Difference Between the Shiites and the Sunnis . There is a big diffrence between sunnies and shiites. The shiites claim that the qur'an is missing many surahs, that their should be 17,000 surahs. They say the 12 th Imam (Mahde) will appear and complete the qu'ran, [he shall] not [be] born which makes him imortal. According to hadith , Mahde has a father and his name will [be] Abdullah, just like Muhammed's(pbuh) father. They cursed most of Muhammed's (pbuh) friends . They practice muttah. They pray differently, not like the Muhammed (pbuh) sunnah. They claim that Ali (r) is better then Esa (Jesus) (as), Moses (as), Abrahem (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 victroy over falshood. Reply I agree with you that there is a significant difference between the Shi`ah and the Sunni sects. But, in my opinion, their basic difference lies in the concept of "Imamat". 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, that is 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. But even so, 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 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 not a legal action and can therefore, only be taken by the legal setup of the Ummah. Thus, as far as your statement "To my undestanding anyone who claims that the qur'an is not complet is KAFER" is concerned, I would like to say that in my opinion, the belief that the Qur'an has been tampered with 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. I request you to kindly also have a look at one of my earlier responses to a similar question . In case any aspect remains further elaboration, please feel free in writing back to me. Regards The Learner