Sunni Islam

Overview: Sunni Islam is the historically largest branch of Islam. It affirms the absolute oneness of God, recognizes Muhammad as the seal of the prophets, and regards the Qur'an as the final revelation, read together with the Sunnah preserved in hadith collections and in the practice transmitted by the community.

Origin and development: It emerged from the community formed around Muhammad in western Arabia in the seventh century. Sunni identity took shape over the first centuries of Islam around the legitimacy of the first caliphs, communal consensus, and the development of legal and theological schools. Historically, Sunnism has encompassed diverse currents and vast regions of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and later global diasporas.

Central beliefs: Among its best-known teachings are tawhid, belief in angels, revealed books, prophets, the Day of Judgment, and divine decree. Religious practice is often summarized in the Five Pillars: profession of faith, ritual prayers, obligatory charity, fasting during Ramadan, and pilgrimage to Mecca for those able to undertake it.

Texts and authority: The Qur'an holds the highest place, while the Sunnah and canonical hadith guide doctrine, worship, and conduct. In the legal sphere, the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali schools became especially influential. There is no single central authority; religious guidance is distributed among scholars, jurists, institutions, mosques, and local traditions.

Internal variations and debates: Sunnism includes legitimate differences of interpretation in jurisprudence, theology, spirituality, and political organization. There is a long-standing debate about the relationship between reason and revelation, Sufism, religious reform, state authority, hadith hermeneutics, the role of women, and responses to modernity. In comparative studies, it is useful to distinguish Sunnism both from Shi'ism and from political or militant readings that do not represent its entire spectrum.