Jesse Harasta > Quotes

“Cemetery of al-Baqi in Medina, they utterly destroyed the tombs of the Imams Hasan, Ali ibn Husayn, Muhammed ibn Ali, and Jafar, as well as the tomb of Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad.  In Mecca, they destroyed the Cemetery of Mualla, where the ancestors of Muhammad and his first wife Khadija were buried.  These prominent destructions were part of a pattern of violence that witnessed the Wahhabi Saudis smash buildings, tombs and mosques associated with the history of the Prophet and his family and which were venerated by Shia.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“Perhaps the most important development in the differences between the Sunni and the Shia in modern history has been the development of a new school of thought in Sunni religiosity: Salafi or Wahhabi Islam.  The Wahhabis date their history back to the mid-18th century, when an Arab thinker named Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab (1703-1792) developed a new theology that violently rejected what he saw as the corruption of Islam and the growing Christian domination of the Muslim World.  Looking for a source of the ongoing scandalous humiliation of the Muslim world, he looked inwards to flaws within the Ummah.  According to al-Wahhab, if the Muslims were the chosen people of God, their subservience to Christians was not due to Christian superiority but due to God withdrawing his favor because the Muslims had turned away from Him. In this worldview, the goal of the modern Islamic community should be the rejection of corruption and perversion and a return to the true, pure faith of the Prophet and his Companions.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“Al-Wahhab allied with Muhammed bin Saud, the founder of the state of Saudi Arabia, and provided religious and ideological backing to the newly formed state.  The Wahhabi Saudi troops took advantage of the chaos of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I to seize control over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. It’s probably safe to say that the Shia will never forgive the Wahhabis for the zealotry they pursued upon taking the cities, which included obliterating centuries-old sacred Shia shrines and claiming that they were used to worship the Imams as gods and were therefore heretical.  In the Cemetery of al-Baqi in Medina, they utterly destroyed the tombs of the Imams Hasan, Ali ibn Husayn, Muhammed ibn Ali, and Jafar, as well as the tomb of Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad.  In Mecca, they destroyed the Cemetery of Mualla, where the ancestors of Muhammad and his first wife Khadija were buried.  These prominent destructions were part of a pattern of violence that witnessed the Wahhabi Saudis smash buildings, tombs and mosques associated with the history of the Prophet and his family and which were venerated by Shia.  In addition, they alienated Shia from governance and oppressed them throughout the kingdom[26].  This vandalism has been repeated time and time again by Wahhabis in other areas as well, including the much-publicized destruction of the Buddha statues of the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001[27] and the outbreak of violence in 2013 around the city of Timbuktu, where Wahhabi fundamentalists  destroyed holy artifacts and burned a priceless library of manuscripts before fleeing the arrival of French troops[28]. While the establishment of the Wahhabi school of thought created an intellectual form of anti-Shia ideology, it is probable that this philosophy would have remained isolated in the political backwater of the Nejd Sultanate (the core of modern Saudi Arabia) if not for the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the final abolition of the Caliphate. The Ottomans had claimed to be Caliphs of the Muslim world since 1453, the same year that they conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) from the Byzantine Empire, and they ruled over a considerable portion of the world's Sunnis, as well as the shrine cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.  After 1876, the Sultans had placed particular emphasis on their role as Caliphs in order to bolster their global position by asserting their Empire's "Muslim” character, and while this was never universally accepted by all Sunnis or Shias, Sunni Muslims everywhere at least could say that there was a government that claimed to represent the form of rule established by the Prophet and that provided legitimacy and continuity.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“Within the Shia position - that there is something unique about the Prophet's line that gives them a special ability to rule - there is an important division that was not immediately apparent after the Prophet's death: is this uniqueness something that is born within them, or is it a special knowledge which comes from either a secret teaching or from insights gained from prolonged intimacy with Muhammad?  This is important because if it is knowledge, then it can be codified and taught to those who are not his descendants, and it can also be lost by those who are.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“arrogant and supremely self-centered.”
― Jesse Harasta, The Taj Mahal: The History of India’s Most Famous Monument

