How Has Islam Changed Over Time?

Islam, being the second largest religion, is, of course, prone to change over time. However, there is one significant difference between Islam and other religions. While Islam has changed over time and created sects they are specifically not referred to as denominations in terms of "various valid approaches to the same religion.” The two common sects are Sunnism and Shiasm. Additional to this there are the divisions of Sufism and Ahmadiyya. This has lead to some public disagreements, yet Islam is still regarded as less divided than other religions - say Judaism and Christianity. Comprising 940 million of the 1.1 billion Muslims, Sunnism is the largest sect by far. The division occurred because of the debate over who should succeed Muhammad
They use his “Sunna” a.k.a the part of the law that comes from the Prophet’s actions and words to justify these beliefs. Over time, their prayer and other practices have begun to differ from that of Shia. Shiaism branch, composing 10 percent of all Muslims, believes - unlike the Sunnis - that Muhammad had chosen his son in law Ali as the next in line. This caused opposition efforts against Sunni rule. Sufism is different than Shiaism and Sunnism because it is considered the “mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.” Their beliefs and practices are grounded from orthodox Islam and the Quran. Lastly, Ahmadiyya, founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Punjab, India, preaches that jihad should be “pen versus sword” battle against nonbelievers. However, the idea that Ahmad was supposed to be a prophet and his teaching that Jesus feigned his crucifixion only to live in India for 120 years has led these followers to be denounced. I find it interesting that studying in a school, I had only previously learned of Sunni and Shia. Despite this, Muslims do agree in the basic beliefs of Allah being the God and Muhammad being the