In this paper, an unsteady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection heat transfer flow of electrically conductive non-Newtonian Casson fluid over a stretching sheet through vertical porous plate with an influence of heat generation and viscous dissipation is investigated. Similarity transformations are employed to transform the governing partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. The transformed equations are then solved numerically by Runge-Kutta and shooting methods. The heat flow characteristics for different values of the parameters namely Casson fluid parameter, unsteadiness parameter, Eckert number, heat generation parameter, permeability porous parameter and Prandtl number are studied and discussed in detail. The increase of permeability porous parameter reduces the velocity field and enhances the fluid temperature. The heat generation source leads to an increase in thermal boundary layer thickness. The higher viscous dissipative heat causes an increase in the fluid temperature.