What is meant by the Kunya name of the Prophet?

Question

Hadith 110, from Sahih al-Bukhari is narrated by Abu Hurraira; and he had said:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Name yourselves with my name (use my name) but do not name yourselves with my Kunya name (i.e. Abul Qasim). And whoever sees me in a dream then surely he has seen me for Satan cannot impersonate me. And whoever tells a lie against me (intentionally), then (surely) let him occupy his seat in Hell-fire."

What is meant by the Kunya name? And why does the Prophet (pbuh) say that his Kunya name is Abul Qasim?

Answer 1

Abul Qasim means father of Qasim which Was our prophet(SAW) son's name. So the prophet is sayingyou can be named Muhammad, But don't be named abul qasim because he is the father of qasim not another person

Answer 2

The word Kunya كنية is honor to a person. It is specially used for women to not let her name disclosed, like umm for mother and abu for father.source

Kunya can also be used if you don't have child, i.e. Abu Hureyra but he didn't have any child with name of Hureyra. Hureyra means kitten and Abu Hureyra had a kitten and he loved it, our prophet (ﷺ) usually saw him with kitten and one day our Prophet (ﷺ) called him Abu Hureyra means father of kitten.

This is another thing that our Prophet (ﷺ) restricted us from using own Kunya. It can be personal reason. The following Hadith gives another restriction,

While the Prophet (ﷺ) was in the market, a man called (somebody), "O Abu-l-Qasim!' The Prophet (ﷺ) turned to him and said "Name yourselves after me but do not call yourselves by my Kuniya." Sahih al-Bukhari 3537 - Book 61, Hadith 46

The person who was called had a son with name Qasim but our Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) restricted him not to call by my Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) Kunya despite having child with name Qasim.

Answer 3

The restriction for calling someone Abu-l Qasim was only at the time of Allah's Messenger (blessings of Allah be upon him and peace).

Praise be to Allah.

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).”