured nature of Islam therefore makes it
impossible to determine which branch of the faith is orthodox, as each and every one
claims to follow the teachings of the prophet Muhammed as laid down in the Koran and
Hadith.