Reddit Reddit reviews After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam

We found 13 Reddit comments about After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam
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13 Reddit comments about After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam:

u/redbluetin · 19 pointsr/AskHistorians

You can read the book After the Prophet by Lezley Hazleton. It presents a lucid and readable historical account of how the Shia-Sunni discord happened, from a historical point of view. However, I have two caveats about this book. While written by a Westerner who is apparently not a party to the dispute, the book has appeared to me to be subtly biased in favor of the Shias. Secondly, the doctrinal and cultural differences between Shia and Sunni are perhaps more important in shaping the conflict than any political or historical conflicts. This factor too is inadequately dealt with in the book.

u/austex_mike · 8 pointsr/rant

To perfectly understand the Sunni/Shia split takes a good amount of time and understanding of the political situation of the Arabian peninsula and Levant in the 7th century. However, I recently read a book that I think does a great job, doing it in a way that is easy to read and understand. The book is called After the Prophet, by Lesley Hazelton. I suggest you pick it up and read it if you are really interested.

Now for a quick summary, which in no way does the topic justice. The split boils down to a disagreement about how the Islamic community (Ummah) was to be led after the death of Muhammad. Sunnis contend that the leaders after the Prophet would be selected from among the elders of the community by the elders themselves. This resulted in the establishment of the Caliphate. The Shia believed the Muhammad's first cousin/son-in-law named Ali was the true successor. They viewed the Caliphs as illegitimate and not the true spiritual leaders of the community.

Eventually Ali became the fourth in line of Caliphs and leader of the community. However Ali was opposed by Muawiyyah, a man who was the son of one of the biggest opponents of Islam early on (this opponent eventually converted to Islam.) Muawiyyah and Ali fought in a civil war and eventually came to peace with each other. However, Ali was assassinated (by fanatics who did not agree with Ali making peace with Muawiyyah) and Muawiyyah's son Yazid eventually orders the killing of Ali's son, Muhammad's grandson, named Husyan. Muawiyyah goes on to establish what is known as the Ummayyad Caliphate which leads the majority of the Islamic world for a long time.

So what this boils down to is the Sunnis view Shi'ites as these misguided people who put way too much emphasis on the family of the Prophet as leaders. They believe that their Caliphate represents the true leadership of the Islamic world. On the other hand Shi'ites view the Sunnis as people who follow merely political leaders with no spiritual ties to the Prophet and that the Caliphate is a sham position that is far too often held by people who are corrupt.

You mentioned that the Shia are more open-minded, well I am not sure we can say that as a general rule. They are more open to US support because Iraq was a majority Shia country ruled by the Sunnis for decades, so in that sense they are more than happy to take our weapons and support fighting Sunnis.

u/LRE · 8 pointsr/exjw

Random selection of some of my favorites to help you expand your horizons:

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is a great introduction to scientific skepticism.

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris is a succinct refutation of Christianity as it's generally practiced in the US employing crystal-clear logic.

Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor by Anthony Everitt is the best biography of one of the most interesting men in history, in my personal opinion.

Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski is a jaw-dropping book on history, journalism, travel, contemporary events, philosophy.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a great tome about... everything. Physics, history, biology, art... Plus he's funny as hell. (Check out his In a Sunburned Country for a side-splitting account of his trip to Australia).

The Annotated Mona Lisa by Carol Strickland is a thorough primer on art history. Get it before going to any major museum (Met, Louvre, Tate Modern, Prado, etc).

Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier is a detailed refutation of the whole 'Christianity could not have survived the early years if it weren't for god's providence' argument.

Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman are six of the easier chapters from his '63 Lectures on Physics delivered at CalTech. If you like it and really want to be mind-fucked with science, his QED is a great book on quantum electrodynamics direct from the master.

Lucy's Legacy by Donald Johanson will give you a really great understanding of our family history (homo, australopithecus, ardipithecus, etc). Equally good are Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade and Mapping Human History by Steve Olson, though I personally enjoyed Before the Dawn slightly more.

Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel gives you context for all the Bible stories by detailing contemporaneous events from the Levant, Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc.

After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton is an awesome read if you don't know much about Islam and its early history.

