


The present article was published by Shahid Shaqaqi in Egypt. It was translated into English and first published by the Islamic Propagation Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in Canada, with the title, Sunni vs. Shi'ah: A Pitiful Outcry, and under the pen name of the author, Ezzoddin Ibrahim.
1What follows is the Fatwa (religious verdict/ruling) of one of the Sunni world’s most revered scholars, Shaikh Mahmood Shaltoot with regard to the Shi’a. Shaikh Shaltoot was the head of the renowned al-Azhar Theological school in Egypt, one of the main centers of Sunni scholarship in the world. It should be of interest to know that a few decades ago, a group of Sunni and Shi’a scholars formed a center at al-Azhar by the name of "Dar al-Taqreeb al-Madhahib al-Islamiyyah”which translates into "Center for bringing together the various Islamic schools of thought".
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