“Abu Bakr was chosen to become "caliph," a shortened form of the title "Khalifat Rasul Allah" ("Successors to the Messenger of God").”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“Shia Iran is currently fighting the Islamic State, a Sunni group, in Iraq, which has a Shia majority. Meanwhile, Iran has also helped prop up the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad (an Alawite whose sect is associated with Twelver Shia), who is still fighting a civil war against Sunni rebels financed by nations like Sunni Saudi Arabia. Iran and Syria have both historically been primary sponsors of Hezbollah, a Shia militia of considerable strength in Lebanon.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“Since the election of Abu Baker in 623, there have been hundreds of individuals from close to a dozen dynasties that have claimed the Caliphate, but only the first four are widely considered by Sunnis to have inherited the true spiritual mantle of the Prophet.  These four men, all of whom were Sahabah (Companions of the Prophet in his life), are called the "Rashidun" (or "Rightly Guided" Caliphs), and their government is referred to as the Rashidun or Patriarchal Caliphate (632-661).”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“In 644, Umar was murdered by a stab wound from a slave, and the fact that this slave was of Persian origin became a point of Sunni-Shia friction centuries later after Persia converted to Shi'ism under the Safavids.  On his deathbed, Umar appointed a committee of six men to find his successor, and this committee included Ali and the eventual choice, Uthman ibn Affan.  All six were part of the aging cohort of Sahabah and had been prominent political actors throughout the Prophet's reign and the succeeding caliphs.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“The Prophet said: Let people stop boasting about their ancestors. One is only a pious believer or a miserable sinner. All men are sons of Adam, and Adam came from dust (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi).”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“Muawiyah broke from the traditions of the Rashidun by declaring that not only was he Caliph but that the position would be passed down within his family. In this way, the last egalitarian elements of the government were abolished and a new dynasty - the Umayyads - was established.  The Umayyads would rule for roughly 90 years, and much of their state policy was conditioned by the Fitna, which included requiring all mosques to ritually "Curse" the name of Ali during Friday prayers for 60 years[17].  As a result, the Shia became a persecuted group with hidden followers scattered across the Islamic world, but they were mostly concentrated in Ali's old heartland of Iraq.  The tomb of Ali in the Iraqi city of Najaf would become a center for pilgrimage, and the legend of Ali as a true Islamic ruler who was noble, just and forgiving would be taken up by Sunni and Shia alike.  The weekly Cursing in the end only reinforced the pettiness and weakness of the Umayyads.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“In conjunction with the development of the theology of the Occultation and the foundation of Twelver Shi’ism, another branch of Shia was also making great strides in the 9th and 10th centuries: the Ismailis.  After the death of the 6th Imam, Jafar, the Shia split between the followers of the son of his elder son Ismail (hence the term “Ismailis”) and the followers of his third son, Musa.  The followers of Musa remained based in Medina and developed an intellectual strand of Shi’ism around their clerical Imams that eventually lead to the Occultation.  The Ismailis, on the other hand, took a more political approach to their Imamate, based out of the restive Shia city of Kufa.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“including the massive Akapana Pyramid, the Kalasaya Temple, and the famed Puerta del Sol (Gate of the Sun).”
― Jesse Harasta, Tiwanaku: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Pre-Columbian Site in the Heart of the Andes

“Thus, from 909 onwards, there were two rival caliphates: a Sunni Caliphate in Baghdad led by the Abbasid Dynasty (descending from Muhammad’s uncle Abbas) and a Shia Caliphate in Cairo led by the Fatimid Dynasty (descending from Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and from the Imam Ali).  Further complicating the picture was the fact that remnants of the old Umayyad Dynasty established themselves in parts of Spain, where they created their own Caliphate based in Córdoba in 929.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

“the First Civil War (called a "Fitna") consumed Ali's reign and ultimately brought about his death.  Around him gathered a group of loyal followers who became known as the Shīʻatu ʻAlī , a term that means Party of Ali, and over time, "Shiatu Ali" became shortened to "Shia," the term that continues to be used today.”
― Jesse Harasta, The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam