The Canon · No. 046
Sunni Islam
Ahl as-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah
632 CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · Worldwide majority
V. THE MEDIEVAL WORLD — c.500 – 1500 CE
How many
Roughly 1.7–1.8 billion, about 85–90% of Muslims.
Who began it
No founder; the majority position that crystallised out of the succession disputes after 632.
What it is for
Same as Islam generally. The distinguishing commitment is to the authority of the community and its consensus rather than to a designated hereditary line.
What it worships
Allah alone.
What it holds
The successor to the Prophet is chosen by the community, not divinely designated. The first four caliphs — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali — are all rightly guided. The Companions of the Prophet are collectively honoured. Authority in law rests on Quran, sunna, ijma (scholarly consensus) and qiyas (analogy). There is no clergy and no central authority — no pope, no ordination — which is why anyone can and does claim to speak for Islam, and why scholarly credentialing has always mattered so much.
What it does
The Five Pillars. Four surviving schools of law (madhhabs), all mutually recognised as valid: Hanafi (Turkey, Central and South Asia, the largest), Maliki (North and West Africa), Shafi'i (East Africa, Southeast Asia), Hanbali (Arabian peninsula, the strictest and smallest). Theological schools: Ash'ari and Maturidi in the mainstream, Athari or traditionalist alongside them.
After death
As for Islam generally.
Its texts
Quran; the six canonical hadith collections, headed by Bukhari and Muslim; the legal literature of the four schools; al-Ghazali's Revival of the Religious Sciences.
Its branches
Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali legal schools; Ash'ari, Maturidi, Athari theological schools; Salafi and Deobandi reform movements; Barelvi devotional traditionalism.
Of note
The absence of a central authority is Sunni Islam's most consequential structural feature. It has produced enormous intellectual diversity and it means no one has the standing to excommunicate anyone.
Its timeline
- 632 CE Abu Bakr elected caliph at Saqifa; the majority accept the choice.
- c.700–850 CE The four legal schools form around Abu Hanifa, Malik, al-Shafi'i and Ibn Hanbal.
- 833–851 CE The mihna, an inquisition under Caliph al-Ma'mun to force scholars to affirm that the Quran was created; Ibn Hanbal's refusal under flogging makes him the emblem of scholarly independence from the state.
- c.870–875 CE Bukhari and Muslim compile their hadith collections.
- 1058–1111 CE al-Ghazali reconciles law, theology and Sufism, and in The Incoherence of the Philosophers mounts the critique of Aristotelian philosophy that reshapes Sunni intellectual life.
- 1263–1328 CE Ibn Taymiyyah; a rigorist whose work becomes the reference point for later Salafism.
- 1517–1924 CE The Ottoman sultans hold the caliphate.
- 1924 CE The caliphate abolished; Sunni Islam has had no central institution since.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.