Question
1- Are the human beings kind or evil by nature? Common questions kids ask these days as taught in school? 2- What is difference between sufī, Shī‘ī and Sunnī, which is right path?
Answer
My answers to your questions follow:
1- Are the human beings kind or evil by nature? Common questions kids ask these days as taught in school.
According to the Qur’ān human being by nature is a humble entity that likes to be a servant of his Lord. (Q 30:30)
2- What is the difference between sufism, Shī‘īism and Sunnīism? Which is the right path?
Sufis are group of people (some considering themselves as Muslims and some coming from other faiths) who believe in certain mentors (Sheikh) as the medium between God and his servants and are often engaged in doing certain practices (like uttering certain names of God at certain times in specified numbers or using music or chanting in an attempt to find spiritual aspiration). One of the main characteristics of a typical Sufi is that they do not observe rules of the religion they are originally ascribed to (e.g. Islam). They consider these rules to be only for normal (not Sufi) followers of those religions.
Sunnīs are the majority of Muslims who follow the Qur’ān, Ḥadīth and the works of traditional scholars of Islam. Their beliefs and practices are very much influenced by their perception of the opinions of traditional scholars. Apart from the Qur’ān, a major source of understanding Islam for this group is Ḥadīth, specifically the six main books of Ḥadīth known as Ṣiḥāḥ (the sound ones). Sunnīs often use Aḥādīth to interpret the Qur’ān.
Shī‘ī are those Muslims who believe that after the death of the Prophet (sws) there were divinely appointed infallible individuals from the generation of the Prophet (sws), called imāms, who were and are supposed to be followed. Any understanding of the Qur’ān and Islam according to this group should be through these individuals. Consequently books and narrations attributed to these imāms are considered as the most important sources of understanding Islam after the Qur’ān. These sources are also used by Shī‘ī to interpret the Qur’ān.
The right path in Islam is the one that is relying on fully reliable divine sources, where unreliable sources are not used to interpret these reliable sources. The only fully reliable divine sources in Islam are the Qur’ān (as an independent source) and the religious practices that were established by the Prophet (sws) among his companions, the knowledge of which was transferred, generation after generation, to our time and on which there is general agreement (Sunnah).
Answered by: Farhad Shafti
Date: 2015-03-30
