Ulum al-Hadith Curriculum

Oct 10, 2025Bilal Panchbhaya

Introduction

ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth is a vast discipline that demands sustained reading and guided practice over years. The pathway below, drawn from personal study and consultations with scholars, offers a staged curriculum in Arabic and English. Each level presumes parallel growth in allied disciplines, especially fiqh and uṣūl al-fiqh. You need not read every work listed, but depth at each stage is essential for mastery. I have adapted this path for an English-speaking audience.

End-state goal: read major collections with commentary, perform takhrīj, understand rijāl/jarḥ wa-taʿdīl, and engage responsibly with ʿilal (hidden defects) and method.

Elementary

Aim: Familiarise yourself with the landscape of the hadith corpus, core nomenclature, and the meanings of widely-circulated narrations.

Orientation to the science

Muṣṭafā al-Aʿẓamī, Studies in Ḥadīth Methodology and Literature (revised Malaysian ed.).
Muḥammad Zubayr Ṣiddīqī, Ḥadīth Literature (ITS; intro by ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm Murād).

Why this matters: establishes what the books are, how they were compiled, and how they are used.

First pass at nomenclature (muṣṭalaḥ)

Core (choose one primary; consult the rest)

Muḥammad b. ʿAlawī al-Mālikī, al-Manhal al-Laṭīf.
Maḥmūd al-Ṭaḥḥān, Taysīr Muṣṭalaḥ al-Ḥadīth (+ Ṭāriq ʿAwaḍ Allāh, Iṣlāḥ al-Iṣṭilāḥ).
Recommended start: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Shāyiʿ, al-Wāḍiḥ fī Muṣṭalaḥ al-Ḥadīth (clear, comprehensive; strong use of tables).

Broader survey (English)

Muḥammad Hāshim Kamālī, A Textbook of Ḥadīth Studies (connects muṣṭalaḥ with adjacent disciplines).

Meanings of core hadiths (memorisation + commentary)

Core

Memorise: al-Nawawī, al-Arbaʿūn.
Read: Sharḥ Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd (often under Ibn Ḥajar’s name), then Ibn Rajab, Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam.

Optional / fiqh-leaning

Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, Fatḥ al-Mubīn.
Jamal Zarabozo, Commentary on the Forty Ḥadīth (extensive English synthesis).

Why this matters: introduces fiqh al-ḥadīth—how juristic reasoning is extracted from texts.

Lower Intermediate

Aim: Deepen muṣṭalaḥ; widen familiarity with famous hadiths; strengthen comprehension and application.

Literature maps

Muḥammad al-Kattānī, al-Risālah al-Mustaṭrafah (on hadith sources); audio by Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī.
Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī, Buḥūth fī Tārīkh al-Sunnah.

Nucleus texts in muṣṭalaḥ

Master: Ibn Ḥajar, Nukhbat al-Fikar → his Nuzhat al-Naẓar (ed. Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr).
- Aids: al-Shirbīnī, Nahj al-Mubtakir (on Nukhbah); Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī’s lessons + mudhakkira; Ṭāriq ʿAwaḍ Allāh’s commentaries; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Shayāʿ, Taqrīb Nuzhat al-Naẓar.
Al-Dhahabī, al-Mawqiza (his abridgement of Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd’s al-Iqtirāḥ); study with Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī’s commentary and ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd’s printed notes.
A useful supplement: Aḥmad Shākir, al-Bāʿith al-Ḥathīth (Sharḥ Ikhtiṣār ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth by Ibn Kathīr) with Ṭāriq ʿAwaḍ Allāh’s audio.

Tip: The Nukhbah–Nuzhah–Mawqiza trio suffices for this stage if done thoroughly.

Core hadiths (memorise + commentaries)

ʿUmdat al-Aḥkām (ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī) with Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd’s Iḥkām al-Aḥkām (fiqh-rich). Also see Ibn al-ʿAṭṭār and Ibn al-Mulaqqin.
Bulūgh al-Marām (Ibn Ḥajar) with contemporary aids as they’re all better than Subul: ʿAbd Allāh al-Fawzān, Minḥat al-ʿAllām; Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr, Iʿlām al-Anām.
Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn (al-Nawawī) with the excellent Nuzhat al-Muttaqīn.

Why this matters: these three give you the “working canon” of core hadiths.

Preparing for the Ṣaḥīḥayn

Ṣāliḥ al-Shāmī, al-Wāfī bimā fī al-Ṣaḥīḥayn. Alternatively: al-Zabīdī’s al-Tajrīd al-Ṣarīḥ (Mukhtaṣar of al-Bukhārī) and al-Mundhirī’s abridgement of Muslim.
For vocabulary and brief meanings: Ibn al-Athīr, al-Nihāya fī Gharīb al-Ḥadīth; al-Munāwī, Fayḍ al-Qadīr; al-Ṭībī, Sharḥ Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ.
If using al-Tajrīd al-Ṣarīḥ: see Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān, ʿAwn al-Bārī and Ḥamza Qāsim, Manār al-Qārī (both based on Fatḥ al-Bārī).

