Sunni

Sunni The majority tradition of Islam, comprising around 72 per cent of all Muslims, and distinguished from Shi'ite Islam in recognizing successors to the Prophet Muhammad (caliphs) without insisting that these had to be his descendants. Together with the Shi'ites, they believe that the word of Allah (God) was delivered through the Prophet and laid down in the Quran, and in the accounts of Muhammad's life (Sunnah). United by the doctrines in these texts, which describe the nature of God and define Islam as a monotheistic religion, there are four different Sunni schools which seek to define the rather more ambiguous matter of the relationship between Allah and the individual person. The most rigid of these, the Hanbali school, demands strict adherence to the letter of the Quran and allows only limited interpretation. It is predominant in Saudi Arabia. The Shafii school allows interpretation of the Quran according to a given methodological framework, and predominates in Indonesia, the Arabian coastline, and southern India. The Maliki school tolerates a limited interpretation of the Quran through reason and comparison with modern life. It prevails in most Muslim-dominated African states. Finally, the Hanafi school is the one most firmly rooted in rational thought. It allows the use of secular and customary law, which has made it adaptable to the more secular and heterogeneous states where Islam predominated, such as the Ottoman Empire or its successor state, Turkey.