Who is Mahdi Noah?

Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq declared his right hand man Alireza Khatib Haghighi during the 2024 Ramadan Sermon, the tongue of Imam Al-Mahdi to the Persian speaking people and to the German speaking people. This was a powerful moment due to the fact that it was the first live televised broadcast of a speech by the Riser of the Family of Mohammed whereby he addressed the world. So who is Alireza Khatib Haghighi and how did he rise to prominence in the call of the Mahdi? The Divine Just State took the time to conduct an interview with this great man to share a better understanding of his relationship with Abdullah Hashem.

Alireza has been a believer and supporter since the Egypt phase of the works of Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq. We sat with him and asked him the following questions:

What year was it when you first heard about the call of Abdullah Hashem and how did you come to accept it as the truth?

I was following Abdullah Hashem’s work since 2009-2010, as I was searching for God. I was looking for guidance because I realised that this world is really not a good place in the state that it is in today, with all the injustice and corruption. I was trying to figure out what my purpose was, what I was supposed to do, and what the purpose of all of us being here is.

On this journey, I came across Aba Al-Sadiq’s work. What stood out to me is that his work was different from anything I had seen before, in terms of the level of sincerity that was shining through his work, his humility and his determination to find the truth. You could just feel it in his work. Whenever I was watching his videos, I would always find inspiration. I would always find answers for the things that I had no answers for. Through his work, I joined him on this journey to find Imam Al-Mahdi. That was his ultimate goal, to find the Imam and to find God, to serve Imam Al-Mahdi and the Ahlul-Bayt.

With everything that I came across before him, it always felt like there was something missing, but with him, everything came together. He brought together the full picture of what our purpose in life is, and that is to find the Imam of our time. That’s what clicked for me when I came across his videos, and so I followed him on this journey.

It was in the year 2011 that he found the Yamani, Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan. Back then, I was just following him, eagerly waiting to see where this journey was going to take us. When that day came, it was as if a prophecy had come true.

I knew that he would find the Imam, I knew that he would find Imam Al-Mahdi, because I had never seen somebody more sincere. I knew that if there is one man who would find Imam Al-Mahdi, it would be him. I just knew it. I knew that if I follow him, follow his work and go on this journey with him, I too will find the Imam, and it happened just as I expected.

When that day came and he announced that he had found the Yamani, the one who calls to Imam Al-Mahdi, it was the most important day of my life, because finally that goal was reached. Finally, we knew Imam Al-Mahdi was here. I pledged allegiance to Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan and followed Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan with Aba Al-Sadiq. That was the first step. Then, automatically one thing led to the other, because I knew that when the Imam is here, there is an obligation. Now that I knew the door to Imam Al-Mahdi, I knew that I had to support my Imam. The next goal was then automatically, inherently to leave everything behind and to fulfill this obligation, to fulfill this duty that we all have. For every single one of us, this duty is something that is upon our necks.

When I found Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan, I began looking for where to go next. I knew I had to leave everything I had behind and to go follow him, to find him. And now that I knew he was here, and just as I expected, Aba Al-Sadiq had lead me to him, I knew that I had to leave and go to Aba Al-Sadiq, to Abdullah Hashem, because he was truly our guide to Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan. Although I had never met him, I just had such a close connection to him, that I knew I had to go to him.

And it was not only me. When this happened, a lot of the people who pledged allegiance asked to go to Egypt, to be with Abdullah Hashem. Abdullah Hashem opened his doors to all those who wanted to join, and that was also a huge thing that he did back then. He opened his door to people he had never met, had never known, purely on the basis of faith, because they believed in the Imam of their time, they believed in God, and they believed in supporting the Imam of our time, he was willing to open his door for them. And immediately I did that too. A few months later, I made hijra to Egypt.

In order for our readers to gain a better insight of your journey, can you share with us what your life was like before encountering Abdullah Hahsem?

Before encountering Abdullah Hashem, Aba Al-Sadiq, I was born in Iran and grew up in Germany. My parents moved to Germany when I was eight years old. My parents were not really religious, and I grew up like a normal European, I would say. I went to school and started studying at university, but something was always missing. At one point, life didn’t make any sense to me anymore. It didn’t make sense that the goal should be to have a career, to become wealthy or successful, to start a family, and to make that the purpose of my life. So, as I said, I was searching for the real purpose.

