The man chosen to be the leader or caliph was Hazrat Abu Bakr, a close friend and adviser of the Prophet, PBUH, and the man he chose to lead prayers as he lay on his deathbed. “Sunni” comes from the Arabic for “one who follows the traditions of the Prophet, PBUH.” But a smaller group believed that leadership should have stayed within the family of the Prophet, PBUH, and that Hazrat Ali, his son-in-law and cousin, should have taken over. They became known as Shias, shortened from Shia-t-Ali, the Party of Ali.
