Islamic schools and branches
branch/school of the religion of Islam
Islam is divided into two major branches and several schools of thought. The two branches are Sunni Islam and Shia Islam, which differ primarily over the question of succession to the prophet Muhammad and religious authority of his successors. A third branch, Kharijites, emerged during the First Fitna and is represented today mainly by Ibadism.
Sunni Islam includes four major schools of jurisprudence: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʿi, and Hanbali. Shia Islam includes the Jaʿfari school of jurisprudence, the principal school of Shia Islamic law. Shia Islam includes several denominations, the largest and most significant of which being Twelver Shia Islam, followed by the much smaller sects of Ismailism and Zaydism.
Other Islamic tradition include Sufism, which includes different schools of theology (Atharī, Ashʿarī, Māturīdī). Non-denominational Muslims is an umbrella term that has been used for and by Muslims who do not belong to or do not self-identify with an Islamic branch.
Overview
The original schism between Kharijites, Sunnīs, and Shīʿas among Muslims was disputed over the political and religious succession to the guidance of the Muslim community (Ummah) after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims.
“Islamic schools and branches” enters the record as branch/school of the religion of Islam. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Islamic, schools and branches can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1192063. The Library of Congress control number is sh85068480. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Islamic schools and branches” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.