At that time, I was training to become a professional pilot in the US, and it was around then that I heard about the call of Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan through Aba Al-Sadiq. So I left it all behind. I stopped everything I was doing and I went to Egypt.

How long had you been following Abdullah Hashem before migrating to him?

It must have been about 1 and a half to 2 years.

Left: Egypt, 2011 Right: Germany, 2018

What convinced you to leave your previous life to go and support him?

What convinced me was the realisation that our purpose is to find the Imam of our time; that whoever dies without knowing the Imam of his time dies the death of ignorance. It was the realisation that God is supposed to rule this Earth through the one He has chosen, and that our goal is to find the Imam of our time, to give him victory and to establish that divine rule. The Imam of our time is supposed to rule on Earth, because in his rule is goodness for creation. All of misery, misguidance, oppression, hunger and everything that is bad is a result of us not achieving that goal. It is really a responsibility upon all our necks. Every person, every human, is responsible for the state that the world is in, because we have not given God what He deserves: to rule this Earth.

It’s as the Ahlul-Bayt say, that God has given enough sustenance for all of creation. But because mankind is selfish and the rich have taken more than their share, that is the reason why poverty exists, why hunger exists, why children on a daily basis are dying. And why has that happened? Because we did not establish the divine rule of God, we did not give victory to the Imam of our time in establishing a Divine Just State in which everything would be divided equally, where nobody would be left behind, and where poverty, hunger and oppression no longer exists.

So if it is our duty to find the Imam of our time and to establish his rule, then mankind as a whole is guilty for all the oppression that is happening in this world. I wanted to fulfill that duty. I did not want to be guilty of all the injustice and oppression in this world. I wanted to fulfill everything that God expects me to do. I wanted to find the Imam of my time and to do everything I could to see God’s rule established, so that justice and peace can finally spread on this Earth.

You were with Abdullah Hashem before he was declared a Mahdi mentioned in the Will of Prophet Mohammed. What went through your mind when you learned of this declaration and how did you respond?

That was one of the most exciting and beautiful days in my life, and in the lives of the brothers who were around Aba Al-Sadiq at that time. When he first told us and he first revealed to us how, just as Imam Al-Mahdi had contacted Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan and revealed to him his role, and that he was mentioned in the Will of Prophet Mohammed, and that he was the successor of Imam Al-Mahdi and the door to Imam Al-Mahdi, the same thing had now repeated with Aba Al-Sadiq. It was something we had already known, believed in and testified to it by our own actions, because we had gone out to Aba Al-Sadiq. We did not know Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan, we did not know where he was. But we knew that Aba Al-Sadiq was guided and we trusted him so much. We knew that he would not misguide us, to the point that we all made hijra to him.

When that day came, everything just came together. The picture was complete, why this man was so special, why we had all gathered around him, and why we had put all of our trust in him. We had realised in our own selves that he is a Mahdi, that he is a Hujjah, that he is infallible, that he is a guiding Imam. And so yes, we all accepted it wholeheartedly, and everything just became so much more real. 

Our readers will be wondering about the moment when you learned about the role and responsibility bestowed upon you. Can you share with us how you felt when it was declared to you that you are one of the Twelve Mahdis?

It was a huge shock, nothing I had ever expected. It’s a huge responsibility, and with it comes the huge pressure of fulfilling that responsibility. I know that God blessed me immensely because of my path with Aba Al-Sadiq, as me and the brothers around him stuck to him through good times and bad times. In all the fitnas, we stayed by his side and we supported him.

What year was it?

2021.

Mahdi Noah being publicly announced by Aba Al-Sadiq in December 2024

Quite a while into your journey with Abdullah Hashem.

Yes. In the end, everything is from God, and like I said, I know that God blessed me because I followed the Qaim of the Family of Mohammed Aba Al-Sadiq. I supported him on this path while there were many others who left him. This is a very special time, the rising of the Qaim, the time of the Qaim, and it is the minor Day of Judgement. The doors, as the Imam said, are open for anyone to reach whatever he wants to reach. It is called the minor Day of Judgement because all of creation is being judged, as the hadiths say, and the Judge is the Qaim of the family of Mohammed. He is the Angel of the Covenant, whoever accepts him fulfils his covenant with God, and whoever rejects him breaks that covenant.

