{"collection":"Texts of Islam","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl36_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl36_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl36_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/isl/isl36.htm","summary":"This is an excerpt from a historical or religious studies text \u2014 likely a survey or introduction to Islam \u2014 tracing the origins of Islam's major sectarian divisions in the decades following the Prophet Muhammad's death. The central argument is that the Muslim community's fracture stems from the contested succession to the Caliphate, particularly the election of 'Uthm\u0101n over 'Al\u012b in 644 CE and 'Uthm\u0101n's subsequent murder in 656, an act that created an unresolvable moral dilemma for the community since both approving and condemning it could be seen as wrong. From this crisis emerged two dissident movements: the Kh\u0101rij\u012bs (\"Seceders\"), radical pietists who declared 'Al\u012b an apostate for accepting arbitration and justified killing fellow Muslims on that basis, and the Sh\u012b'a, the loyalist faction of 'Al\u012b who elevated him and his descendants to near-prophetic status and continued resisting Umayyad rule. The text emphasizes that 'Al\u012b's appeal was as much social and economic as religious \u2014 he was associated with demands for equal distribution of conquest spoils \u2014 which helps explain the depth and durability of Sh\u012b'\u012b loyalty. A distinctive claim is that the revolution of 750 CE that toppled the Umayyads, though launched in the name of the Prophet's family, was covertly hijacked by the 'Abb\u0101sid line, leaving the Sh\u012b'a perpetually disappointed and further subdivided.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Islam: Chapter Six: The Dissidents of the Community: Introduction","tradition":"Texts of Islam","translated_text":null,"word_count":766}