Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Muslim community, being appointed at the meeting of Saqifa. This contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad appointed Ali ibn Abi Talib () as his successor. Nevertheless, Sunnis revere Ali, along with Abu Bakr, Umar () and Uthman () as 'rightly-guided caliphs'.
The term means those who observe the , the practices of Muhammad. The Quran, together with hadith (especially the Six Books) and (scholarly consensus), form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Sharia legal rulings are derived from these basic sources, in conjunction with consideration of public welfare and juristic discretion, using the principles of jurisprudence developed by the four legal schools: Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i.
In matters of creed, the Sunni tradition upholds the six pillars of (faith) and comprises the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools of (theology) as well as the textualist Athari school. Sunnis regard the first four caliphs Abu Bakr (), Umar (), Uthman () and Ali () as (rightly-guided) and revere the , , and as the (predecessors).
Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as "Orthodox Islam". However, some scholars of Islam, such as John Burton, believe that there is no such thing as "Orthodox Islam".Burton, John. 1996. An Introduction to the Hadith. Edinburgh: Edinburgh_University_Press. p. 201: "Sunni: Of or pertaining to Sunna, especially the Sunna of the Prophet. Used in conscious opposition to Shi'a, Shi'í. Since there is no ecclesia or centralized magisterium, the term 'Orthodox' is inappropriate. To the Muslim 'unorthodox' implies heretical, mubtadi, from bid'a, the contrary of Sunna, and so 'innovation'."
Etymology Sunna The Arabic term , which Sunnis are named after, dates back to pre-Islamic language. It was used for "the right path that has always been followed". The term gained greater political significance after the murder of the third caliph, Uthman (). It is said Malik al-Ashtar, a famous follower of Ali, provided encouragement during the Battle of Siffin with the expression "Ali's political rival Mu'awiya kills the ". After the battle, it was agreed that "the righteous , the unifying, not the divisive" ("") should be consulted to resolve the conflict. The time when the term sunna became the short form for "Sunnah of the Prophet" () is still unknown. During the Umayyad Caliphate, several political movements, including the Shia and the Kharijites rebelled against the formation of the state. They led their battles in the name of "the book of God (Qur'an) and the Sunnah of his Prophet". During the second Civil War (680–92) the Sunna term received connotations critical of Shi'i doctrines (). It is recorded by Masrūq ibn al-Adschdaʿ (died 683), who was a Mufti in Kufa, a need to love the first two caliphs Abū Bakr and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and acknowledge their priority (). A disciple of Masrūq, the scholar ash-Shaʿbī (died between 721 and 729), who first sided with the Shia in Kufa during Civil War, but turned away in disgust by their fanaticism and finally decided to join the Umayyad Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, popularized the concept of Sunnah.Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān al-Fasawī: Kitāb al-Maʿrifa wa-t-tārīḫ. Ed. Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī. 3 Bde. Bagdad: Maṭbaʿat Aršād 1975. Bd. II, p. 813. Digitalisat. It is also passed down by ash-Shaʿbī that he took offense at the hatred on ʿĀʾiša bint Abī Bakr and considered it a violation of the Sunnah.
The term Sunna instead of the longer expression or as a group-name for Sunnis is a relatively young phenomenon. It was probably Ibn Taymiyyah, who used the short-term for the first time.Ibn Taimīya: Minhāǧ as-sunna an-nabawīya. Ed. Muḥammad Rašād Sālim. Ǧamiʿat al-Imām Muḥammad Ibn-Saʿid, Riad, 1986. Bd. II, S. 221, 224. Digitalisat It was later popularized by pan-Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Rashid Rida in his treatise ("The Sunna and the Shia, Or Wahhabism and Rāfidism: Religious history, sociological and reform-oriented facts") published in 1928–29.Muḥammad Rašīd Riḍā: as Sunna wa-š-šiʿa au al-Wahhābīya wa-r-Rāfiḍa: Ḥaqāʾiq dīnīya taʾrīḫīya iǧtimaʿīya iṣlaḥīya. Kairo 1928/29. Digitalisat Wikisource The term Sunnah is usually used in Arabic discourse as designation for Sunni Muslims, when they are intended to be contrasted with Shias. The word pair Sunnah–Shia is also used on Western research literature to denote the Sunni–Shia contrast.So zum Beispiel bei Mohammad Heidari-Abkenar: Die ideologische und politische Konfrontation Schia-Sunna: am Beispiel der Stadt Rey des 10. – 12. Jh. n. Chr. Inaugural-Dissertation Köln 1992 und Ofra Bengo und Meir Litvak: The Sunna and Shi'a in history. Division and ecumenism in the Muslim Middle East. 1. Aufl. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2011.
Ahl as-Sunna One of the earliest supporting documents for derives from the Basric scholar Muhammad Ibn Siri (died 728). His is mentioned in the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, and quoted having said: "Formerly one did not ask about the Isnad. But when the fitna started, one said: 'Name us your informants'. One would then respond to them: If they were Sunnah people, you accept their hadith. But if they are people of the Innovations, the hadith was rejected".Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Muqaddima, Bāb anna al-isnād min ad-dīn wa-ʾanna r-riwāya lā takūn illā ʿan aṯ-ṯiqāt G.H.A. Juynboll assumed, the term fitna in this statement is not related to the first Civil War (665–661) after murder of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, but the second Civil War (680–692)G.H.A. Juynboll: Muslim tradition. Studies in chronology, provenance and authorship of early ḥadīṯ. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge u. a. 1983. S. 17f. in which the Islamic community was split into four parties (Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the Umayyads, the Shia under al-Mukhtār ibn Abī ʿUbaid and the Kharijites). The term designated in this situation whose, who stayed away from heretic teachings of the different warring parties.Zaman: Religion and politics under the early ʿAbbāsids. 1997, S. 49.
