شيع

شِيعَةٌ ذ A separate, or distinct, party, or sect, (O, K, TA,) of men: this is the primary signification: so called from their agreeing together, and following one another: or, accord. to some, the ى is originally و, and it is from شُوَّعَ قَوْمَهُ, which means “ he collected his people or party: ” (TA:) the followers and assistants (S, O, Msb, K) of a man: (S, O, K:) any people that have combined in, or for, an affair: (Msb, TA:) accord. to Az, persons who follow, or conform with, one another, [ though ] not all of them agreeing together: (TA:) and any assistant and partisan of a man: (O, TA:) [for] the word is applied to one and to two and to a pl. number and to the male and to the female, (K, TA,) without variation: (TA:) the pl. is شِيَعٌ and أَشْيَاعٌ, (S, * O, Msb, K,) the latter a pl. pl.; (Msb;) and the former is applied to any people, or party, whose affair, or case, is one, who follow one another's opinion. (S.) The saying, in the Kur [xxxiv. last verse], كَمَا فُعِلَ بِأَشْيَاعِهِمْ مِنْ قَبْلُ means As was done with the likes of them, of the same persuasion as they, of the peoples that have gone before: (S, * TA:) and similar to this is the saying in the Kur liv. 51. (TA.) ― -b2- Afterwards, الشِّيعَةُ became a name of A particular party [or sect ]; (Msb, K;) being predominantly applied to all who took as their friends, or lords, 'Alee and the people of his house: (K:) those who followed 'Alee, saying that he was the [ rightful ] Imám after the Apostle of God, and believing that the office of Imám should not depart from him and his descendants: (KT:) they are an innumerable people, who are innovators; the extravagant zealots among them are the Imámeeyek, who revile the Two Sheykhs [ Aboo-Bekr and 'Omar ]; and the most extravagant of them call the Two Sheykhs disbelievers: some of them rise to the pitch of [ that misbelief which is termed ] الزَّنْدَقَة [q. v.]. (TA.) [It is also applied to A single person of this party, or sect; agreeably with what has been said above; and such a person is likewise called ↓ شِيَعِىٌّ: see 5.]