This day is lamented by all the Muslims, but it is especially remembered by the supporters of Ali, who are now called, Shia.
Shia believe that the Imams that are assigned, are infallible, the imam has a higher position than the caliph. He is seen to have some divine attribute since he is from the descendants of the prophet and Ali. Ali is the first Imam, he is seen “as sinless and infallible by his partisans”, and his descendants are the Imams.
“Unlike the Sunnite Caliph, the Shiite Imam had inherited from Muhammad not only his temporal sovereignty but the prerogative of interpreting the law. In that capacity he was an infallible teacher and to his infallibility he added the divine gift of impeccability” this belief is unlike the Sunni belief. Sunni’s believe that all humans commit sin, this is a summary of the concept of Caliph in the Sunni view: “As commander of the believers, the military office of the caliph was emphasised. As Imam the caliph could and did lead the religious service and pronounce the Friday sermon...succussion to Muhammad meant succession to the sovereignty of the state. Muhammad as a prophet, as an instrument of revelation, as a messenger of Allah, could have no successor.”
The shia believe that the imam should be part of the family of Ali, “who they hold was nominated by Muhammad as his successor on the basis of a divine ordinance and whose qualifications passed on to his descendants preordained for the high office by Allah”, the Imam also had spiritual jurisdiction over the ummah. “The symbol of a divinely guided Imam reflected the shii sense of sacred presence”
There is also the concept of Mujtahids that the Sunnis and shias disagree on. In Shiism, the twelfth imam Muhammad is said to have disappeared, “he became the hidden imam or the ‘expected imam’. AS such he is considered immune from death and in a temporary state of occultation.” This imam needs to have representatives on earth that speak for him since his has “disappeared” and this is where the Mujtahids come in. “Since then (his disappearance), the shah has been considered as simply the locum tenens of the hidden imam and the mujtahids (higher theologians) as his spokesmen and intermediaries with men.”
Karen Armstrong defines Mujtahid as “a jurist who has earned the right to exercise Ijtihad usually in the Shii world” she also defines ijtihad as “the ‘independent reasoning’ used by a jurist to apply Shariah to contemporary circumstances. During the fourteenth century Sunni, Muslims declared that the ‘gates of ijtihad’ were closed, and that scholars must rely on the legal decisions of past authorities instead of upon their own reasoned insights”. This definition depends on the things that the mujtahid is going to do ijtihad for. In Shia, a mujtahid can do ijtihad on matters of the faith, the basics and foundations of the faith, he can also make ijtihad on things that are clear and don’t need ijtihad. In Sunni, a mujtahid is different, he is like a scholar, he cannot make ijtihad on things in the basics of Islam, or on things that are very clear, he only makes ijtihad on the things that are new to this world and decision haven’t been made on them, for example; using the MCCA as a bank, or whether it is Halal to donate your organs, these issues were never discussed before and ijtihad can be made on them.
Armstrong.K, Islam A Short History, pg 37
Hitti.P, History of the Arabs, pg 190
Armstrong.K, Islam A Short History, pg 57
Hitti.P, History of the Arabs pg 441
Armstrong.K Islam A Short History, pg 173