The term was always a laudatory designation. Abu Hanifa (died 769), who sympathized with Murdshia, insisted that this were "righteous people and people of the Sunnah" (ahl al-ʿadl wa-ahl as-sunna).Abū Ḥanīfa: Risāla ilā ʿUṯmān al-Battī. Ed. Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kauṯarī. Kairo, 1949. S. 38. Digitalisat. According to Josef van Ess this term did not mean more than "honorable and righteous believing people".Ess: Der Eine und das Andere. 2011, Bd. II, S. 1273. Among Hanafits the designation and ahl al-ʿadl (people of the righteous) remained interchangeable for a long time. Thus the Hanafite Abū l-Qāsim as-Samarqandī (died 953), who composed a catechism for the Samanides, used sometimes one expression and sometimes another for his own group.Ulrich Rudolph: Al-Māturīdī und die sunnitische Theologie in Samarkand. Brill, Leiden 1997. S. 66.
Singular to was ṣāḥib sunna (adherent to the sunnah).Juynboll: "An Excursus on ahl as-sunnah". 1998, S. 321. This expression was used for example by ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (died 797) for a person, who distances himself from the teachings of Shia, Kharijites, Qadarites and Murjites.Ibn Abī Yaʿlā: Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila. 1952, Bd. II, S. 40. In addition, the Nisba adjective sunnī was also used for the individual person. Thus it has been recorded, the Kufic scholar of the Quran Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh (died 809) was asked, how he was a "sunni". He responded the following: "The one who, when the heresies are mentioned, doesn't get excited about any of them".Abū l-Qāsim Hibatallāh al-Lālakāʾī: Šarḥ uṣūl iʿtiqād ahl as-sunna wa-l-ǧamāʿa. 8. Aufl. Ed. Aḥmad Saʿd Ḥamdān. Wizārat aš-šuʾūn al-islāmīya, Riad, 2003. Bd. I, S. 65. Digitalisat – Engl. Übers. bei Juynboll: "An Excursus on ahl as-sunnah". 1998, S. 319. The Andalusiaian scholar Ibn Hazm (died 1064) taught later that those who confess Islam can be divided into four groups: , Mutazilites, Murjites, Shites, Kharijites.Ibn Ḥazm: al-Faṣl fi-l-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-n-niḥal. Ed. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Naṣr; ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmān ʿUmaira. 5 Bde. Dār al-Ǧīl, Beirut 1985. Bd. II, S. 265. The Muʿtazilites replaced the Qadarites here.
In the 9th century, one started to extent the term with further positive additions. Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari used for his own group expressions like ahl as-sunna wa-l-istiqāma ("people of Sunna and Straightness"), ahl as-sunna wa-l-ḥadīṯ ("people of Sunnah and of the Hadith")Ess: Der Eine und das Andere. 2011, Bd. II, S. 1274. or ahl al-ḥaqq wa-s-sunnaSo al-Ašʿarī: Kitāb al-Ibāna ʿan uṣūl ad-diyāna. S. 8. – Engl. Übers. S. 49. ("people of Truth and of the Sunnah").
Ahl as-Sunna wa l-Jamāʻah The first appearances of the expression are entirely clear. In his Mihna edict, the Abbasite Caliph Al-Ma'mūn (reigned 813–33) criticized a group of people who related themselves to the sunnah () and claimed they are the "people of truth, religion and community" ().Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr aṭ-Ṭabarī: Taʾrīḫ ar-rusul wa-l-mulūk. Hrsg. von M. J. de Goeje. Brill, Leiden, 1879–1901. Bd. III, S. 1114, Zeile 4–8 Digitalisat und Ess: Der Eine und das Andere. 2011, Bd. II, S. 1278. Sunna and jamāʿah are already connected here. As a pair, these terms already appear in the 9th century. It is recorded that the disciple of Ahmad ibn Hanbal Harb ibn Ismail as-Sirjdshani (died 893) created a writing with the title as-Sunna wa l-Jamāʿah, to which the Mutazilite Abu al-Qasim al-Balchi wrote a refutation later.Vgl. Yāqūt ar-Rūmī: Muʿǧam al-Buldān Ed. F. Wüstenfeld. Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1866–1870. Bd. III, S. 213f. Digitalisat und van Ess: Der Eine und das Andere. 2011, S. 332. (german) Al-Jubba'i (died 916) tells in his Kitāb al-Maqālāt, that Ahmad ibn Hanbal attributed to his students the predicate sunnī jamāʿah ("Sunni Community").Ess: Der Eine und das Andere. 2011, Bd. II, S. 1273f. This indicates that the Hanbalis were the first to use the phrase ahl as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah as a self-designation.Ess: Der Eine und das Andere. 2011, Bd. II, S. 1276.
Karramiyya theology, founded by Muhammad ibn Karram (died 859) referred to the sunnah and community. In praise of their school founder, they passed down a hadith, according to which Muhammad predicted that at the end of times a man named Muhammad ibn Karram will appear, who will restore the sunna and the community (as-sunna wa l-jamāʿah) and take Hidraj from Chorasan to Jerusalem, just how Muhammad himself took a Hidraj from Mecca to Medina. According to the testimony of the Transoxianian scholar Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi (died 1099), the Kullabites (followers of the Basrian scholar Ibn Kullab [died 855]) referred to themselves as also being among the ahl as-sunna wa l-jama.al-Bazdawī: Kitāb Uṣūl ad-Dīn. 2003, S. 250.