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Al-Qasim, son of Imam al-Hasan عليه السلام, came to Karbala with his uncle Imam al-Husayn عليه السلام as a boy who had not yet reached adulthood. He asked to fight on the day of Ashura and was killed; his uncle carried his body back and laid it among the martyrs of the family.
A youth at Karbala
Al-Mufid lists al-Qasim among the sons of Imam al-Hasan عليه السلام, with his full brothers Amr and Abd Allah, sons of an umm walad. When he came forward on the day of Ashura, the narrators describe him as a youth whose face was like a new moon. Al-Mufid and Ibn Tawus record that a man of the Azd tribe struck him on the head; as he fell he called out to his uncle, who charged the attackers, then stood over him and said that it was hard for his uncle that he had called him and could not be answered. Imam al-Husayn عليه السلام carried him back and laid him beside his son Ali al-Akbar and the other martyrs of the family.
The wedding story
A story of al-Qasim’s wedding on the eve of Ashura is widely told in mourning poetry. It does not appear in the early sources: the earliest known work containing it is Husayn Wa‘iz Kashifi’s Rawdat al-Shuhada’, written in the sixteenth century CE, and scholars such as al-Muhaddith al-Nuri regarded it as unfounded.
Differing reports
- Age: the early accounts say he had not reached adulthood; a genealogical work gives sixteen.
- His mother: al-Mufid says he shared her with his brothers Amr and Abd Allah; Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani names Abu Bakr ibn al-Hasan as her son.
Sources
- Kitab al-Irshad fi Ma‘rifat Hujaj Allah ‘ala al-‘Ibad — al-Mufid, Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Nu‘man (d. 413 AH / 1022 CE). chapter on Imam al-Hasan; chapter on Imam al-Husayn
- al-Luhuf ‘ala Qatla al-Tufuf — Ibn Tawus (d. 664 AH / 1266 CE)
- Maqatil al-Talibiyyin — Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Ali ibn al-Husayn (d. 356 AH / 967 CE)
- Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk — al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir (d. 310 AH / 923 CE). year 61 AH