Happy reading!

edit: Also, check out the Reasonable Doubts podcast.

u/turkeyfox · 4 pointsr/islam

Depends on who you ask. Shias will acknowledge that there was bad blood, Sunnis will say that everything was hunky dory and everyone loved each other and the sky rained gummy bears.

For the least biased account try looking at what non-Muslims have written, since anything written by a Muslim will naturally be biased towards which side they're on. https://www.amazon.com/After-Prophet-Story-Shia-Sunni-Split/dp/0385523947 is a good example and something I think that's right up your alley.

u/zmasta94 · 1 pointr/shia

I wouldn't consider myself Shia nor Sunni; just simply a Muslim. But, I am fairly clued up about both sides through going to countries, mosques and engaging in conversations as well as reading books.

I think Shias curse Aisha because of her alleged role in Ali's (the first Shia Imam, son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet) so called Dust & Thornes tribulation. She, alongside her half brothers Zubayr and [cant remember] waged the first civil war in Islam (called fitna).

Also, according to Shia lore, every time something turbulent/weird [for lack of a better word] happened, Aisha was either in the middle of it or nowhere in sight. Shia accounts also document the tension and perhaps rivalry between Aisha and Ali - and may ultimately blame Aisha for Ali and his sons' suffering or just fall in line back chose Ali's side.

Of course, this is all my opinion and represents what I believe in the moment in time only. There are so many varying accounts on what happened within the first century of the Prophet's death, and it just so depends on what 'story' you side with.

I'd recommend you to read a book called After the Prophet which i am reading right now and it gives a very good account (from the author's particular bias and perspective obviously) of Aisha and Ali's relationship after Muhammad pbuh.

Peace

u/AndyPandy81 · 1 pointr/islam

For those that may want to read further on the topic, Lesley Hazleton has written a book called After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia Sunni Split in Islam.

A copy in MOBI format can be found here

u/sharpiepriest1 · 1 pointr/worldnews

>Dude believe what you want but for every manuscript written by an islamic person there are ten thousand written non muslim that portray a brutal life under muslims.

This is something you want to be true, but isn't. You want it to be true, so you will never seek out information that contradicts it. I get the impression that you've never read a primary source written from within the Muslim empire. You've been told these things, but you're too intellectually lazy to wonder if they might be lies, misunderstandings, and myths. If you want to be spoonfed you interpretation of history instead of researching it yourself, that's your business. But don't claim to have knowledge of history if second hand accounts and Crusades-era anti-Islam propaganda are the shaky foundation you want to build your worldview on.

Once again, the image of Islam would be seriously shaken if you read something written by scholars, like No God but God or After the Prophet, or Orientalism. Unfortunately it's pretty clear that you lack the curiosity to verify what you believe.

u/Makrooh · 1 pointr/exmuslim

Read “After the Prophet" by Lesley Hazleton: https://www.amazon.com/After-Prophet-Story-Shia-Sunni-Split/dp/0385523947

It isn't written by a shiite, but it seems like she does lean more towards the shia point of view than the sunni one.

u/autumnflower · 1 pointr/islam

Well there's been a few western written books about the topic. Ex: After the prophet. Mind you, both sides will criticize this book as being biased towards one side or the other.

u/costofanarchy · -1 pointsr/islam

They're the two most common branches of Islam (with each having sub-branches). It's hard to know the exact demographic breakdown, but Sunni Muslims probably make up something like 85% of Muslims and Shi'a Muslims something like 15% (a much smaller minority belong to other groups).

If you want an accessible (not written by academics/experts/scholars) book from a non-Muslim perspective that explains the historical events that lead up to the Shi'a-Sunni divide, I would recommend After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton. Neither Shi'a nor Sunni Muslims will 100% agree with her version of the story, but it's nicely told, and for the most part gives the right idea. It's written in a narrative format that doesn't make things dry.

If you want a really concise description of the fundamentals of Islamic beliefs and practices, from a Shi'a perspective, then I would recommend Discovering Islam by Sayyid Moustafa Al-Qazwini.

Unfortunately, resources on Shi'a Islam in English are usually translations of (often either classical or somewhat outdated contemporary) works that were originally written in Arabic or Persian. There's isn't much that's originally written in English.

This volume from the classical Hadith collection Al-Kafi (on intellect and foolishness) might be a good place for looking into Shi'a hadith.