In this time, the best of the best return and the worst of the worst return. The more you support the Qaim of the Family of Mohammed, the one who rises with the truth, the one who makes qiyam, the higher you rise in the eyes of God. This really is an opportunity for all of creation. Whoever believes in this time, in the minor Judgement Day, in the Qaim and supports him, the higher he can reach in the sight of God. Whoever supports him supports God. Whoever pledges allegiance to him fulfills his covenant with God and rises in rank, and God blesses him. And the same way whoever leaves him and fights him loses everything and becomes among the worst of the worst. It is a great day and a great opportunity and it is all up to us how much we are willing to support the Imam of our time, the Qaim of the Family of Mohammed, Abdullah Hashem. 

I know that God blessed me with all of this because I supported the Qaim of the Family of Mohammed. This is because it is a very special time in history that will never repeat itself. In it, you can rise to the highest of levels, but you can also fall to the lowest of levels. That is also what we have seen with this dawah, that no matter how high you reach, if you were to leave the Qaim and to disbelieve in the Qaim or to fight the Qaim, you would lose everything that God has given you.

What advice do you have for anyone out there who wants to explore this path, the call of the Mahdi?

My advice would be that they should be fair to their own selves. They should be just to their own selves, research and learn about this dawah with an open heart. Because it is the truth, the only truth that exists in this world. Within it is their own salvation and all goodness. Besides it, there is nothing that is worth anything in this world. As the Ahlul-Bayt said, this dunya is not worth anything, it is all an illusion. The only truth in it is the Imam of our time. And so everybody should ask themselves: “Have I found God?” If they haven't found God, then they should know that they carry an obligation upon their neck, to find the Imam of their time.

We have to realise that if God exists, there has to be somebody on Earth who represents Him, because God has always, from the beginning, spoken to us from behind a veil. That first veil was Adam, the one into whom God blew from His spirit, and this spirit was passed down through the successors of Adam. The goal of every person is to find that spirit in their own time, to find the man who carries within him the spirit of God, to find God in creation in every time. This is the goal of creation. And we must know that we cannot know God except through him.

That is the reason why we have so many religions today and they all believe themselves to be upon the truth and they’re willing to kill each other over their belief. They see themselves as right and the others as wrong, while none of them are right because they do not have the man of God with them. That is the criteria, and always has been the criteria of truth. Whoever has the Imam of his time with him, he is upon truth, and without the Imam of your time, nothing remains but ignorance.

This has been the problem from the beginning, that we did not stick to that man in every age. Mankind rejected the decision of God, rejected the chosen one of God, and went ahead and chose their own. Mankind accepted their own rulership. They accepted to choose for themselves, over the choice of God. As a result, misguidance, oppression and everything bad that we find today spread across the Earth.

Because of that, there is the only solution, to go back to that man of God, to find him, to establish his rule so that justice and equity can spread on Earth. We have to realise that all religions today are dead religions because they do not have a living Imam. It is that living Imam that gives life to the religion and to the Earth. It is that living Imam who turns this Earth green, who brings about prosperity, equality, justice, peace and everything that is good. Without that man, we will never be able to reach anything. That is what everyone has to realise within themselves, that without that living man, that living Imam, we are lost.

They have to ask themselves “How do I find him? What is the criteria? How do I recognise him?” If without that man we are lost then God, for sure, must have given us a way by which, without a shadow of a doubt, we can find that man in every time. Because if it was not so then that God would not be just or worthy of worship. God would have left us in misguidance and ignorance. But God is good and far away from that. So everybody has to go on that journey, to scrutinise and to research until they reach the yaqeen (certainty) that they have found the Imam of their time.

They must find the way by which the Imam of their time is known, as every Hujjah since Adam was known: by Divine appointment and by a will. The Divine Hujjah has to be appointed by God, chosen by God, and named by Him in a Will. That is the first proof that every proof and every Hujjah in his time came with, he came with a Will in which God had named, chosen and appointed him. The second proof is that he has to have Divine Knowledge. He has to be the most knowledgeable person on the planet.

