ABSTRACT

Shi'ism is the oldest religious current in Islam, for what may be called its core principle dates from the time when the problem of succession to the Prophet Muhammad first arose. Shi'ism is the largest of the Muslim minority movements and is considered by the "orthodox" Sunni majority to be Islam's most significant "heterodoxy"; that is, "heresy". The central axis around which all Shi'i doctrine revolves is the figure of the imam. In Sunni Islam the term has no particular importance; it can designate a chief, a ruler, a religious scholar or a prayer leader. In Shi'ism a fundamental belief exists. It is a dualistic vision of the world. The history of creation is the history of a cosmic struggle between the forces of Good and Evil, between light and darkness. For Shi'ism, initiation determines the spirituality of humanity, while struggle determines its history.