 Our dearest viewers from across the world, we extend our condolences to you on these final nights whereby we draw in closer to the day of Ashura, the anniversary of Ashura, the day where our Holy Third Imam was left on the land of Karbala amongst his companions and amongst his family. And this is a site that our 12th Imam cries tears of blood over and laments and laments and hence we send our condolences to him and may Allah hasten his reappearance and may we be amongst those he gets to serve in the army which avenges the death and the blood that was spilled upon the plains of Karbala. In these nights we started in our first nights with the children and the ladies involved. In the tragedy and in these final five nights we are now looking towards a handful and by no means an exhaustive list of the Shahadaa, alayhim wassalaam. And tonight we remember an individual who represented his father and who represented the youth of today. Of course it rings a bell for you all, this is none other than the son of our Holy Second Imam Al Qasim Ibn Al-Hassan, alayhim. And insha'Allah tonight we hope to derive lessons from him, from his masa'ib, from the struggles that he went through and we'll do this through some initial words but also through the means of emotion and poetry delivered by my dear brother Alifal As-Salamu Alaykum. Alaykum As-Salam wa rahmatullah. Just to send my salams to the dear viewers of Imam Al-Saini TV as well and likewise send my condolences to the Imam of our time on this deep tragedy. The day of Qasim is always a day which a lot of the youth pay attention to and a lot of the speakers also allude to the fact that the youth should be taking deep consideration because the story of Karbala and the tragedy of Karbala as we both know any one person no matter what their background is no matter what their circumstances they can connect with the tragedy of Karbala be it for example a mother who's lost a child and mother who's lost a father a father who's lost a son a father who's lost a nephew a brother who's lost a brother in any situation you can connect with the Ahl al-Bayt al-Anim As-Salam and connect with the story of Karbala and specifically with Qasim Alaykum As-Salam we see that a youth is standing up and say I'm wanting to be counted as those of the martyrs of Karbala which is I'm sure that you're going to delve into as well which is it leaves no one with any excuse not to really consider the story of Karbala and really take it into their lives what these people represented and how they represented it and not only that at what age did they stand up and be counted and that's Qasim Alaykum Arhatsans and I think just off air we were saying this statement from Al Qasim that we all know you know like the back of our hands that when he was asked how do you see death and a 13 right we were sniggering almost thinking what we were saying age 13 versus what Al Qasim Alaykum As-Salam saying age 13 and he replies by saying I see death as being sweeter than honey and this isn't you know the situation whereby you are sat in an English exam and you've prepared this answer for years on end this is and you know you're ready for that moment this is more someone who in the in the heats of the moment gazing at death straight in its eyes knowing exactly what's going to be coming his way still is able to come out and refocus and instill those lessons that his father and his uncles and his grandparents have taught him and say a line like I see death sweeter than honey and it's that in itself is a yeah it's it's I was saying I just find it's if I just take it on face value and even that just keeps me keeps me struck but just before that she is it's fascinating because all he can see is death around him and then he just any natural instinct when you see death and you see blood and gore as let's be realistic this is exactly what they saw and you'd immediately as a 13 year old be terrified panics care and panic and want to probably run away or you know find shelters somewhere but for him to stand up and say death looking at straight in the eye and say death means sweeter than honey means how content he is with life and how how much submission he has to the will of Allah sense exactly and we've mentioned that notion of submission to Allah and that's what you know really grounded all of those individuals in Karbala and Qasim alaihi salam for sure and as Ali mentioned there's a lot of I'm sure that the lecturers on these nights will mention about Qasim alaihi salam this notion of youth and youth and youth and youth and it's it's not something that I want to say okay everyone spoke about it so forget it's it's a point we must investigate further and hence I've wanted to present three a hadith from our Imam alaihi salam specifically from Ali alaihi salam two from him and one from our Holy Prophet may Allah bless him in his perfect household and the reason I want to share these is to underline this and that is don't underestimate the power of being a youth we're still holding on to it you know we're almost there but those of you who are aged 11 12 13 you are considered amongst the youth and those of you up to whatever age you want to be you can still be considered the youth but