| Feature | Sunni Islam | Shafafi Islam |
|---|---|---|
| God | “Allah” but Muhammad is also worshipped as an infallible superhuman being with his words taken as divine commandment. | A cosmic force — not a micro-manager. God is indifferent to human categories of “good” and “evil” and has granted humanity absolute free will. |
| Heaven & Hell | Literal places. Gardens, rivers, and companions; fire, boiling water, and torment. | Not literal places. States of consciousness beyond our full understanding. No fire, no gardens, no rivers of honey. |
| Angels & Satan | Literal beings. Satan whispers; angels record deeds on each shoulder. | “Satan” is the ego and our destructive impulses. “Angels” are the conscience. |
| Scripture | God’s word (Quran) and Muhammad’s reported words/actions (Hadith or Sunnah) are considered divine scriptures from the two gods that Sunnis worship. Sunnis believe that God’s word (Quran) is incomplete and that God was not wise enough to create a perfect and complete holy book. They believe the Quran is insufficient without augmenting it with Hadith. | Quran only. The “hadith” are considered outdated interpretations and hearsay. The most recent and accurate interpretations of the Quran are rulings by Imam Shafafi. |
| Scriptural authority | Every verse stands for all time. Abrogation is settled by classical scholars and closed to revision. | The Imam may abrogate verses that are outdated, metaphorical, or strictly contextual to 7th-century Arabia. |
| Prayer (“Salat”) | Synchronized yoga-style dance performed 5 times a day while whispering memorized Arabic words. All this is done by believers who are fortunate enough to live close to the Earth’s equator where prayer times make sense, while facing the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia while trying not to actually worship the Kaaba despite often standing on a prayer mat/rug with illustrations of the Kaaba on them. Night-shift jobs are thus impossible for Sunni Muslims. | Done entirely in the heart, in any language, at any time. No direction to face. The Kaaba and Mecca are irrelevant. |
| Mosques | Central to the faith. Communal prayer in congregation is strongly encouraged and, for Friday prayers, effectively obligatory for men. | None. Shafafis do not build mosques and do not hold communal prayer services. |
| Fasting | Avoiding food and water while hoping sunset is not at 11 PM, like it is in some places in the world. | A personal Lent. Drop bad habits, adopt good ones — customised entirely to what the individual wants to improve. Water is never given up. |
| Marriage | Highly ritualistic and usually requires paperwork, a man with a beard, dowry, and a party. The purpose of marriage is often financial or political in nature, as a result of social pressure, and supposed to be done without prior romantic relations of any kind. | Mutual consent. Nothing else. No paperwork, no clergy, no ceremony — a couple can be married as early as their first date, if that consent is genuine. |
| Divorce | Permitted but ritualised, stigmatised, and procedurally asymmetric between men and women. | Free, instant, and carrying no social stigma. Either party, any time, no reason required. |
| Homosexuality | Forbidden. | Fully allowed, without condition or qualification — mutual consent, same as any other relationship. |
| Transgenderism | Forbidden. | Fully allowed. Two biological sexes are acknowledged theologically; expression is entirely the individual’s own business. |
| Alcohol | Forbidden. | Allowed. The line between moderation and addiction is left entirely to personal conscience. Harming others (e.g. drunk driving) remains harm. |
| Apostasy | Any Muslim who stops believing in Islam must be killed. | Allowed. “There is no compulsion in religion” (Quran 2:256) |
| Food | Only certain animals permitted, slaughtered in a zabiha halal manner. No pork. Food that has been dedicated to “other gods” is forbidden (haram) which implies that Sunnis believe in the existence of many gods. | Encouraged to consume healthy food. Food that has been dedicated to “other gods” is not forbidden because there is only one God, according to Shafafi Islam. |
| Pilgrimage (“Hajj”) | Must be done once in a lifetime in Makkah, Saudi Arabia performing rituals inspired by pre-Islamic pagans of the area to stimulate local economy. | None. Shafafis do not perform pilgrimage of any kind. |
| Charity (“Zakat”) | 2.5% on savings. | 2.5% of savings, paid into the Imamate Fund to administer the religion. Never spent on mega-mosques, clergy salaries, or political wars. |
