Shia (Twelver)

Baghdad's Kadhimiya district is a major Shia Twelver shrine and pilgrimage site, distinct from the hawza cities further south.

Husayn's party was cut off from the river at Karbala in 680, and thirst is the memory that organises the mourning of Ashura.

Twelver practice follows its own detailed sequence for ghusl al-mayyit, adding washing with water mixed with lote leaves and camphor.

The Muharram mourning use of haleem belongs most strongly to Shia (Twelver) communities.

The seventh of the twelve Imams. The Ismaili line separated from the Twelver line at his succession.

Shia tradition holds that Ali had been designated at Ghadir Khumm and that the community set the designation aside in 632.

Husayn was killed at Karbala in 680 by Umayyad forces, and the mourning of Ashura became the central devotional act of Shia Islam.

The Bab and his first followers were Twelver Shia Muslims, several from the Shaykhi school within it; Babism's vocabulary of gate, occultation and awaited manifestation is drawn directly from Twelver messianic expectation before the Bab's escalating claims broke from it.

Twelver Shia Islam does not receive Jami at-Tirmidhi as scripture. It is one of the four Sunan that Sunni Islam counts among its six canonical hadith collections, but Twelver jurisprudence draws its hadith from a separate Four Books tradition built within the line of the Twelve Imams, and gives Jami at-Tirmidhi no legal or doctrinal authority.

Twelver Shia Islam does not receive Sahih al-Bukhari as scripture. Sunni tradition ranks it as the most authoritative book after the Quran itself, the first of the six canonical collections known as the Kutub al-Sittah, but it was compiled outside the line of transmission Twelver scholars recognize and carries no standing in Twelver law or doctrine, which draws instead on the Four Books compiled by figures such as al-Kulayni and al-Tusi.

Twelver Shia Islam does not receive Sahih Muslim as scripture. Sunni Islam ranks it with Sahih al-Bukhari as one of the two most authoritative hadith collections, the two Sahihs at the summit of the Sunni canon, but Twelver jurisprudence looks instead to the Four Books compiled within the line of the Twelve Imams and gives Sahih Muslim no legal or doctrinal standing.

Twelver Shia Islam does not receive Sunan Abu Dawud as scripture. It is one of the four Sunan that complete Sunni Islam's six canonical hadith collections, but Twelver jurisprudence looks instead to the Four Books tradition built by scholars within the line of the Twelve Imams, and Sunan Abu Dawud carries no standing in Twelver law or doctrine.

Twelver Shia Islam does not receive Sunan an-Nasa'i as scripture. Twelver jurisprudence draws its hadith from the Four Books compiled by scholars in the line of the Twelve Imams, among them al-Kulayni and al-Tusi, rather than from the six collections Sunni Islam calls the Kutub al-Sittah. Sunan an-Nasa'i, an abridgement an-Nasai made of his own larger collection, is honored within Sunni Islam as one of those six, but it carries no standing in Twelver law or doctrine.

Twelver Shia Islam does not receive Sunan Ibn Majah as scripture. Even within Sunni Islam its place is the least settled of the six canonical collections, customarily counted as the sixth but historically argued over, and Twelver jurisprudence gives it no standing at all, drawing its own hadith from the separate Four Books tradition built within the line of the Twelve Imams.

The Twelver call adds the testimony that Ali is the friend of God, and keeps the summons to the best of deeds that the Sunni schools dropped, so the same call carries two lines more.

For Twelver Shia the Imam is the divinely appointed and sinless successor of the Prophet. There were twelve, the last withdrew into occultation in 874, and he is expected to return. The word is shared with Sunni usage and means something else entirely.

Carries the same two additions as the call before it, which is why the second call is as audible a marker of the school as the first.

Twelver prostration must be made on earth or on what grows from it, so a small tablet of clay, most often from Karbala, is set on the mat and the forehead placed on that. The mat is used, but it is not what the forehead touches.

A third clause naming Ali as the friend of God is added, recommended rather than required, and it is what makes the testimony recognisably Shia.

Counted on beads of Karbala clay, so the count carries a claim about a place as well as a number.