there's a reason why so much emphasis in play is played upon it and inshallah these three hadith will mention them I'll save them very briefly so the first comes from Amir Mu'mineena Ali ibn Abi al-Talib alaihi salam where he says verily the heart of a youngster is like an empty plot of land it accepts whatever is planted there in i.e. you as a youth your heart is ready to learn it's ready to absorb it's ready to see and it's ready to apply and that works for the positive and the negative al-qasim alaihi salam saw beauty in his father saw perfection in his father so perfection in his grandparent so perfection amongst his uncles and aunts and hence perfection is what was then ingrained into his heart that if you and practically speaking if you expose yourself as a youth to things that are so far away that deviates so far away from that perfect line of Islam then this will start to ingrain within your heart your heart will accept whatever it's exposed to at such a young age and hence be wary practically speaking be very wary not just of the people you around but the things you read the things you look at the people that you have dialogue with it can be very dangerous but equally very positive if it's the right people it's the right environments and don't underestimate that level of being a youth and how you'll just absorb it's that's the first one the second one comes from Ali alaihi salam again and he says there are two things whose worth is only known to one who has lost them so just to get the context of it there are two things whose worth is only known to one who has then lost them i.e. until you've lost these two things you won't realize their value the first I'm gonna do it the other way around to what he said it to emphasize the point the first is health you'll never actually understand the value of health until it's vanished and we see that with our our grandparents typically and you know those Albany in our family how much they value even doing such that on the floor something we really just take for granted and just do for the sake of doing it and why am I he says he says the health but also your youth so don't reach an age whereby you can no longer be described as a youth and look back and be like oh maybe I could have done that bit more maybe I could have been surrounded by better people maybe I could have spent that little bit extra time away from the ps4 four minutes of Quran first and then you know just small things like that will help you cultivate the soul and very lastly our holy prophet in this saying really blew my mind when I read it the holy prophet compares the superiority of a young worshiper versus someone who's old and he then gives that comparison and gives a context behind it so he says the superiority of a young worshipper who worships Allah in his youth over an old man who worships after he has grown old comparing the youth worship and the adult worship or the old worship is as the superiority of the prophets over the rest of the people and we understand the prophets were amongst the nearest Allah swt had a significantly superior to you and I and the prophet compares that worship of the old man versus the young man the difference between the two to be similar to that of the difference between the levels of the prophets and the general humans and that when you hear a statement like that it's that should pound and it should resonate and it should almost then make us feel not surprised at all that Al Qasim was able to actually carry out and have this conviction he had this genuine level of youthfulness within him he had this genuine level of understanding and yakin in Allah swt and in the religion as instilled by his father and the lesson that we draw is when we look at Al Qasim and the struggle he faced by staring death right in its eyes versus the sort of struggles that we face day to day they're trivial they're absolutely trivial so if we just start to train our souls and try and absorb as Imam Ali says absorb our heart is something that can just absorb and anything can be cultivating if we try and absorb as much goodness as we can in our youth then inshallah the same Al Qasim was able to respond to his tribulation and question when he was faced with such difficulty we can do the same and we're faced with much more trivial levels of difficulty in our lives inshallah inshallah yeah when it comes to the tragedy of Qasim in the poem which I'll recite actually it's titled Qasim's request and it speaks about or it's Qasim alayhi salam speaking to the youth when they come year on year year in year out to remember the tragedy of Qasim alayhi salam it says when you are mourning me and when you are remembering my tragedy remember one thing and this is the one message that he gives out it's live like Ali and die like Hussain which is mentioned in the in the poem Oh youth hear me my tragedy when you mourn and remember hear my story hear my glory and help me live forever on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain oh youth when you recall me and for me weep the lessons of my story in your tears keep I saw my uncle alone and wouldn't sleep I tell you the tears he shed angels would sweep I tell you the tears he shed angels would