Question about other Islamic sects

Asalamu Alakum,

I would have asked this question in a more appropriate forum, but I can't post in it.

Can someone tell me what the differences are between Sunni, Shia, Sufi, and Wahabi Muslims?

Thankyou,

Sarah

Rami has given a very comprehensive description of the various terms. I would like to add a few personal thoughts.

I believe that Shia was a political movement started by Persian Muslims. The Persian Empire used to have a rigid class system. The majority of the population was born into the lower peasant class and stayed there all their lives. Islam promised equality and justice for all. Persian masses converted to Islam and the Persian Empire fell before the Arab Muslim army. However, afterwards, Arab started to discriminate between Arab Muslims and Ajam Muslims, or Arab and non-Arab Muslims. This was particularly hard for Persians who had come to Islam for its promise of equality. Furthermore, the new religion was teaching them that they should follow God, the Prophet and those in charge of their affairs. In other words the Arab Khalif was telling the non-Arab population that they had to accept the status quo and dissent was forbidden by Quran.

Persians turned this argument on its head by rejecting the whole notion of Khalifate. They said the true leaders of the Muslim Ummah were chosen by God. They said the leaders should have been the Prophet�s descendants through his daughter and son-in-law Ali. Therefore, any other government was against the will of God and had to be removed. They were then able to mount a military campaign against the central government which ended in a new Khalifate dynasty and a semi-autonomous Iran. Once the political obejective was accomplished the Sunni/Shia debate became an academic affair for a long time.

Centuries later Otoman and Safavid empires were fighting each other for territory. They used the Sunni/Shia divide to justify a brutal war that pitched Muslim against Muslim. This war was welcomed and encouraged by the colonial powers. They grabbed land from both sides of the weakened Muslim Umma. The brutality of this war has split the Sunni and Shia ever since and enemies of Islam have exploited the division time and again.

I believe Sufism came about with the Mongols invasion of the Middle-East. Muslims were at the height of their civilization when the Mongol hordes arrived and there was a profound cultural shock from the defeat they suffered from Mongols. In a short time the Mongols laid waste to many Muslim cities and left a path of death and destruction in their wake. Afterwards, some Muslims denounced all material concerns and Sufism became prevalent. The great Sufi poet Rumi came of age in this era. He turned away from the cruel world outside and sought God inside of himself. Muslim literature and philosophy was never the same again.