Skip to footer

Shiite and Sunni: What are the differences?

While the two sects share the same basic beliefs, differences in hierarchy and doctrine make Catholics and Protestants an apt comparison.

3. Holidays

Hadi Mizban/AP
Shiite pilgrims at the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, Iraq, to celebrate Arbaeen on January 14, 2012.

  • By Dan Murphy Staff Writer

Observant Shiites and Sunnis fast from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, which culminates with Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the first revelation of the Koran to Muhammad. Another major holiday is Eid al-Adha, which celebrates Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) willingness to sacrifice his son on God’s command, though in the Muslim narrative the son in question is Ishmael, rather than Isaac.

But the Shiites also have two major holidays of their own Arbaeen and Ashura. Arbaeen is the 40th  and final day of a mourning period for Muhammad’s grandson Hussein, who was slaughtered along with his outmatched followers in the desert near Karbala in 680 AD. The holiday is marked by millions of pilgrims making their way on foot to Karbala in Iraq. Most come from Iraq, but large numbers come from as far as Iran, India, and Pakistan. Ashura likewise commemorates Hussein and opens the 40-day mourning period.

3 of 3
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.