sweep feeling guilty or I'm less or me take Hussain's armor and shield she cried for me none could make me throw down my sword and yield I told my mother please let me leave this tent and my death attain on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain live like Ali die like Hussain oh youth know by two names I was left in awe I'm young but I can't explain the things I saw for years for a man named Ali tears would pour the pride of his name every man near me warm I saw a pride that never died we were the sons of Ali in all of us they all loved us and this every day I'd see a promise that lived inside me a pride my actions would maintain on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain live like Ali die like Hussain I was young when they killed my father I was young when they killed my father Hussain every I would look at me as an orphan all alone and came to what my head a man now he's all alone and to help him I can when I was young to me he'd come and he'd become my father what has become he has no one he's calling for a helper what kind of son would be if all alone he would remain on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain live like Ali die like Hussain I live my life in my grandfather's shadow from my morals my love for Ali they'd know and on that day his words to the world I show yesterday has gone uncertain is tomorrow work within this world he would say as if you live forever and as if you'll die tomorrow work to all the hereafter today today's my day I'll work for me to be known as Qasim the slave on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain live like Ali die like Hussain my uncle had a love of Ali so grand for being his son he was led to this land all his sons the name Ali on the hot hand he'd name all Ali if he had a thousand I saw Hussain he loved this name it left my uncle in trance a young Ali I embraced him and with this great name I pounced Ali's zeal float inside me I'd make the enemies blood rain on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain oh youth hear me my tragedy when you mourn and remember hear my story hear my glory and help me live forever on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain on that day my uncle taught me live like Ali die like Hussain live like Ali die like Hussain many thanks to the poet the slogan that we've heard since our childhood inshallah something that has always been said you know when you're in the young Muharram Majalis and that slogan live like Ali die like Hussain even live like Muhammad die like Hussain it's it's synonymous almost in that respect and another thing that we we take from Al-Qasim in this whole episode of course is that moment where when Imam Hussain is asking if he's got anyone else to help him following the the martyrdom of his companions and that's where the family actually come forward and one by one that they come forward and obviously he has a discussion there's many discussion that he has with each of them and the one with Al-Qasim is very poignant summarizing it very very briefly where he comes to Imam Hussain he says my father Al-Hussain Imam Al-Hussain told me to give you this letter I'm you know and it ultimately was about him representing Imam Hussain Imam Hussain saying oh Hussain on that day when you have no one else take Al-Qasim as my as my representative almost for Imam Al-Hussain was knew about this day was to come and we said that hadith la yawmika yawmika Aba Abdullah he knew that was gonna be no day like this day and hence Al-Qasim was the representative and many lessons to draw from there but the one in particular I wish to focus on is this is Al-Qasim al-Islam representing his father and the notion of representation and of respect towards your parents is one that's repeated and repeated and repeated but it's not one to ever be underestimated be it your mother where Allah SWT tells us that heaven lies beneath her feet to your father where there's hadith saying that any goodness that comes from you you should credit your father it comes from your father and all of these attributes that are instilled within us inshallah if we're lucky and we have parents upon the path of Ali Muhammad it's from our parents themselves and Al-Qasim teaches us here this level of respect and representation that he was able to offer his father on such a difficult day and Allah SWT says in hadith al-Qudsi a small a small narration about the emphasis upon the parents so Allah says I swear by my glory and power that if a child who is disobedient to his parents comes to me with all the good deeds of all the prophets all the good deeds of all the prophets I will not accept them from him simply because why simply because they've disobeyed their parents and of course we're not saying here Al-Qasim was on the verge of that no not at all we're saying Al-Qasim was the prime example of the respect you should have for your parents but perhaps for us it's reflecting to say well the other end of the spectrum is maybe I'm really on the cusp of disobedience to my parents and if there's someone I want to look up to and be that Al-Qasim alayhi salam so what extent am I actually taking the steps to walk towards my parents and actually try and