I would simply like to know if it permissable to name your child “Qaasim” or “Al-Qaasim”. I have read the hadeeth that prohibits its use but at the same time, I have seen somewhere the kunya “Abul Qaasim” used by scholars of old. Please clarify this for me as I am expecting a child in the next few months (inshaa-Allaah).
Praise be to Allaah.
Using
the names Qaasim and Muhammad, and the nicknames Abu’l-Qaasim, Abu
‘Eesa and other permissible names and nicknames, is allowed and there is
nothing wrong with it, after the death of the Prophet
(peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him). The prohibition of using his name and
his nickname together applied only during his lifetime
(peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him). The reason why the prohibition was
narrated indicates the reason why this was restricted to his lifetime
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Hence you find scholars of
earlier and later times called Muhammad and using the nickname
Abu’l-Qaasim, without anyone denouncing them. Shaykh
‘Abd al-Kareem al-Khudayr
Shaykh
Bakr Abu Zayd said in his book Mu’jam
al-Manaafi al-Lafziyyah:
It
was reported that Jaabir (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: “A son
was born to a man among us, and he named him Qaasim. We said, ‘We will
definitely not give you the nickname of Abu’l-Qaasim.’ He told the
Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) about that, and
he said, ‘Call your son ‘Abd al-Rahmaan.’ (narrated by al-Bukhaari
in his Saheeh).”
