Twelver Shiism is the most important department inside Shiism – probably the most two primary sects inside Islam. Shiism is the second-largest custom inside Islam general, following the Sunni custom.
Iran is the one nation to have Twelver Shiism as its respectable faith. On this custom, non secular leaders referred to as the marājiʿ al-taqlīd – the highest-ranking cleric inside Twelver Shiism – and different high-ranking clerics, together with ayatollahs, are considered ethical and religious government whose steering extends to each non secular and political issues.
The second one-largest inhabitants of Twelvers after Iran is in Iraq. Different primary communities are living in Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and different nations of the Persian Gulf, akin to Bahrain and Kuwait. There also are Twelver communities in some Western nations.
I’m a training Twelver and feature labored for an anthropological analysis venture that highlights the wealthy cultural traditions of ethnic teams throughout Iran, according to written historic paperwork that duvet more than a few subjects. This revel in deepened my appreciation for Iran’s range, together with the various techniques wherein Twelver Shiism is practiced and understood. Twelver Shiism is deeply rooted in a religious, theological and moral custom with over a millennium of historical past.
In Twelver Shiism, those values contact many sides of day by day and communal lifestyles. They’re found in traditions and rituals, akin to all through Muḥarram, the primary month of the Islamic calendar. They’re additionally mirrored in artwork, structure and philanthropy as ethical and spiritual responsibilities.
Historical past and core ideals
In step with the Shiite custom, the Prophet Muhammad’s circle of relatives holds a unique, divinely guided function in each non secular and political management of the Muslim group.
Twelver Shiites, then again, consider in a continuing line of 12 imams, thought to be to be descendants of the prophet via his daughter Fatima and son-in-law Ali. Those imams constitute ethical integrity and religious authority and feature a deep wisdom of the Quran and Islamic regulation.
The beginning of Shiite identification strains again to the duration following Muhammad’s loss of life in A.D. 632. One workforce of Muslims supported Abu Bakr, a detailed significant other of the prophet, as the primary caliph – the successor to Muhammad and the chief of the Muslim group. This workforce later got here to be referred to as Sunnis. Others believed that Ali, the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, have been designated to guide. This workforce turned into referred to as Shi‘at Ali – the Celebration of Ali – which ultimately developed into the Shiite department of Islam.
Within the following years, Imam Hussein ibn Ali – the grandson of Muhammad – refused to acknowledge the authority of the Umayyad caliph Yazid, the ruler of the Umayyad dynasty from 680 to 683. Yazid’s rule marked the start of dynastic succession within the caliphate, a metamorphosis many Shiites criticized as a departure from previous Islamic ideas of management. Hussein objected to Yazid’s declare on each political and ethical grounds. He wondered Yazid’s legitimacy and refused to pledge allegiance to a ruler he believed used to be unjust.
Accompanied by way of a small workforce of partners and members of the family, Hussein launched into a adventure towards Kufa, Iraq, the place he used to be intercepted and in the long run killed on the Combat of Karbala in 680. In Twelver Shiism, this loss of life is respected as martyrdom, and the development holds monumental historic and spiritual importance, because it stands as an emblem of resistance to injustice when confronted with tyranny. The remembrance of Karbala stands on the center of the Shiite worldview. Inside the Twelver custom, it affirms the correct to withstand injustice.
Within the following centuries, additional variations over succession ended in divisions inside Shiites. Twelver Shiites acknowledge 12 imams, whilst different teams, such because the Ismailis and Zaydis, practice other descendants of Ali and feature shaped their very own interpretations of non secular authority.
Mourning and mirrored image
The struggle of Karbala is mourned as a tragedy however remembered as an ethical triumph amongst Shiite Muslims.
Right through the month of Muḥarram, the primary 10 nights are put aside for mirrored image at the martyrdom of Hussein. This era culminates at the tenth day referred to as Āshūrā.
The observances of Ashura, the tenth day of Muharram, on July 6, 2025, in Tehran.
Majid Saeedi/Getty Pictures
Right through those nights, Shiite households and communities create areas of grief and remembrance. In lots of neighborhoods, shrines and mosques – grand or modest – are decorated with black flags, handwritten prayers, chains and candles.
Taziyyah – elegies and processions – enact the tale of the martyrdom of Hussein as an emblem of resistance and sacrifice.
Right through the ones 10 days, other people continuously flip residing rooms, basements or alleyways into mourning areas. They grasp black, pink and inexperienced fabric at the partitions, they usually mild candles. Households and neighbors acquire to recite poetic elegies and serve tea and meals. Those moments convey mourning into the rhythm of day by day lifestyles.
The ritual and the artwork of the Taziyyah.
Tradition and artwork
Love for the prophet’s circle of relatives, and a unbroken seek for justice and religious which means, has impressed poetry, structure, ritual and day by day observe amongst Twelver Shiites throughout generations.
In Twelver contexts, particularly in Iran and Iraq, grief is expressed via shrine design. Holy shrines are embellished with reflect mosaics, sparkling tiles and engraved prayers. This structure has symbolic and religious importance that deepens the sense of awe and appreciate in guests, conveying a way of hope for divine mild and welcoming mirrored image on martyrdom as probably the most venerated type of loss of life, or ashraf al-mawt.
Ornamental ceiling of the Imam Hussein Shrine in Karbala, Iraq.
There are different examples of ways the non secular reminiscence of Karbala has impressed Twelver Shiites throughout generations: Artists within the the Saqqakhana motion, an Iranian artwork motion that emerged within the Nineteen Fifties and ‘60s, drew inspiration from devotional structures and other popular rituals of Shiite piety. The word saqqakhanan – house of the water-giver – refers to small shrinelike fountains installed on neighborhood corners, where water is offered in remembrance of Hussein’s thirst at Karbala.
Those buildings, continuously embellished with chains, candles, mirrors and handwritten prayers, function modest devotional areas the place passersby pause for mirrored image or prayer. The artists used fabrics akin to calligraphy, amulets, talismans, prayer beads and fabric, and blended them with tactics from trendy portray and sculpture. Their purpose used to be to not depict religion at once however to translate its emotional and symbolic language of devotion into visible expression. This motion carried into trendy artwork galleries.
Philanthropic practices
This residing custom additionally shapes how Twelver Shiism understands generosity and philanthropy as an ethical and spiritual legal responsibility.
Philanthropy in Twelver Shiism developed underneath the steering of recent “marāji,” the highest-ranking non secular students, who interpret the responsibilities of giving in mild of present-day realities.
Like any Muslims, Twelvers are required to provide zakat, a key Islamic philanthropic custom and an necessary act of giving. As well as, Shiite custom uniquely comprises Khums, a 20% non secular legal responsibility on annual financial savings and surplus source of revenue, which Twelvers pay at once to identified Shiite non secular government or their appointed representatives. Part is allotted to the needy descendants of the prophet, whilst the opposite part is entrusted to non secular government to give a boost to non secular, instructional and charitable tasks.
Shiite communities additionally maintain charitable giving during the establishment of waqf, or charitable endowment, which helps mosques, non secular faculties and help for the deficient.
In step with Islamic pupil Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the variety inside Islam, together with the Shiite custom, displays the richness of Islam. Twelver Shiism, on this view, stands as a profound non secular trail throughout the broader Islamic custom.
