Tabarra

Tabarra (Arabic: تبرأ‎‎) is a doctrine that refers to the obligation of disassociation with those who oppose God and those who caused harm to and were the enemies of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his family. As Shi'as believe, Imamate is the inheritor of Risala (apostleship), thus it is the protector of Islam. Muhammad introduced them (Imams). Later every Imam introduced and stipulated the next Imam. So, people who were obstacles to the Imamate and implementation of the true form of Islam and equally the people who were the enemies of Ahl al-Bayt are the enemies of God and it is necessary for all believers to dissociate from them.

Every Shia Muslim believes it to be their duty to dissociate themselves from the enemies of God and his Messengers. Muslims differ on whom to consider to be the enemies of God, Muhammad and the Ahl al-Bayt. For brevity, only Ahl al-Bayt will be mentioned in this article.

The doctrine of Tabarra itself does not dictate whom to dissociate from or whom to associate with. It dictates the dissociation of those identified as enemies of Ahl al-bayt. The identification is up to every individual.

For example, some people may regard Mua'wiyah as the enemy of Ahl al-Bayt. In that case, it becomes obligatory to dissociate oneself from Mua'wiyah.

A Quranic verse can be found that carries the same message as this doctrine.

A (declaration) of immunity from Allah and His Messenger, to those of the Pagans with whom ye have contracted mutual alliances:-

Baraatun is derived from the same consonantal root as Tabarra.

Since Shias and Sunnis have different sources of hadith, they tend to come to different conclusions regarding whom the enemies of Ahl al-Bayt are.

In some cases Sunni and Shia have the same view, for example regarding Abū Lahab, Amr ibn Hishām and Umayyah ibn Khalaf. But controversies arise concerning the Sahabah since Sunnis believe in the uprightness of all Sahaba while Shia do not.

...
Wikipedia