Sunni Islam
Sunna

The Arabic term sunna, according to which Sunnis are named, is old and roots in pre-Islamic language. It was used for traditions which a majority of people followed. The term got greater political significance after the murder of the third caliph Uthman (r. 644–656). It is said Malik al-Ashtar, a famous follower of Ali, encouraged during the Battle of Siffin with the expression, Ali's political rival Mu'awiya kills the sunna. After the battle, it was agreed that "the righteous Sunnah, the unifying, not the divisive" (" as-Sunna al-ʿādila al-ǧāmiʿa ġair al-mufarriqa ") should be consulted to resolve the conflict. The time when the term sunna became the short form for " Sunnah of the Prophet " (S unnat an-Nabī) 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 (Tashayyu'). It is recorded by Masrūq ibn al-Adschdaʿ (d. 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 (Fadā'il). A disciple of Masrūq, the scholar ash-Shaʿbī (d. between 721 und 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. It is also passed down by asch-Shaʿbī, that he took offensive at the hatred on ʿĀʾiša bint Abī Bakr and considered it a violation of the Sunnah.

The term Sunna instead of the longer expression ahl as-sunna or ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah 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. It was later popularized by pan-Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Rashid Rida in his treatise as-Sunna wa-š-šiʿa au al-Wahhābīya wa-r-Rāfiḍa: Ḥaqāʾiq dīnīya taʾrīḫīya iǧtimaʿīya iṣlaḥīya ("The Sunna and the Shia, Or Wahhabism and Rāfidism: Religious history, sociological und reform oriented facts") published in 1928–29. 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.
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