I think whoever truly researches our dawah with an open heart and with a just and fair mind will realise that there is nobody else on the planet today more knowledgeable than Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq. Nobody else has presented knowledge that even comes close to what Aba Al-Sadiq (as) is presenting today. Nobody has presented solutions like those of Aba Al-Sadiq.

The system he has established in his community is one in which everybody is equal, everybody has equal share in everything, everybody has access to everything and nobody is left behind. It is a system in which we share everything we have together.

The third proof is that every Messenger in his time called the people to the Supremacy of God. Aba Al-Sadiq today is the only one who does that. He is the only one who has come and is saying that supremacy belongs only to God and that the problem we have is that we have established other systems. He is the only one today who is saying that God alone can choose a ruler, while everyone else is calling to the supremacy of the people. Everyone else is calling to a different system, whether it be democracy, communism, socialism or whatever political system they’re calling to. Everybody has abandoned God and taken God out of the picture, saying we can rule ourselves. He is the only one on earth today, who is saying that only God is allowed to choose the one we have to follow.

I think it is obvious again, that this is the only system that makes sense, because history has shown us that mankind is not able to choose a just ruler. Mankind is not able to differentiate between good and evil. Democracy has shown us that the majority is not able to figure out who should rule them, and that humanity, by itself, is not able to differentiate who is a good, just ruler.

It is only God that knows the hearts, and therefore, only God can choose a person who takes care of humanity, because that person represents the will of God. Everyone else is selfish and is asking for their own rulership. They do not care about mankind, they only care about their own rule, and that is the reason for all the oppression and injustice and inequality today.

So my advice is for everyone to realise who the Imam of this time is, to realise that we need to find the Imam of our time, and to submit ourselves and our lives completely to him. In doing so, there is goodness for us and the rest of mankind, because the Imam of our time is the will of God on Earth, and God wants nothing but goodness for us. When we submit and unite upon that, we submit to the will of God. By following the Imam of our time, we follow the will of God, and we spread through it nothing but goodness on this Earth. Everywhere we go, we will spread justice and peace and equality, because we do not follow our own will, but we follow the will of our Imam and he knows what we do not know.

The ultimate goal is to completely and to fully submit ourselves to the Imam of our time. By doing so, we have fulfilled our goal, our covenant, and fill this Earth with justice and equity.

The Divine Just State is the objective of the Qaim and he dedicates every moment of his day to the realisation of this goal. You are a part of this mission. Where do you see this goal being in five years time or what do you wish would happen for this to come true?

In five years, I would like to see that we have established exactly that goal. That we have established the rule of God on Earth, that we have put God, finally, on His throne. It is only right. God is our Creator, and therefore we should worship Him, obey Him, and establish His rule on Earth, but mankind to this day has not fulfilled this goal.

We have to dedicate all of our lives to this goal, to the establishment of a Divine Just State, to the establishment of the rule of the Imam of our time, a country in which the believers can freely live in justice and equity. Because it is the only thing that makes sense. Nothing else provides a solution to anything, nothing else is worth anything. Everything else that we do will not be fruitful. Everything else that we do will not bring any real change for the better on this planet. The only one who can bring true change and goodness is God, and so we should dedicate ourselves fully to establishing the rule of God. In this lies goodness for us and for all of mankind, and the more people unite upon this, the faster we will establish it. We have to work tirelessly, all of us together, until we reach that goal. Aba Al-Sadiq is the only solution there is on this Earth, and supporting him and giving him victory is an obligation upon all of creation.

As I said, we are all guilty and responsible for the state the world is in today. If we want to absolve ourselves of that guilt, then we have to disbelieve in the systems that have caused all this misery. We have to disbelieve in all the man-made systems and governments and accept only the system and government of God alone. We have to support and help in creating it with everything that we have. We have to leave and disbelieve in all those who represent these governments and man-made systems and go to that man who represents the government and supremacy of God, and help establish his rule alone. He is the only one on Earth who has  legitimacy from God to rule, and supporting anybody else, even with a stroke of a pen, is supporting other than God. That is the sin and the guilt that we have to absolve ourselves from. That is why the sins of the one who pledges allegiance to the Imam of his time are forgiven, and he becomes sinless.

And that man today is Abdullah Hashem, Aba Al-Sadiq.