Four of the imams are buried in the cemetery beside the mosque, and the destruction of the monuments over their graves is mourned annually as a day of sorrow.

Twelver Shia Islam identifies the Mahdi with Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth Imam, believed to have entered occultation in 874 CE and to remain alive until his return.

Twelver teaching numbers belief in the angels among the articles of faith, on the same Quranic ground as the Sunni.

The rank of a senior Twelver jurist qualified to reason independently from the sources, and the title has carried political as well as legal weight since the Iranian revolution.

The full semicircular cloak held closed at the front is the customary covering of Iranian Shia practice and of Shia communities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Held in the Jafari school, whose jurists carry the additional weight the marjaiyya gives them.

Twelver teaching receives Jibril as the angel of the revelation and gives him a role in the traditions concerning the Imams.

The seminaries at Najaf and Qom train Twelver jurists and confer the recognition from which the authority to give legal rulings derives.

Twelver jurisprudence reaches the same obligation as the Sunni schools from the same verses, though it differs on the detail of what may be shown.

The pilgrim state and its two cloths are held in the same form by Twelver Shia Muslims, who perform hajj with the same rites in the same months.

The shrine of the seventh and ninth imams stands in a quarter of Baghdad that takes its name from it.

The words spoken of Ali at Ghadir Khumm are the foundation of the Shia case, and the day they were spoken is kept as a feast.

A layman must follow a living marja in matters of practice, and the institution of the marjaiyya gives Twelver Shiism a functioning hierarchy of religious authority that Sunni Islam has no equivalent of.

Twelver Shia pilgrims perform the same pilgrimage, and the obligation and the rites are not in dispute between the two.

Twelver teaching receives Mikail among the angels the Quran names and gives him a place in the traditions of the Imams alongside Jibril and Israfil.

Prayer beads are used for the remembrance and are commonly strung from Karbala clay in Twelver practice.

Held, with the Shia call adding the testimony to Ali as the friend of God.

The mujtahid derives rulings directly from the sources, and the continuing exercise of ijtihad is what makes the marjaiyya possible.

The locally trained religious functionary of a Shia town or village, teaching, leading prayer and answering ordinary questions.

Nahj al-Balagha, the collection of sermons, letters and sayings attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, first Imam of Shia Islam, is revered scripture in Twelver Shia Islam.

Twelver scholarship reads the classical Sunni commentaries as sources while working from its own exegetical tradition, which is grounded in the reports of the Imams.

The shrine holds the tenth and eleventh imams and stands over the cellar from which the twelfth is held to have entered concealment. Its dome was destroyed by bombing in 2006.

Twelver Shia scholars endorsed the message, which names the Jafari school among those recognised and so refuses the excommunication of the Shia by name.

Twelver teaching receives the Medinan document as the Prophet's act and reads it within its own account of the community he founded.

Shia pilgrims visit the sanctuary on the same footing, and the night journey is held in common between the two traditions.

The ruling was issued by the leading Iranian authority of the day, and a fatwa binds those who follow the jurist who gives it rather than the school as a whole.

The shrine of the sister of the eighth imam gave the city its standing, and the seminary that grew beside it is now the principal centre of Twelver legal training in Iran.

The shrine of Ali and the seminary beside it make the city the older of the two centres of Twelver legal training, and burial in its cemetery is sought from across the Shia world.

The shrine of the eighth imam is the largest mosque in the world by area and the most visited site in Iran.

The shrines of Husayn and his half-brother are the destination of the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, made on foot in the days before the fortieth day after the commemoration of Husayn's death.

Twelver Shia teaching holds the sanctuary among the greatest mosques and the night journey among the central events of the Prophet's life, and Shia pilgrims visit it on the same footing.

The Jafari school is named among the eight the message recognises, which is the point of the document for a Twelver reader.

Shia endowments support the shrine cities and the seminaries attached to them, and their administration is a substantial source of independent income.

The two pointed sword given by the Prophet to Ali is a central emblem of Shia devotion and of the Alid claim, appearing on banners and in household ornament.