be an ambassador for them or a lot of the time we hear you know respect your parents your parents to this your parents to that and our response is okay inshallah tonight I'm gonna go home from the Majlis I'm gonna sit down I'm gonna respect my parents fine you've sat there you've waited for them to have their meal or waited them to take the first bite of food but there's got to be a little bit more than that it's it's not like a okay I do the minimal and inshallah it's accepted you know that that's my relationship with parents done I've got the level of respect there's a level of walking towards your parents of approaching your parents off if your parents perhaps aren't so on the path of Ali Muhammad it's up to you as well to try and inspire them towards them if they are it's up to you to work together and join a word that we don't hear often with parents which is partnership a hand in hand partnership and bond again we allude to upon the basis of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and nothing but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if you form that partnership with them again it's invincible it's something that no matter how much people try they can't take it away if faced with thousands against you and without water if you form that partnership Al Qasim shows that you can walk up to your father's brother and say actually I'm here and I'm ready to represent my brother my father I'm here to represent him such was the partnership that he had with Imam al-Hassan al-Isra but that wouldn't have just come through being passive and being reactive it's as much about the parent being proactive with their children as it is about the offspring being proactive with their parents trying to make the effort to go towards them trying to make them feel proud and feel happy and learn from you even and there was something that very I like to give these kind of like practical examples I think they can help connect a little bit more and many families are in the habit of when it's usually when a lovely meal is cooked not necessarily when an okay meal is cooked your recite surah far to heart at the table before you start eating it's a trend in a number of families but why not go an extra mile and just say actually 30 seconds I'm sharing with you a one line hadith that I found job done something as simple as that is that notion of walking towards your parent but also founding the relationship and partnership upon the path of ala Muhammad to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rather than and I'm not saying don't have trivial in general chats with parents you must you must connect but if you have the start of that conversation saying I actually read that XYZ said and this person said whatever whatever whatever you've started your discussion with the blessings of ala Muhammad and then the blessings whilst you're on that table will remain from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as promised in hadith al-kissar so something as simple as this can be that first step that partnership you can make with your parents for sure but going further to this one thing that we must mention on the night of al-qasim that is sometimes forgotten is that Imam al-Hassan didn't just have al-qasim upon his offspring there at Karbala historians say three even four of his sons were present in Karbala and historians say three were Shahid and one was severely injured and the Sada that we see from Hassan today come from the child who is significantly injured so it's important as well to look into that history and to actually learn about those who are also the siblings of al-qasim or the sons of Imam al-Hassan as well and this is just a very brief notion upon parents and of course when we think about it it's not just al-qasim being inspired by his father but also his uncle and the women in the in his family as well say the Zayno al-Hassan of course being so close as an aunt many individuals that he was able to connect with and he was seen as that nephew or that son or that brother or that cousin the 13 year old who was able to face up and represent his parents in such a noble manner and this is a key lesson we learn from al-qasim al-Hassan and the tragic nature of al-qasim al-Hassan's martyrdom extends and most the most usual story that's narrated is his relationship with his mother and how parents would relate the amount of effort that that goes into bringing up children night and day their constant thought is the well-being of their child and they they yearn to see them grow to see them get married to see them achieve would become studies or work or whatever it may be in their path of life and they don't expect to see them passing away before them it's almost an unwritten expectation where where you know you as the parents are going to be buried by the child and so on and so forth but with this case al-qasim al-Hassan had to bid farewell to his mother and in doing so of course again coming back to the whole submission to Allah's father and the will of Allah's father and the message of Imam Hussain al-Hassan and the mission of Imam Hussain al-Hassan Ramla who was the wife of Imam Hussain al-Hassan who was present in Karbala of course it was