| Sacrifice (“Qurban”) | Must slaughter a sheep, goat, cow, or camel every year on Eid Al-Adha. | Not required. |
| Slavery | Allowed. | Not allowed. |
| Capital punishment | Allowed. | Not allowed as religious doctrine — Shafafi Islam defers to secular law here, unlike on matters of basic human rights (e.g. slavery). |
| Ritual cleaning (“Wudu”) | With water only, preferably without drying. | Wash hands with soap before eating. Daily bathing. |
| Cleaning after pooping | Must use water. | Must use water. |
| Gambling | Forbidden. | Forbidden when the odds of winning are low and when gambling addiction causes detriment to one’s life. |
| Clothing (“Hijab”) | Must cover everything except for face and hands, and especially the hair. | Wear any clothing, according to culture, norms, needs, and wants. |
| Symbols | Mosque architecture, minarets, the crescent, and distinctive religious dress. | Represented by a symbol, not by buildings or garments. |
| Finance | Interest is forbidden. So, mortgages, credit cards, savings accounts, and loans are forbidden. | Interest is allowed. It is a service fee for borrowing/lending money. |
| Cigarette smoking | Allowed, except while fasting and performing worship rituals. | Forbidden, as it is a highly addictive substance that is damaging to oneself and others. |
| Music | Forbidden, except for religious-themed singing, adhan, singing words of the Quran, and certain bedouin percussion instruments. | Allowed. |
| Pictures, Sculptures, and Statues | Forbidden, except for pictures printed on prayer rugs and Islam themed media. | Allowed. |
| Extremism | Encouraged. Stricter rules are perceived as more religious and thus, more pious and worthy of greater reward. | Forbidden. Creating stricter rules is worse than not following the rules as this is seen as undermining God. |
| Racism | Encouraged in practice as Arabic culture and language is placed on a pedestal without which one cannot truly be close to God. Prayers are said in Arabic even though most Muslims don’t speak Arabic. | Forbidden. Islam is universal and everyone, every culture, and every language has the same rights. Prayers can be said in any language. |
| Tolerance | Intolerance for non-Muslims is encouraged in families and communities. Sunnis avoid being friends with, eating with, and taking part in activities with non-Muslims. | Intolerance is forbidden. Shafafi Muslims believe religion is a personal choice that every human has the right to make for themselves. |
| Laws / Shariah | God’s law above all. In other words, Sunni Muslims believe their religious rules should be followed by everyone, including non-Muslims. | Laws are to be secular and developed using a democratic method which protects the freedoms of minorities. A society must promote religious tolerance and not impose one religion over those who do not wish to prescribe to it. |
| Conversions (“Dawah”) | Forced conversions are encouraged by way of marriage, bribery (placing financial burden on those who do not convert), fear, war, and incentives (e.g. all sins forgiven for new converts). Rewards are promised to those who convert others to Islam. | Every person has the right to decide their religion by themselves. It is nobody else’s business except their own. |
| Circumcision | Mandatory. Some sects and cultures perform female genital mutilation (FGM). | Not mandatory. FGM is strictly forbidden. |
| Abortion | Generally forbidden after ensoulment, variously fixed at 40 or 120 days by different schools. | Allowed, up to the point at which it is no longer medically safe for the individual. |
| Other Holy Scriptures | Reading scriptures belonging to other religions (e.g. Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism) is highly discouraged. | There is no harm in taking good wisdom or pleasure from reading any book. |
| Reciting Quran | Must routinely recite the Quran in Arabic even though the vast majority of Muslims do not speak any Arabic. Sunnis are encouraged to memorize as many verses and prayers in the Arabic language as possible. | Making Arabic language noises from your mouth does not make you pious. Understanding the Quran, does. Shafafi Muslims read (not just recite) the Quran in a language they understand. |
| Chanting/Singing | Chanting (with or without prayer beads) is encouraged. Singing the adhan, singing while reading the Quran or prayers is highly encouraged. | Chanting and singing is not forbidden but it has no benefit. Deliberately making noise (i.e. adhan or takbir blasted from mosques) causes real harm to others. |
