Editing Sunni Islam (section)

==Self-image of the Sunnis==
===As the "saved sect"===
A well-known [[hadith]], which is to be interpreted as {{lang|la|[[vaticinium ex eventu]]}}, says that the Muslim [[Umma]] will split into 73 sects, only one of which will be saved.<ref>Juynboll: "An Excursus on ahl as-sunnah". 1998, p. 323f.</ref> The Sunnis have the idea that they are this "saved sect" ("firqa nā niya"). For example, [[Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi]] (d. 1037) explains at the beginning of his [[Heresiology|heresiographical]] work ''al-Farq baina l-firaq'' ("The difference between the sects") that there are 20 [[Rafida|Rafiditic]], 20 [[Kharijites|Kharijite]], 20 [[Qadariyah|Qadaritic]], 3 [[Murji'ah|Murjiite]], 3 Nadjāritic, 3 [[Karramiyya|karramitic]] and furthermore Bakriyya, Dirariyyya and [[Jahm bin Safwan|Jahmīya]]. These are the 72 erring sects. The 73rd sect that is the "saved sect" are the Sunnis (''ahl as-sunna wa-l-jamaʿa''). According to al-Baghdadi, they are composed of two groups, namely the followers of the [[Ra'y]] and the followers of the hadith. They agreed on the fundamentals of religion (''uṣūl ad-dīn''). There were only differences in the derivations (''furūʿ'') from the norms regarding the question of what [[Halal|permitted]] and what [[Haram|forbidden]] is. These differences are not so great that they considered each other to have strayed from the right path.<ref>al-Baġdādī: ''Al-Farq baina l-firaq.'' p. 38f. English translation: Chambers Seelye p. 38 (the term ''ahl as-sunna wa-l-ǧamāʿa'' is here translated as "the orthodoxy").</ref>

===As center of Muslims===
Later Sunni scholars also present the Sunnis as the center of Muslim community. The idea already appears to some extent in the Ashʿarite ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī, who emphasizes on several dogmatic questions that the Sunnis hold a position that lies in the middle between the positions of the other Islamic groups.<ref>John B. Henderson: ''The construction of orthodoxy and heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and early Christian patterns''. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1998. p. 107.</ref> An example is the question of predestination ([[Qadar]]), in which, according to the [[Kasb]] theory, you hold exactly the middle between the two extreme positions of the [[Jabriyya]] and the [[Qadariyya]].

The Hanbali scholar [[Ibn Taymiyya]] ({{Died in|1328}}), who was otherwise known for his uncompromising attitude, also adhered to this view. He said that the Sunnis represented "the middle among the sects of the [[Umma]]" (''al-wasaṭ fī firaq al-umma''), just as the Islamic Umma is the middle between the other religious communities. He illustrates this with the following examples:
* When it comes to the attributes of God, the Sunnis stand in the middle between the Jahmiyya, who completely drains God of attributes, and the Muschabbiha, who make God similar to creation,
* in the works of God they stand in the middle between the Qadariyya and the Jabriyya,
* on the question of the threat from God (''waʿid Allah'') they stand in the middle between the Murdschi'a and the Waʿīdiyya, a subgroup of the Qadariyya,
* When it comes to the question of faith and religion, they stand in the middle between Haruiyya (= Kharijites) and [[Muʿtazila]] on the one hand and Murji'a and Jahmiyya on the other,
* and with regard to the [[Sahaba|Companions of the Prophets]] they are in the middle between [[Rafida|Rafidites]] and [[Kharijites]].<ref>Ibn Taimīya: ''al-ʿAqīda al-Wāsiṭīya''. 1999. S. 82. [https://archive.org/details/waq43575/page/n81/mode/2up Digitalized] <s></s> Deutsche Übers. Cl. Wein. 1973, S. 84f.</ref>

The Hanafi scholar [[Ali al-Qari|ʿAlī al-Qārī]] (d. 1606) continued this idea later. In his anti-Shiite pamphlet ''Šamm al-alawāriḍ fī ḏamm ar-rawāfiḍ'' he quotes a tradition according to which [[Ali|ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib]] said: "Two kinds of people perish on me: the exaggerated lover and the exaggerated hater." He notes that the exaggerated lover is the Rafidites and the exaggerated hater is the Kharijit. The Sunni, on the other hand, loves ʿAlī in high esteem and is thus in the balanced middle (''al-wasaṭ allaḏī huwa al-qisṭ''). This relates al-Qari to the Qur'anic sura 2: 143, in which it is said that God made the Muslims a community standing in the middle (''umma wasaṭ''). Since the Sunnis stay away from the exaggeration described in the traditional ʿAlī saying, al-Qārī believes that they are also the actual "[[Shia|Party of ʿAlīs]]" (''šīʿat ʿAlī'').<ref>ʿAlī al-Qārī: ''Šamm al-al-ʿawāriḍ fī ḏamm ar-rawāfiḍ''. Ed. Maǧīd Ḫalaf. Markaz al-Furqān, Kairo, 2004. p. 74, 76. [https://archive.org/details/sazrsazr/page/n74 Digitalized]</ref>

===As the essential bearers of Islamic science and culture===
ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī portrays the Sunnis in his work ''al-Farq baina l-firaq'' as the actual bearers of Islamic science and culture. Of all the sciences, knowledge and efforts of which Muslims are proud, al-Baghdādī explains that the Sunnis have a major share.<ref>al-Baġdādī: ''Al-Farq baina l-firaq.'' p. 314.</ref> In the last chapter of his book, al-Baghdadi also relates this to building activity in Islamic countries. He believes that the Sunnis with their [[mosques]], [[madrasa]]s, palaces, factories and hospitals have achieved an unattainable position because none of the non-Sunnis have performed such services.<ref>al-Baġdādī: ''Al-Farq baina l-firaq.'' p. 317.</ref>