imam summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see imam.

imam , Head of the Muslim community. In Sunnite Islam the imam was identical with the caliph, designating the political successor of Muhammad. The Sunnites held the imam to be a man capable of error but deserving obedience provided he maintained the ordinances of Islam. In Shīʿite Islam the imam became a figure of absolute religious authority, possessed of unique insights into the Qurʾān and divinely appointed and preserved from sin. With the historical disappearance of the last imam, there arose a belief in the hidden imam, who is identified with the mahdi. The term imam is also given to Muslims who lead prayers in mosques and has been used as an honorary title.

Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq Summary

Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq was the sixth imam, or spiritual successor to the Prophet Muhammad, of the Shiʿi branch of Islam and the last to be recognized as imam by all the Shiʿi sects. Theologically, he advocated a limited predestination and proclaimed that Hadith (traditional sayings of the Prophet), if

Usman dan Fodio Summary

Usman dan Fodio was a Fulani mystic, philosopher, and revolutionary reformer who, in a jihad (holy war) between 1804 and 1808, created a new Muslim state, the Fulani empire, in what is now northern Nigeria. Usman was born in the Hausa state of Gobir, in what is now northwestern Nigeria. His father,

ʿAlī Summary

ʿAlī was the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, and fourth of the “rightly guided” (rāshidūn) caliphs, as the first four successors of Muhammad are called. Reigning from 656 to 661, he was the first imam (leader) of Shiʿism in all its forms. The question of his right to the