ABSTRACT
This chapter examines several particularly representative topics and their levels of meaning in order to clarify the traditions just cited and to present the teaching briefly in its various facets. There are three specific cases which are particularly noteworthy for the degree of divergence and intensity of disagreement that they have engendered between Shia and Sunnis. They are, temporary marriage, repudiation, and the laws of inheritance. Shi'i narratives of the origin of the universe and mankind are rooted in several myths. At the exoteric level, the Shia shares the same cosmogonic narratives with one or the other of several Muslim traditions. At the first level, the imam is the undisputed master of religious affairs in the strict sense. He teaches exoteric aspects of law, exegesis, theology, cosmology and other disciplines to all kinds of students, including Shia and non-Shia. The imam's exoteric teaching contains no specifically Shi'i features and so can be heard and accepted by non-Shia without offending them.
