Title: A Further Exchange.. Question/Comments: There is a big difference between Sunnis and Shiites. The Shiites claim that the Qur'an is missing many Surah s, that there should be 17,000 Surah s. They say the 12 th Imam ( Mehdi ) will appear and complete the Qur'an, [he shall] not [be] born which makes him mortal. According to hadith , Mehdi has a father and his name will [be] Abdullah , just like Muhammad's (pbuh) father. They cursed most of Muhammad's (pbuh) friends. They practice Mut`ah . They pray differently, not like the Muhammad (pbuh) Sunnah . They claim that Ali (r) is better then Esa (Jesus) (as), Moses (as), Abraham (as)... etc. To my undestanding anyone who claims that the Qur'an is not complete is KUFER . I would love to have a response on this subject. May Allah guide us to the true path and give us victory over falsehood. Answer: I agree with you that there is a significant difference between the Shi`ah and the Sunni sects. However, in my opinion, their basic difference lies in the concept of " Imamah ". As far as the claim that the Qur'an has been tampered with is concerned, this is not the belief of all Shiite Muslims. On the contrary, it is a belief of some sub-sects of the Shiites. It would, therefore, not be justified to universalize such a criticism on the Shiites as a whole; it is, in fact, a mistake of only a part of them. In any case I would like to state here that, in my honest opinion, some of the beliefs and practices of the Shiite Muslims, in my view, do not correspond with those that the Qur'an wants us to follow. Nevertheless, I strictly believe that no one, including myself, has the right to say that the Shiites are "non-Muslims". As, in my opinion, it is not the prerogative of any individual or any group of individuals to declare another group to be "non-Muslims". Moreover, it is not the job of religious scholars to declare someone "non-Muslims". It is only the Muslim community as a whole, practicing through its representatives, that may, if it deems such an action to be in the common good ( maslihah ) of the Muslim community, declare a group to be non-Muslims. The job of the religious scholars, in my opinion, should remain confined to explaining the directives of Islam and clarifying right beliefs and practices from wrong ones. Declaring a group to be non-Muslims is a legal action and can therefore, only be taken by the legal setup of the Ummah . Thus, as far as your statement "To my understanding anyone who claims that the Qur'an is not complete is KUFER " is concerned, I would like to say that in my opinion, the belief that the Qur'an has been tampered with is clearly against the injunctions of Islam and is, therefore obviously an un-Islamic belief. But as far as the person who holds such belief is concerned, I shall consider him a Muslim, till such time as the Muslim community declares such person to be a non-Muslim. In case any aspect of my response requires further elaboration, please feel free in writing back to me. 3 rd February 1999