Quote:The Shi'a make up a small portion of Islam, While the Sunni make up the majority?Yes. Numbers vary, but perhaps 80% of the world's Muslims are sunni, and the other 20% shia.
Quote:The Hadith....If memory serves correctly then this is written historical documentations of Islam? And the interpretations of the Hadith lead to differenct sects such as the Shi'a.........This is somewhat true. There are thousands upon thousands of ahadith, many of which have been determined to be fabrications and a small percentage of which are considered "authentic." Different groups of Muslims frequently differ on what traditions they consider authentic and which they believe apocryphal.
Quote:or taken from one of the posts I just read from the link you gave me...."Hanafi, or Shafi or Maliki or Humbali.or a Deobandi".....are these other sects of Islam?They are more properly thought of as schools of law among the sunnis. They are named after famous scholars who developed systems for analyzing and interpreting the ahadith and applying them in the practice of governing daily affairs. Sunnis consider all schools legitimate variations or interpretations of Islam, and many don't even have a specific school to which they ascribe.
Quote:The Sunni and the Shi'a .....are they divided by location, or only by faith? I guess what I am asking is .....is there a location where the majority of the Shi'a live?There are mixed shia and sunni communities in many parts of the world. Iran and Iraq are majoritily shia nations. There are signficant numbers (though not majorities to my knowledge) of shia in India and Lebanon as well. I'm not sure about other countries.
Happy readings. :)