Difference Between Shia and Sunni Mosques
Shia vs Sunni mosques
All mosques in the world are similar, with barely perceptible differences in their interiors and exteriors. All mosques have a long hall inside with no pictures or writings. So when comparing Shia and Sunni mosques, there is hardly any difference except for the difference in their beliefs and customs.
Though Shia and Sunni are different Muslim sects, the Shias are allowed to perform prayers at Sunni mosques and vice versa.
When looking at the difference between Sunni and Shias, it is evident that Sunnis form the majority of the Muslims in the world. ‘Shia’ means partisans or followers of Ali and ‘Sunni’ means tradition or trodden path.
Shias and Sunnis have different pillars of belief. The Shia Muslims believe in Salat, Sawm, Hajj, Zakaat, Khums, Amr-Bil-Ma’rÅ«f , Nahi-Anil-Munkar,. Tawalla and Tabarra. On the other hand Sunnis believe in Shahadah, Salah, Zakat, Sawm and Hajj.
The division between Sunnis and Shias happened soon after the death of Muhammad. The division happened on the issue of leadership after his death. The sect who believed that the successor should be chosen from among those capable of performing the job came to be known as Sunni Muslims. And thus Muhammad’s close associate and follower Abu Bakr was chosen as the first Caliph.
The other sect that believed that the control should be entrusted within Muhammad’s family came to be known as Shias. They believe that after the prophet’s death, the leadership should have passed to his son in law, Ali.
Summary
1. All mosques in the world are similar with not much external or interior difference.
2. There is hardly any difference between Shia and Sunni mosques except for the difference in their beliefs and customs.
3. ‘Shia’ means partisans or followers of Ali and ‘Sunni’ means tradition or trodden path.
4. The division between Sunnis and Shias happened soon after the death of Muhammad. The division happened on the issue of leadership after his death.
5. The sect who believed that the successor should be chosen from among those capable of performing the job came to be known as Sunni Muslims.
6. The sect who believed that the leadership should be entrusted to someone within Muhammad’s family came to be known as Shias.
7. Shia Muslims believe in Salat, Sawm, Hajj, Zakaat, Khums, Amr-Bil-Ma’rÅ«f , Nahi-Anil-Munkar,. Tawalla and Tabarra. Sunnis, on the other hand, believe in Shahadah, Salah, Zakat, Sawm and Hajj.
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The article is accurate but some minor correction must be made
1- Sunni and Shia main difference is that Shia believe the Holy prophet Pbuh
in 2 occasion selected a successor and that was first Shia Imam but sunni while
accept those occurrences they have different believe about it and say that
Mohammad Pbuh didn’t selected him as his successor that when he said you must
Follow Ali he just told muslim they must look at Ali as an example and learn from him
I think with any difference between these two branches of Islam, they should be friendly with each other and protect their unity and don’t let the enemy to destroy Islam by make these small differences seem big.
All muslims believe in one God(Allah),the holly book(Qura’n) and the prophet Muhammed. And also their Qebleh is ka’beh in Mecca.
En sha Allah God will help all of us to be a good person.
MUSLIM SHOULD FORGET ABOUT ALL THIS AND LET US SAY PRAYER TOGETHER. SAUDI ARABIA SHOULD MAKE CORRECTION ON IT
There are common ways to detect if a mosque is sunni or shia, for countries like lebanon its plainly ovbious:
– Persian architecture is shia
-basic architecture or turkish/ottoman style is sunni.
– Shia minarets are domed
– Sunni minarets are typically cone shaped, rarely are they not.
-shia masajid can be of any colour really.
– Sunni masajid typically have green domes (that are 90% of the time Rūm (Roman) domes, other words, ottoman domes)
– Shia mosques are easy to enter as a sunni, just say “Ana Shiatul Ali (I am a follower of Ali عليه السلام)” rather than say “I am shia” since sunnis are shiatul Ali as they are the shia of Abu bakr r.a, wear black thawbs/kendura which is also quite common amongst sunnis, and look for small rocks that at first glance looks like soap, but it’s not, this indicates it’s a mosque that’s Jaafari in Fiqh, meaning its shia.
– To detect a sunni mosque is fairly easy, 99% of the the sunni mosques have Ottoman architecture such as the Mimbar and Mihrab.
– Sunni mosques sometimes have banners outside of their mosques, read them, if you dont know arabic, very simply just look at common words in arabic and you can immediately tell if its shia or Sunni.
– Shia mosques have banners that say Ya Hussayn and Ya Hassan (rarely hassan a.s), even sunnis accept saying Ya Hassan and Ya Hussayn, it’s a common shia tradition to wave red and black flags of such names.
– Sunni masajid Imams have a Fez/ Sarki Imamah, if not, check if their hair is fully covered on the top part, shias have a doughnut shaped imamah, whereas sunnis cover the head.
– If you stumbled into a mosque and not one of these become apparent, look at the bookshelves, look at the names of authors of the books, 99% it’s in arabic so it’s good to know at least the arabic, try reading some of the titles and the names of the authors in your head, you’ll be able to distinguish easily since sunni mosques will have books of scholars like At Taftazani r.a, Jalaluddin As Suyuti r.a, Imam Nawawi r.a, and famous book titles like Tahawiyya, Bukhari, Shamail Tirmidhi, or even pamphlets, if it’s in urdu 100% its sunni (excluding pakistani shia mosques, they are urdu speaking) but then you’ll have to differentiate between it being Deobandi or Barelvi/Sunni.
– If you come into one and none of these appear, just pray your sunnah rakaats, and observe the Jamaah, pray according to the Maliki school if you fear anything, this applies to shias aswell, the maliki school accepts Sadl which is praying with hands down contrary to the other three which is Qabd (hands folded) thus by observing the Jamaah (I’m sure theres no full 100% maliki mosque unless your in north africa) you can tell whether its Sunni or shia in an instant.