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Shia Muslims form a majority of the population in four countries across the Muslim world: Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan. Significant Shia communities are also found in Lebanon, Kuwait, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent.
Sunni and Shia Muslims share core Islamic beliefs, but their division stems largely from political disagreements over leadership after Prophet Muhammad's death and led to differing practices and spiritual positions.
Shiʿi, member of the smaller of the two major branches of Islam, the Shiʿah, distinguished from the majority Sunnis. The origins of the split between the Sunnis and the Shiʿah lie in the events which followed the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
Shi‘a Islam, also known as Shi‘ite Islam or Shia, is the second largest branch of Islam after Sunni Islam. Shias adhere to the teachings of Muhammad and the religious guidance of his family (who are referred to as the Ahl al-Bayt) or his descendants known as Shia Imams.
Though the two main sects within Islam, Sunni and Shia, agree on most of the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam, a bitter split between the two goes back some 14 centuries. The divide...
The beliefs and practices of Twelver Shia Islam are categorised into: Theology or Roots of the Religion - five beliefs; Ancillaries of the Faith or Branches of the Religion - ten practices
Islam - Shi'a, Imams, Twelvers: Shiʿism is the only important surviving non-Sunni sect in Islam in terms of numbers of adherents. As noted above, it owes its origin to the hostility between ʿAlī (the fourth caliph, son-in-law of the Prophet) and the Umayyad dynasty (661–750).