Sunnite (Noun)
Meaning
A member of the branch of Islam that accepts the first four caliphs as rightful successors to Muhammad.
Classification
Nouns denoting people.
Examples
- Most Sunni Muslims agree that Abu Bakr was the rightful first caliph, or leader of the Muslim community.
- Shia and Sunnite pilgrims gather together at the sacred shrines of the Imam Husayn in Karbala and of the Imam 'Ali in Najaf.
- Abdul-Aziz, the emir of Najd, and ruler of Riyadh, led the movement against the Hashemites in Mecca and in Medina as the great Sunni monarch, driven to promote Islam's dominance in Arabia.
- One side held to the Islamic system as conceived by the founders, namely, a just order founded on truth, righteousness and liberty for the followers of Muhammad as against their Muslim oppressors - essentially Sunnite rather than specifically Sh'iah.
- Razak described Malaysia as an "exemplary nation for Islamic civilisation," under a unique, secular yet devout Muslim governance with over 80 per cent Sunnite adherents of an Orthodox Sufi-Salafic character.