Types of Muslims

The Ibāḍī movement, Ibadism or Ibāḍiyya, also known as the Ibadis (Arabic: الاباضية‎‎, al-Ibāḍiyyah), is a school of Islam dominant in Oman. It is also found in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and East Africa.

Similarly, the Islamic scholar Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, held the view that the science of 'Ilm al-Kalam is not a personal duty on Muslims but a collective duty.

The specific context for the emergence of the Kharijites was the struggle for leadership of the Muslim community following the murder of the third caliph, ʿUthman, in 656 CE. The community leaders chose Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, ʿAli ibn Abi Talib, as ʿUthman’s successor.

Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shias of Ali, Shias or the Shi'a as a collective or Shi'i individually. Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam: in 2009, Shia Muslims constituted 10–13% of the world's Muslim population. Twelver Shia (Ithnā'ashariyyah) is the largest branch of Shia Islam.

Sunni and Shia Muslims share the most fundamental Islamic beliefs and articles of faith and are the two main sub-groups within Islam. They do differ, however, and the separation between them stemmed initially not from spiritual distinctions, but political ones.

Traditionalist theology is a movement of Islamic scholars who reject rationalistic Islamic theology in favor of strict textualism in interpreting the Quran and hadith. The name derives from "tradition" in its technical sense as translation of the Arabic word hadith.