Sunnism, one of the main branches of Islam. It is considered orthodox, “orthodox. Followers of Sunnism call themselves “ahl as-Sunnah” (people of the Sunnah), continuing the deeds and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. A Sunni is considered to be one who recognizes the first four caliphs, Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali, and the reliability of the canonical hadith collections (traditions about Muhammad and his associates that were first transmitted by hand and written down in the eighth to ninth centuries). There are six universally recognized Sunni and most authoritative hadith collections compiled by al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmizi, al-Nasai, and Ibn Majah), which are the basis of all religious and social activity, and follow ritual, domestic, and social rules according to one of the religious and legal schools.
Sunnism emerged as a movement as early as the first century of Islam as a result of a power struggle between supporters and relatives of the Prophet Muhammad-the relatives of the murdered third caliph Osman (644-656) of the Meccan Omeya family and supporters of the fourth caliph Ali (656-661), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. Ali’s followers defended the special right of his descendants, the Alids, to power, to imamat – mediation between God and men, spiritual and political leadership of the community, and formed another direction in Islam – Shiism.
Sunnis recognized the caliph as the supreme head of the “community of believers” with spiritual and secular power as the successor of the Prophet Muhammad. Since the 10th century, the caliph became a Muslim high priest, almost completely losing political power.
The development of Muslim society required the development of jurisprudence – fiqh. The followers of Sunnism recognized the Quran, Sunna, ijma and qiyas as its basis. Ijma provides the consensus opinion of the theologians-legal scholars on certain religious, legal and everyday issues not mentioned in the Quran or Sunnah, and expresses the opinion of the entire Sunni Muslim community; qiyas means a judgment on provisions not stipulated in the Quran and Sunnah by analogy with the stipulated provisions.
On the basis of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, the jurists-faqihs developed a code of Muslim law, the Shariah (late eighth and early ninth centuries). The Sunnis divided into followers of the four orthodox madhhabs (schools of law) – Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali. After them, the doors of ijtihad were closed and the application of Muslim law to new social and political phenomena began to be carried out with the help of “fatwas” – conclusions of the highest authoritative clerics made on the basis of the Koran, the Sunna, the Sharia and previously issued “fatwas”.