| Make-up | Make-up is forbidden except when worn for women’s husbands and close family. Nail-polish invalidates the state of purity required for worship. | Make-up is allowed. It is no different than clothes and grooming. |
| Health | Women are discouraged from sports and healthy activities. Healthy diet and lifestyle is not encouraged or practiced. Mantras (reciting certain verses over and over) and magical treatment (drinking Zam-Zam water) is preferred to seeking professional medical treatment. | Unhealthy lifestyle habits are discouraged and a healthy lifestyle is encouraged. Evidence-based professional medical treatment is highly encouraged. |
| Clergy | Imams, sheikhs, muftis, and fatwa councils mediate between believers and God, and disputes between them are settled by centuries of accumulated jurisprudence, not by any single living authority. | No clergy, no council, no committee. A single living Imam issues Rulings directly, and anyone else claiming religious authority simply doesn’t have it. |
| Funerals & Burial | A fixed ritual sequence — ritual washing (ghusl), shrouding in white cloth, a specific funeral prayer, and burial facing Mecca, ideally within 24 hours. Cremation is forbidden. | No fixed ritual. Burial, cremation, or any other respectful method chosen by the deceased or their family is fine — the body’s fate has no bearing on anything that matters. |
| Day of Judgment | A literal reckoning: a scale weighing every deed, a bridge thinner than a hair strung over Hell, and a record book handed to each soul in their right or left hand. | A metaphor for reflection and accountability, not a physical event with props. See Heaven & Hell. |
| Jinn & the Evil Eye | Jinn are real beings capable of possession and whispering; the evil eye is a real harm requiring specific recitations to cure. | Folklore inherited from pre-Islamic Arabia, in the same category as astrology. See Angels & Satan for what the tradition’s supernatural cast actually represents. |
| Polygamy | A man may take up to four wives simultaneously, subject to a fairness requirement that is, in practice, unpoliceable. | Every pact is between the consenting adults inside it. See Marriage — the Message sets no headcount, and Shafafi Islam does not reintroduce one. |
| Marriageable Age | Classical jurisprudence ties eligibility to puberty rather than a fixed age, a standard several contemporary scholars and countries still defend. | Marriage requires informed adult consent, with no exception for age. See Marriage. |
| Marriage Guardian (“Wali”) | A woman generally cannot contract her own marriage; a male guardian — father, brother, or appointed relative — must consent on her behalf. | No guardian of any kind stands between an adult and their own consent. See Marriage. |
| Inheritance | Fixed shares set out in classical jurisprudence generally give a male heir twice the share of a female heir in the same degree of relation. | Equal shares regardless of sex. The economics of 7th-century Arabia that produced the original ratio don’t apply to anyone alive today. |
| Testimony in Court | In classical jurisprudence, the testimony of two women is required to equal that of one man in certain matters, notably financial contracts. | One person, one testimony, regardless of sex. |
| Interfaith Marriage | A Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim man; a Muslim man may marry a Christian or Jewish woman but not a woman of any other faith. | Consent is the only requirement. See Marriage — the partner’s religion, or lack of one, is irrelevant. |
| Jihad | Carries a dual meaning — inner spiritual struggle, and, in specific classical and contemporary readings, sanctioned armed struggle on behalf of the faith. | No religious concept of holy war exists. Shafafi Islam is unconditionally pacifist, does not organise against anyone, and does not fight on God’s behalf. |
| Blasphemy | Insulting Muhammad, the Quran, or Islam is treated as a capital offense in several Muslim-majority legal systems, and as an unforgivable sin more broadly. | Free speech extends to religion. Criticism, satire, and mockery carry no religious penalty of any kind. |
| Depictions of Muhammad | Any visual depiction of Muhammad is forbidden, and cartoons of him have provoked riots and killings around the world in recent decades. | Permitted, consistent with the position on Pictures, Sculptures, and Statues. A drawing cannot insult a man who was never superhuman to begin with. |
