Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad did not appoint any successor and left the choice of his successor to the Muslim community. They believe that his father-in-law and closest friend Abu Bakr rightfully succeeded him as the caliph, being appointed at Saqifa. This contrasts with Shia Islam, which holds that Muhammad appointed Ali, his cousin and son-in-law, as his successor at Ghadir Khumm. Nevertheless, Sunnis revere Ali, along with Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman as 'rightly-guided caliphs'. The term Sunni means those who observe the sunnah, the practices of Muhammad.

The Quran, together with hadith (especially The Six Books) and ijma (scholarly consensus), form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Sharia legal rulings are derived from these basic sources, in conjunction with consideration of public welfare and juristic discretion, using the principles of jurisprudence developed by the four legal schools: Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i. In matters of creed, the Sunni tradition upholds the six pillars of iman (faith) and comprises the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools of kalam (theology) as well as the textualist Athari school. Sunnis regard the first four caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali as rashidun (rightly-guided) and revere the sahaba, tabi'in, and tabi al-tabi'in as the salaf (predecessors). Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as "Orthodox Islam", though some scholars view this as inappropriate, and many non-Sunnis may find this offensive.