Summary: In the news we hear a lot about imams ndash; men who lead specific mosques or Muslim communities. But, unlike other faiths, there is no hierarchical structure in Islam. So there is no one religious authority who can pass judgments on what is, and what is not, good Muslim practice. An imam, in the most common sense of the word, is simply the person who leads prayer at mosque. He might also be a person members of the community turn to with questions of faith. There are also sheikhs in Islam. A sheikh is simply an elder in the community, typically someone who is an Islamic scholar who has spent much of his life studying the Qurrsquo;an as well as the Hadith ndash; the oral traditions surrounding the Prophet Muhammadrsquo;s life. This is, of course, the most basic explanation. Because Islam is divided along the Sunni-Shia line, and further divided by cultural practice, there are really no hard-and-fast rules for who is qualified to be a religious leader and who is not.
