Sunnite, Arabic Sunnī, member of one of the two major branches of Islam, the branch that consists of the majority of that religion’s adherents. Sunni Muslims regard their sect as the mainstream and traditionalist branch of Islam, as distinguished from the minority sect, the Shīʿites.
The Sunnis recognize the first four caliphs as the Prophet Muhammad’s rightful successors, whereas the Shīʿites believe that Muslim leadership belonged to Muhammad’s son-in-law, ʿAlī, and his descendants alone. In contrast to the Shīʿites, the Sunnis have long conceived of the theocratic state built by Muhammad as an earthly, temporal dominion and have thus regarded the leadership of Islam as being determined not by divine order or inspiration but by the prevailing political realities of the Muslim world. This led historically to Sunni acceptance of the leadership of the foremost families of Mecca and to the acceptance of unexceptional and even foreign caliphs, so long as their rule afforded the proper exercise of religion and the maintenance of order. The Sunnis accordingly held that the caliph must be a member of Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh, but devised a theory of election that was flexible enough to permit that allegiance be given to the de facto caliph, whatever his origins. The distinctions between the Sunnis and other sects regarding the holding of spiritual and political authority remained firm even after the end of the Caliphate itself in the 13th century.
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In the 10th century a reaction began against the Muʿtazilah that culminated in the formulation and subsequent general acceptance of another set of theological propositions, which became Sunni, or “orthodox,” theology. The issues raised by these early schisms and the positions adopted by them enabled the Sunni orthodoxy to define its own doctrinal positions in turn. Much of the...
Sunni orthodoxy is marked by an emphasis on the views and customs of the majority of the community, as distinguished from the views of peripheral groups. The institution of consensus evolved by the Sunnis allowed them to incorporate various customs and usages that arose through ordinary historical development but that nevertheless had no roots in the Qurʾān.
The Sunnis recognize the six “authentic” books of the Hadith, which contain the spoken tradition attributed to Muhammad. The Sunnis also accept as orthodox one of the four schools of Shari’ah (Islamic law). In the 20th century the Sunnis constituted the majority of Muslims in all nations except Iran, Iraq, and perhaps Yemen. They numbered about 900 million in the early 21st century and constituted a majority of all the adherents of Islam.