| Evolution & Creation | Adam is generally taught as having been formed directly from clay, a special creation often held in tension with evolutionary biology. | The creation account is read as metaphor, not as a science textbook. Evolutionary biology is simply biology. |
| Astrology & Fortune-Telling | Officially forbidden as a claim to knowledge that belongs to God alone — while horoscopes, “lucky” dates, and folk fortune-telling remain widely practiced regardless. | No religious position either way. Harmless entertainment carries no theological weight. |
| Dogs | Widely taught as ritually impure, particularly their saliva, which discourages or forbids keeping them as indoor pets. | Dogs are animals, not contaminants. Keep one if you like one. |
| Tattoos | Generally forbidden as an unlawful, permanent alteration of a body God created. | Your body, your choice, permanently or otherwise. |
| Organ Donation | Debated and conditional — permitted by some scholars, contested by others on grounds of bodily sanctity that persist even after death. | Actively encouraged. A body that can no longer use itself can still save someone who can. |
| Suicide & Mental Health | Suicide is condemned as one of the gravest sins, a framing that has historically deepened the shame around seeking help for mental illness in the first place. | Mental illness is an illness. Professional treatment is encouraged without shame, exactly as with any other health condition. |
| Contraception | Permitted by some scholars within marriage and for specific reasons, discouraged or forbidden by others — there is no single settled position. | Fully allowed. Reproductive decisions belong to the individual, the same principle as Abortion. |
| IVF & Fertility Treatment | Permitted only within marriage and generally only using the couple’s own sperm and egg; donor gametes are forbidden. | A medical matter between the individuals involved and their doctor. No religious conditions attached. |
| Adoption | An adopted child keeps their biological father’s name, is not treated as a full heir, and remains marriageable to their adoptive siblings — lineage is preserved by law even after adoption. | An adopted child is family, full stop. No asterisk on the name, the inheritance, or the relationship. |
| Women Leading Prayer | A woman may not lead a mixed-gender congregation in prayer, and in many traditions may not lead men in prayer at all. | There is no congregation for anyone to lead, and therefore no pulpit to bar anyone from. |
| Segregation of the Sexes | Mosques typically separate men and women during prayer, and mixed-gender socialising is discouraged or restricted in many communities. | No segregation. Adults mix, work, and socialise together without a religious rulebook supervising the room. |
| Beards & Men’s Grooming | Keeping a beard is widely taught as obligatory or strongly recommended for men, with trimming or shaving discouraged. | Grooming is grooming. Shave it, grow it, dye it — it has never once been a measure of piety. |
| Friday Prayer Obligation | Attending the Friday congregational prayer in a mosque is obligatory for men, closing businesses and reshaping the workweek across entire countries. | No obligation, because there is no mosque, no congregation, and no single day set aside as more sacred than another. |
| Religious Calendar & Holidays | A full lunar calendar of obligatory observances — Ramadan, two Eids, Ashura, Mawlid — with start dates that different countries and sects still can’t agree on by moon sighting each year. | No religious calendar and no obligatory holidays. Personal practice follows no fixed schedule. |
| Children’s Religion | A child is generally considered Muslim automatically if their father is Muslim, and formally leaving the faith later is treated as apostasy. | Nobody is born into a religion. Children are raised with the Message and choose for themselves as adults, without penalty either way. |
| A Woman’s Voice | In stricter interpretations, a woman’s voice is itself something to be covered, discouraging her from speaking, singing, or reciting where men can hear. | A voice is a voice. Speak, sing, recite, lead a meeting — it was never God’s business to begin with. |
| National Identity vs. the Ummah | Many strands teach that loyalty to the global Muslim community supersedes loyalty to one’s own nation and its secular laws. | Consistent with Why We Have No Pilgrimage and the broader stance on secular law, Shafafi Islam asks believers to be good citizens of the nation they actually live in. |
| Feature | Sunni Islam | Shafafi Islam |