The Mahdi Warns a Nation that Betrayed Al-Hussein
- Noor Fatimah Ali
- 7 hours ago
- 6 min read
Every year, a familiar announcement echoes through the mosques: “Ramadan has begun.” Or so we are told. And each year, the month of Ramadan starts not in unity, but in division that begins long before the first iftar (breaking of fast). Endless disputes divide the Muslim Ummah (community) from the beginning, with no clear consensus on which day Ramadan truly begins, which day it ends, or even which night is Laylatul Qadr (the Night of Power), leaving most in confusion over moon sightings, calculations, and old traditions.
Amid this chaos, comes an awakening message. Imam Al-Mahdi sends a timely and thought-provoking gift to the Muslims. It is a message that confronts what generations of rulers and scholars desperately tried to bury and declares outright that any fasts, prayers, and worship are rejected by God.
Through Aba al‑Sadiq revealing the Ahlul-Bayt's true story in the Museum of Mohammed and his Household, we start to grasp how much of the Prophet’s family’s story has been deliberately suppressed.
One of the latest videos, titled A Ramadan Gift from Imam Al-Mahdi to the Muslims, unveils an intense painting, that of the severed head of Imam Al-Hussein, the Prophet's beloved grandson. This iconic image of Muslim treachery shows Al-Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet, the child once kissed on the Prophet’s lap, the one about whom he said, “Al-Hussein is from me and I am from Al-Hussein,” raised high on a spear. And beneath that head stands Shimr, gripping the spear. The murderer of the Prophet’s beloved grandson, holding the Prophet's sacred blood as his conquered trophy. The image is a window into the exact moment Islam betrayed its own heart.
Notably, the Qur’an records a single, simple request that was made of the Muslims. The Messenger of God is told to say that he asks no payment for conveying Islam except one thing: love for his near relatives.
“Say: I do not ask you any reward for this except love for my near relatives.” (Qur’an, Chapter 42 (Al-Shura), Verse 23)
The Prophet of Islam endured countless trials for the sake of this religion, yet when it comes to payment, his only “wage” is that his community loves his family. The men who killed Al-Hussein did not come from outside Islam. Adding to the tragedy, the atrocity was not the work of outsiders or enemies; it is the story of what Muslims did to the Prophet’s own household. They prayed, fasted, and then slaughtered the Prophet’s grandson, mutilated his body, and carried his head from city to city on a spear.
The rulers that followed, rather than address and seek to rectify it, continued the oppression. They decided which events would be remembered and which would remain in the dark. They funded scholars who would argue endlessly about minor issues, while keeping the blood of the Prophet’s family quietly buried. So scholars argued over graves while Yazid's shadow loomed, unchallenged and largely untouched. The scholars write volumes on whether a statue is permissible, yet have only cautious words to say about Yazid and those with him, as though the dignity of tyrants deserves more protection than the dignity of the Prophet’s grandchildren.
This is probably why the newly unveiled portrait of Imam Al-Hussein is unsettling to many, because it shatters the facade. In it, everything Muslims don’t want to face is present: the Prophet’s grandson, slaughtered and raised on a spear while his Muslim killer stands in pride beneath it, and the Muslims were silent, just as they are today. The portrait does not allow anyone to hide behind phrases like “historical tragedy” or “unfortunate events.” It forces the Muslims to witness their history.
The non-working scholars fear this, that ordinary Muslims might start to realise the injustice done to Ahlul-Bayt and start questioning the legitimacy of those who ordered, enabled, or defended that injustice. So they instead emphasise technical discussions: “Is it allowed to build domes over graves?” “Are images permissible?” “Is visiting such places religiously valid?”
All the while, the Qur’an remind us: the only reward he asked you for was love of his near relatives.
Aba Al‑Sadiq’s unveilings of the Prophet and his Family in the Hall of Mysteries is not about worshipping any “idols,” it is about reclaiming the right of the Ahlul-Bayt to be seen, remembered, and honoured after centuries of deliberately erasing their name from history. It is testifying that no caution about images can outweigh the Qur’anic command to love and defend the Prophet’s Family. It refuses to let the crimes of Karbala and the persecution of Ahlul-Bayt by the caliphs of Islam remain hidden. Those who attack such efforts in the name of “protecting Islam” should ask themselves which Islam they are protecting, the Islam of the Qur’an that commands love for the Prophet’s relatives, or the Islam of rulers and non-working scholars that deliberately hide the truth?
The statues, paintings, and a whole space dedicated to Mohammed and his Family, force the Muslims to walk through their own history, to see the crimes of their rulers, judges, and soldiers who all claimed Islam while at the same time they turned against Ahlul-Bayt. While people argue about images, he is restoring the image of Islam itself, not the Islam of scholars’ rulings, but the Islam that stands with Al-Hussein on the sands of Karbala. It is significant and relevant to every Muslim today because the spear‑hand that severed Al-Hussein’s head is not just an image of past violence, it is the beginning of a spiritual curse that spread from then until today. As we see in narration below, God does not bless a worship that is detached from loyalty to the Prophet’s Family.
Imam Al-Jawad was asked: “May I be your ransom, what do you say about fasting? It was said that they are not given success to fasting.” So he said: “Indeed the prayer of the angel against them was answered.” So I said: “And how is that, may I be your ransom?” He said: “The people when they killed Al-Hussein God the Exalted commanded an angel to call: ‘O oppressive nation that has killed the descendants of its Messenger, may God not give you success neither to fasting nor to breaking fast.’ ” (Al-Kafi, Al-Shaikh Al-Kulayni, Vol. 4, p. 169.)
According to this narration, the community that murdered the Prophet’s grandson are told that blessing has been withdrawn. The community that betrayed Ahlul-Bayt is not blessed in its worship, even if it fills its mosques and markets for Ramadan.
The Qur’anic command to love the Prophet’s family is not a minor teaching, it is a divine trust. To fast while turning away from the suffering of the Prophet’s Family and to dismiss their oppression with slogans like “history is complicated,” such a fast may be recorded on the calendar, but in the sight of God it is stripped of light, because it is built on a refusal to acknowledge injustice against those whom He commanded us to honour.
The museum of Mohammed and his Family represents the ultimate tragedy of Islam, that God appointed men to guide and purify the Muslim community, but the Muslims repeatedly turned against them. Imam Al-Hussein, the Prophet’s grandson, was killed in Karbala by men who claimed Islam, and his head was raised on a spear while they boasted of their “success” over the “House of the Prophet.” The Prophet’s Family was murdered, imprisoned and oppressed by rulers who also called themselves “Muslim.”
The only “reward” the Prophet asked for, love for his family, was turned into blood. And so in this unveiling by Aba Al-Sadiq and through this gift of Imam Al-Mahdi, a mirror is held up to the true version of history and we face a choice….to choose between Al-Hussein and Shimr. Either we repair our loyalty to the Prophet’s Family, or our worship will stay empty, and any fasting and Eid will have lost their “success.”
From the first words of the Qur’an we recite, Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, we call on a God of mercy, compassion, and justice. Yet everything the museum exposes, shows how far the Muslims have strayed from mercy and compassion toward the Prophet’s own household.
The true renewal that many Muslim seek during the month of Ramadhan will come only when Muslims dare to look within, and through this type of work: a museum that dares to remember, a video that forces Muslims to see the spear in their own hands, and a people who finally choose, not in slogans, but in hearts, to stand with Al-Hussein, not Shimr, and finally pay the only reward that Prophet Mohammed ever asked for: genuine love and loyalty to his Family.
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