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Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy, and the Islamic Tradition

Duncan Stone

Within any religion it has been recognized that there are often two or more

different groups of believers, one of which represents the mainstream version of the

religion, and others which represent minority beliefs or opinions that while similar to

those of the mainstream are none the less fundamentally different. In Islam there are

two main branches of the religion: Sunni and Shiite. We consider the larger Sunni

group to be the orthodox version of the religion due to its size and relative political

power, while the Shiite religion is considered a heterodoxy as it is smaller and its

influence much more regional. However, it has been argued that because there is no

centralized church or hierarchy in the Islamic faith that these terms do not apply as it is

impossible to accurately identify which version of the religion is most in line with the

teachings of Muhammed. While some might claim this is incorrect as a religious

hierarchy does exist in Islam in the form of leaders such as the Caliph and Imam, I

would argue that while there may have been some form of religious hierarchy in the

shape of such figures that in todays world there is no clear religious hierarchy and that

the various schools of jurisprudence and theological thought that make up the Sunni

and Shiite faiths have only increased the already fractured nature of Islam. Therefore, it

is difficult to describe any one sect of Islam as either Orthodox of Heterodox, as even

the Sunni and Shiite faiths have their own internal splits and factions, each one

claiming to be the pure representation of Islam.

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What confuses many individuals, and is the basis for the counter argument that

the terms Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy do apply in the Islamic is that there is no

separation of church and state in the Islamic faith. If we look at the beginning of Islam,

specifically at the time of the rightly guided caliphs, we can see that while the caliph was

the ruler of the various Islamic peoples and lands, he was also the Imam of the ummah.

This means that in the early Islamic tradition it was the political ruler who was the head

of both the religion and the state. This means that both the political and religious

structure of Muslim countries was the same, meaning that there was a highly

centralized hierarchy already in place centered around the political and spiritual

authority of the caliph. The role that the caliphs played as a spiritual leader in Islam also

increased as their political power waned under the sultans. They came to be the

figureheads of their religion, and represented the majority of those who called

themselves Muslim, allowing us to identify at this time which of the Islamic faiths could

be considered orthodox and heterodox based on the faith held by the caliph at the time.

However, while this may have been the case in the past the situation in todays

world is much more different. With only a few exceptions there are no longer any Islamic

caliphates in the world. And those that do exist are either small in size or rouge states.

Instead they have been replaced by various councils and government administered

groups that deal with the day to day business of the Islamic religion within the country.

While there is some interaction on the part of these groups amongst one another, there

is no longer the centralized spiritual authority once vested in the office of caliph. Even

the ayatollahs of Iran are only able to spread their influence amongst Shiites regionally

at best, and have no power over the religious matters of Sunni Muslims. In addition,
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emphasis is placed on serving Allah directly without any intermediaries, making the

believer responsible for developing their spiritual self. Therefore, while it is true that

during the early part of Muslim history that there was a religious structure and hierarchy,

the situation in the present day is different with various competing interpretations of

Islam leading to a disconnect in beleifs even amongst those who claim to be either

Shiite or Sunni.

The split between the Sunnis and Shiites in the first centuries of Islamic history

also serves to highlight how the lack of a rigid hierarchy from the very formation of the

Islamic faith led to the original fracturing of Islam, and underscores just how difficult it is

to determine which group to even consider orthodox or heterodox in belief after the

death of the prophet. While he was alive, the prophet Muhammed was recognized as

the only leader of the Islamic faith. However, when he died in 632 AD a conflict broke

out between his subordinates over who would succeed him as both the political and

spiritual leader of the Muslim people. This resulted in the initial spit in the Muslim faith

between those who supported Abu Bakr, the leader elected from a group of

Muhammeds lieutenants and close advisors and those who support Ali, who as

Muhammeds cousin and son-in-law claimed that Muhammed had chosen him as his

successor. Because both sides have scriptures and sources that support both of their

claims as to who is truly following the path of Islam and the succession of power as

Muhammed would have wished it, it becomes difficult to identify just which of the two

groups to consider orthodox and heterodox, and as Islam spread throughout the Middle

East and North Africa, the differences between the beliefs of these two groups became
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only more exacerbated as the empire grew, and communication between the leaders of

religious communities either Shiite or Sunni became infrequent.

The disconnect in beliefs between various Islamic groups also led to different

interpretations of Islamic theology and law on the part of Imams, jurists, and

theologians. In the Sunni sphere of religious jurisprudence there are five different

madhhab and numerous subgroups each with their own interpretation of Islamic legal

texts and the teachings of the Koran as applied in a legal context. There are at least

twenty different schools of Islamic theology, some of which are against one another

over ideas and concepts such as predestination and the nature of the Koran. The

diversity of opinions in both Islamic law and theology highlight the deep divides that

separate the Islamic faith, even amongst those who consider themselves to be Sunni or

Shiite. While there are certainly different factions of theologians within organizations

such as the Catholic or Orthodox Christian churches, they differ from one another only

very slightly, and the rigid hierarchy of these organizations prevents them from making

radical interpretations of scriptures and texts that deviate from the official line. Due to

the lack of such a hierarchy in Islam, this has allowed what first began as a simple

disconnect due to the lack of communication between the various jurist and imams of

the Islamic world to develop into a fractured and highly regional interpretation of Islamic

texts and scriptures by different schools of jurists and theologians. While some of these

schools have only small followings and have waned in influence and power over the

years, others such as Wahhabism have grown in power and influence all while claiming

to be the pure form and expression of the Islamic faith.

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While many look at the Islamic faith and say that it is easy to determine

that Sunni Islam is the orthodox version of Islam, and Shiism a heterodoxy it is in fact

impossible to determine such a thing between these two groups, let alone the various

smaller sects and schools that make up each of these faiths. While there was structure

to the Islamic religion in the form of the Caliph, this is no longer the case today. There is

a plethora of Islamic judicial traditions and theological schools of thought in both the

Sunni and Shiite traditions, all of which claim to be the pure and correct representation

of Islam while being at odds with one another. It is even difficult to determine orthodoxy

between early Sunni and Shiite as both have arguments showing that their founders

were appointed by Muhammed as the new leaders of the Islamic faith after his death.

The lack of communication between the various groups that make up Islam throughout

its history and the failure on the part of Muhammed and the early caliphs to develop a

religious structure within the religion have led to the house of Islam becoming fractured

even further than the Sunni Shiite split. The fractured nature of Islam therefore makes it

impossible to determine which branch of the faith is orthodox, as each and every one

claims to follow the teachings of the prophet Muhammed as laid down in the Koran and

Hadith.