Twelver Shia hold that the Prophet designated Ali at Ghadir Khumm and that the caliphate as the Sunni community constituted it usurped the right of the Imams. The refusal is the origin of the division in Islam.

Twelver Shia teaching holds that authority passed by designation to Ali and to the imams after him, so the elective caliphate of the first three successors is refused outright.

Adl, that God is inherently and necessarily just, is the third of the five usul al-din in Twelver Shia Islam.

An afterlife of resurrection and judgement is affirmed doctrine in Twelver Shia Islam.

Twelver Shia mourn from the first of Muharram to the tenth, gathering nightly to hear the Karbala narrative recited and weep aloud, wearing black, giving out food and drink, and processing while beating the chest in rhythm.

Clergy or specialist role within Shia (Twelver).

Ayatollah is a senior clerical rank specific to Twelver Shia Islam, chiefly its Iranian and Iraqi seminary tradition.

Twelver jurisprudence holds that Dhuhr and Asr share a single extended window and may be prayed consecutively without excuse, where the Sunni schools permit combining only for travel, illness or, in some, rain.

Muhammad is affirmed as the last of God's prophets in Twelver Shia Islam.

Clergy or specialist role within Shia (Twelver).

Hadith are affirmed as a source of law and doctrine in Twelver Shia Islam, transmitted through Imami chains distinct from the Sunni canon and gathered chiefly in the Four Books, which the atlas does not yet catalogue as separate scripture text entries.

Its own record names it specifically Twelver Shia, not Islam or Shia Islam generally.

Twelver practice requires a believer who is not a jurist to emulate a living marja, and because emulation lapses at his death the authority is continuously renewed rather than fixed in a founder.

In Twelver Shia Islam Imam names the divinely appointed, infallible leader descended from the Prophet's family through Ali and Fatima, per the doctrine of the Imamate; a categorically different office from the Sunni prayer leader of the same title.

The imamate, that Ali and a designated line of his descendants hold divinely appointed authority over the Muslim community, is the fourth of the five usul al-din in Twelver Shia Islam.

Iman is foundational to Twelver Shia Islam, understood as inseparable from acceptance of the Imamate.

The twelve Imams are held preserved from sin and from error, which is what makes their reported sayings a source of law alongside the Prophet's.

Twelver practice includes forms using the rosary or the Quran to obtain an indication, performed or authorised by a scholar. These have no Sunni equivalent and are debated within Shia scholarship.

Jihad is affirmed doctrine in Twelver Shia Islam, historically bound to the authority of a rightful Imam.

Khums as a standing tax on annual surplus income is specifically Twelver Shia. The Sunni schools confine the fifth of Quran 8:41 to war booty and, for most, to treasure and mined wealth.

As with Dhuhr and Asr, Twelver jurisprudence treats Maghrib and Isha as sharing an extended window, so that many Shia Muslims perform all five prayers at three sittings.

Marja al-taqlid, the source of emulation, is the most senior rank of Twelver Shia religious authority, whose rulings observant Shia Muslims choose to follow.

The muezzin gives the call to prayer in Shia mosques as well; the office does not differ meaningfully between the two traditions.

Mullah is the standard clerical title in Iranian Twelver Shia usage for a cleric below the rank of ayatollah.

Nahj al-Balagha, the collection of sermons, letters and sayings attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, first Imam of Shia Islam, is revered scripture in Twelver Shia Islam.

Twelver law recognises a fixed-term marriage contract, mutah, which the Sunni schools hold to have been abrogated and do not accept.

Twelver Shia theology holds neither compulsion nor total delegation, but a matter between the two, amr bayn al-amrayn, a formula attributed to the sixth Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq.

Nubuwwah, prophethood culminating in Muhammad, is the second of the five usul al-din in Twelver Shia Islam.

Shia legal history also produced qadi courts, historically appointed under Shia rulers such as the Safavids, applying Jafari jurisprudence rather than a Sunni school.

Qiyamah, the resurrection, is the fifth of the five usul al-din in Twelver Shia Islam.

Twelver practice uses five pronouncements of the takbir rather than four and does not include the opening chapter of the Quran.

Sharia, elaborated through Jafari jurisprudence, is affirmed as binding in Twelver Shia Islam.

