—or any of the other sites besides Madinah.

It is therefore evident that, had the claim been sound, the earliest generations would have been the first to know of it. Had they believed it, they would—true to their habitual practice—have recorded it, made it public, and spoken about it, just as they did with comparable issues.

Since nothing—neither word nor deed—has reached us from the predecessors to indicate that the head lies in any of these places, the assertion is known to be false. Allah knows best.

The eighth argument: scholars in every age have repeatedly affirmed that the Cairene shrine attributed to al-Ḥusayn is sheer fabrication and falsehood (1). They make the same judgment about its counterparts among the spurious shrines: those in Damascus ascribed to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Uways al-Qaranī, Hud, Noah, and others; the shrine in Bahrān attributed to Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh (2); the shrines in the Jazīrah region claimed for ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, and the like; and the ones in Iraq credited to ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—and others. The same applies to sites claimed for various prophets, apart from the graves of our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and of Abraham the Friend (peace be upon him).

Because so many shrines are invented, the scholars of every era have recognised them for what they are. The well-known books and compilations authored by people of knowledge are replete with such examples, as anyone who investigates the matter will discover.

Likewise, in their writings and discussions, scholars have continually maintained that this Cairene shrine is one of the fabricated sites, and they record this in their works—even those who themselves resided in the city. Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Ibn Dihyah, for example, devotes a section to it in his book al-ʿIlm al-Mashhūr, alongside the reliable and unreliable reports he cites about al-Ḥusayn’s martyrdom. He still declares, with unanimous agreement, that the shrine is fictitious and explains that the head was transferred there from ʿAsqalān in the final days of the ʿUbaydid dynasty.