emotional and the women and children all surrounded al-qasim al-Hassan in agony and in pain to see him leave such a young man who his helmets would be almost lopsided because it wouldn't fit on his on his head or the shield that he had was a bit heavy or the sword that he had would drag on the floor and to see a young man go towards the battlefield and his death was it's childlike mistakes but what do you expect from a 13 year old I mean the story mentions that al-qasim al-Hassan was fighting valiantly but his sandal became undone and as a response as a young child probably not that well versed in the art of fighting and the art of swordsmanship would kneel down to try and would go down to try and fix the thing and that's when the strike came but before that it's the dialogue that Imam Hussain al-Hassan has with al-qasim al-Hassan to really bring to life what you were saying early in terms of Qasim's professionalism, Qasim's maturity as a 13 year old and he says to him in the words of Nur-i-Sardar Imam Hussain al-Hassan has a dialogue with al-qasim saying Stay, your mother wants you to smile Stay, you leave her to cry and well Stay, your mother wants you to smile Stay, you leave her to cry and well Oh, my son al-qasim Hassim, my son al-qasim Qasim, I am your uncle and this is my battle Qasim, tell me the yearning for death, why do you feel Qasim, this is my tragedy, this is my trial Qasim, don't let me hear another mother's wail Qasim, don't let me hear another mother's wail Stay, on me, your mother's his hell Stay, you leave her to cry and well Stay, on me, your mother's his hell Stay, you leave her to cry and well My son, my son al-qasim Tell me, your eyes they see a path that's before you beams Tell me, is it your martyrdom or your mother's dreams Tell me, for her emotions watch out tomorrow deep Tell me, will tears of joy or of grief from her eyes stream Tell me, will tears of joy or of grief from her eyes stream Stay, her heart is caught in a gale Stay, you leave her to cry and well Stay, her heart is caught in a gale Stay, you leave her to cry and well My son, my son al-qasim Listen, she's a mother and every mother's the same Listen, every day of your wedding your mother dreams Listen, if this dream of hers impossible became Listen, her heart would ache every time she heard your name Listen, her heart would ache every time she heard your name Stay, daily she'll recall this tale Stay, you leave her to cry and well Stay, daily she'll recall this tale Stay, you leave her to cry and well My son, my son al-qasim Her heart, she entrusted to you left it in your hands Her heart, she gifted to you all its rivers and lands Her heart, and slipped through your hands with the grains of its sands Her heart, so tell her why with no heart your mother stands Her heart, so tell her why with no heart your mother stands Stay, with the one who'd sway your cradle Stay, you leave her to cry and well Stay, with the one who'd sway your cradle Stay, you leave her to cry and well My son, my son al-qasim Her eyes would wake in the morning longing for your sight Her eyes saw all as darkness but saw your face as light Her eyes earned the comfort of your eyes when left in fright Her eyes forbade a glance of you the world they would fight Her eyes forbade a glance of you the world they would fight Stay, without your sight her skin pale Stay, you leave her to cry and well Stay, without your sight her skin pale Stay, you leave her to cry and well My son, my son al-qasim My son, my son al-qasim Many thanks to the poet, Nur-e-Santa And I end with this from our Holy 6th Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq, where he says, if one recites one verse of a poem about Hussein and cries, and he makes ten people cry, he and those who cry will be rewarded with Paradise. If one recites one verse of a poem about Hussein and he cries, and makes nine people cry, he and those who cry will be rewarded with Paradise. It is said the Imam kept reducing from the number and repeating the same reward until he then said, whoever recites one verse of a poem about Hussein and cries, or even tries to cry, he will be rewarded with Paradise. Write, write about Hussein, write about the moseeba of Imam Deliver the moseeba, allow your children to deliver it in your majalis. In the languages they understand, let them connect and let them be amongst those who Imam al-Sadiq, alayhi salam, says, even if no one cried but they even tried to cry, that individual who wrote it when he recited it, even tried to cry, even they will be rewarded with Paradise, inshallah. Find me alone and sad and heartbroken Find me with grey hairs as away I wither Find me happy with a smile on my face Find me content, young and full of honor Find me at the edge of this earth in silence Find me living next door, a cheerful neighbor Wherever you find me, I'll be at the same place Wherever you find me, I'll be at the same place Tying a rope on the standard of Hussein's Bana Tying a rope on the standard of Hussein's Bana Al-Qasim, alayhi salam, and indeed his noble father with his second Imam, Imam Al-Hassan, alayhi salam and we ask for their intercession in this life and in the next. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.