Shirk, associating partners with God, is rejected as the gravest sin in Twelver Shia Islam.

Concealment of belief under threat is permitted and, where life is at risk, obligatory in Twelver doctrine, a position formed over long periods in which Shia identity was dangerous.

The punishment of the grave, and its ease for the righteous, is affirmed in Twelver Islam on the reports.

Barakah is affirmed in Twelver Islam and attaches to the Imams, to their descendants and to the shrine cities, which is the ground of ziyara.

Barzakh is affirmed in Twelver Islam as a real state between death and the resurrection.

The charge of innovation runs in more than one direction, and is returned against those who level it.

The questioning of the dead after burial is affirmed in Twelver Islam on the reports.

Fitra is affirmed in Twelver Islam, and with it the position that no guilt is inherited.

The forbidden category is affirmed in Jafari law as the strongest of the five rulings.

Haya is affirmed in Twelver Islam as a quality of speech, conduct and dress, and is carried in the reports of the Imams as well as in the hadith of the Prophet.

Ihsan is affirmed in Twelver Islam, and the inward dimension it names is carried in the tradition's own devotional and ethical literature rather than through a separate order structure.

The ijazah is the Twelver instrument of scholarly authority, and the licence to transmit and to exercise ijtihad is what constitutes the hierarchy of the seminary.

Consensus is accepted in Twelver legal theory in a restricted sense: it binds because it discloses the Imam's position, not because agreement is authoritative in itself.

Ijtihad as continuous and never closed. Every believer follows a living mujtahid, and taqlid of the dead is not permitted.

The five roots, which add divine justice and the imamate to the articles the Sunni creeds carry.

The division into grave and lesser sins is affirmed in Twelver Islam, and Twelver scholarship enumerates the grave sins more explicitly than the Sunni schools do.

Kaffara is affirmed in Jafari law as a defined expiation discharging a particular liability.

The mahdi identified with the twelfth imam, born in 869 and in occultation rather than awaited as a future birth.

The weighing of deeds at the judgement is affirmed in Twelver Islam.

The Ja'fari school holds nikah mut'ah lawful, grounded in Qur'an 4:24 and hadith from Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, and holds the Prophet never banned it.

Sabr is affirmed in Twelver Islam, and the Karbala narrative gives endurance under injustice a place in the tradition's devotional life that it has nowhere else.

Shukr, gratitude that recognises the giver in the gift, is affirmed in Twelver Islam.

The bridge over the fire is affirmed in Twelver Islam on the reports, and held without specifying its manner.

Takfir is admitted in Twelver scholarship and hedged, and the modern Shia position has been asserted chiefly against those who declare Shia Muslims unbelievers.

Taqwa is affirmed in Twelver Islam as the Quran's measure of human worth.

Tawakkul is affirmed in Twelver Islam as reliance on God alongside the taking of means, not instead of it.

Tawbah is affirmed in Twelver Islam as a turning back that requires restitution where a human being has been wronged.

Twelver theology holds the Quran to be created, God's speech being an act rather than an eternal attribute, which places it with the Mutazila and against Sunni orthodoxy on the question the ninth-century inquisition was fought over.

The five rulings are the standard classification of acts in Jafari jurisprudence as in the Sunni schools.

Twelver legal theory takes the Quran, the Sunna including the reports of the Imams, consensus in its own restricted sense, and reason in the place the Sunni schools give to analogy.

Own text describes Ta'ziyeh as a Shia Muslim dramatic tradition reenacting the Battle of Karbala.

Karbala is the central narrative of Twelver Shia devotion and the subject of the Ashura commemorations.

The party of Ali, from which Twelver Shia Islam descends, takes its origin in this conflict.

Karbala is the emotional and devotional center of Twelver Shia Islam, built around the graves of Husayn and al-Abbas.

Najaf is the oldest and, by most accounts, most authoritative seminary center of Twelver Shia Islam.

Qom is one of the two leading seminary centers of Twelver Shia Islam, alongside Najaf.

Twelver Shia belief places the occultation of the twelfth imam at Samarra.