2 of 2 · A name carried for a lifetime · Makkah and Madinah
Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad رضي الله عنه
Abu al-Qasim
Among the Arabs, a man was honoured by being called after his eldest son. So Muhammad ﷺ became Abu al-Qasim, "the father of al-Qasim", and the Companions called him by it to the end of his life. When Abu Hurayrah reported his words, he would sometimes say simply, "Abu al-Qasim ﷺ said" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3539).
The Prophet ﷺ allowed people to name their sons Muhammad, but he told them not to take his kunya as well, explaining, "I have been made a qasim, one who distributes among you" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3114). The name of a boy who had died young was joined to the Prophet's ﷺ own role in the community: he gave out what Allah entrusted to him, fairly.
The Prophet ﷺ carried his little son's name every day of his life; a love that is lost is not erased.
Whose name do you carry with you, and how do you honour it?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3539 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3114 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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