Upper Intermediate

Aim: Build breadth: modern discourse, early critics, juristic divergence, and the central role of Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ.

Modern introductions and early critics

Jonathan Brown, Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World.
Muṣṭafā al-Aʿẓamī, Studies in Early Ḥadīth Literature (Cambridge PhD; Arabic available).
Scott Lucas, Constructive Critics, ʿAdīl Narrators, and the Formation of Sunnī Ḥadīth (on early critics).

Juristic disagreement and hadith

Zakariyyā Kāndhlawī, Ikhtilāf al-Aʾimma (The Differences of the Imams).
Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah, Āthār al-Ḥadīth al-Sharīf fī Ikhtilāf al-Aʾimma al-Fuqahāʾ.
Additional: Shāh Walī Allāh, al-Insāf and Ḥujjat Allāh al-Bāligha.

Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ at the centre

Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr, Manhaj al-Naqd (broad preface).
Then study: Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, Muqaddima with Nukat of al-ʿIrāqī, al-Zarkashī, and Ibn Ḥajar (chronological order: ʿIrāqī → Zarkashī → Ibn Ḥajar).
Audio: Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī’s comprehensive series. It is being transcribed into a book.

Encyclopedic muṣṭalaḥ

Al-Suyūṭī, Tadrīb al-Rāwī (Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah’s ed).
Audio: Aḥmad Maʿbad ʿAbd al-Karīm’s classes.

Method debates (mutaqaddimūn vs. mutaʾakhkhirūn)

Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī, al-Manhaj al-Muqtarah.
ʿAbd Allāh al-Judayʿ, Taḥrīr ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth.
Ḥamza al-Mallibarī, al-Muwāzanah bayna al-Mutaqaddimīn wa-l-Mutaʾakhkhirīn.

Counterbalance: Ẓafar Aḥmad al-ʿUthmānī, Qawāʿid fī ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth (argues classical hadith methodology is not fully “absolute”, built on al-Shāfi’ī’s uṣūl and foregrounds Ḥanafī uṣūl).

Al-Shāfiʿī’s legal theory and hadith method

Al-Shāfiʿī, al-Risāla; Joseph Lowry, Early Islamic Legal Theory (on al-Bayān).
Ṭāriq b. ʿAwaḍ Allāh, al-Naqd al-Bannā (on mursal conditions).

7) Collections to bridge breadth and soundness

Ṣāliḥ al-Sahmī, Maʿālim al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyya: ~4,000 selected ṣaḥīḥ/ḥasan from 14 sources (Muwaṭṭaʾ, the Six Books, etc.).
To expand fiqh al-ḥadīth: al-Baghawī, Sharḥ al-Sunnah (~4,400 widely-cited hadith with balanced commentary).

Advanced

Aim: Tackle encyclopedias, objections to hadith, rijāl tools, and prepare for reading the great collections with method and takhrīj.

1) Encyclopedic muṣṭalaḥ core (study together; use cross-reference)

Base text: al-Sakhāwī, Fatḥ al-Mughīth (on al-ʿIrāqī’s Alfiyya). Audio: Aḥmad Maʿbad ʿAbd al-Karīm.
Next: Ṭāhir al-Jazāʾirī, Tawjīh al-Naẓar (highly recommended by experts).
Then: al-Suyūṭī, al-Baḥr alladhī Zakhar fī Sharḥ Alfiyyat al-Āthār (with Aḥmad Shākir’s notes).
Finally: al-Ṣanʿānī, Tawḍīḥ al-Afkār.

These four together cover virtually the full terrain of nomenclature in depth.

2) Responding to objections and orientalist theses

Muṣṭafā al-Sibāʿī, al-Sunnah wa-Makānatuhā.
Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr, al-Sunnah al-Muṭahharah wa-l-Taḥaddiyāt.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muʿallimī, al-Anwār al-Kāshifa (narrator criticisms; Abū Hurayra focus).
Muṣṭafā al-Aʿẓamī, On Schacht’s Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence.
Harald Motzki (ed.), Analysing Muslim Traditions.
Iftikhar Zaman, The Evolution of a Ḥadīth (Chicago PhD, 1991).

3) Rijāl—biographical mastery

ʿĀdil b. ʿAbd al-Shakūr al-Zurāqī, al-Mashhūr min al-Asānīd al-Ḥadīth; Ṭabaqāt al-Mukthirīn.
Use for quick ratings: Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ & Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf, Taḥrīr Taqrīb al-Taqrīb; Ṭāriq b. ʿAwaḍ Allāh, Tahdhīb Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb.
For depth: Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb → al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl.

4) A legal hadith masterpiece

Waliyy al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī (completing his father Zayn al-Dīn), Ṭarḥ al-Tathrīb fī Sharḥ al-Taqrīb (Dar al-Badr/Shurūq). Exceptionally comprehensive; often obviates the need to consult Fatḥ al-Bārī or al-Nawawī.

Check famous chains in: al-Mizzī, Tuḥfat al-Ashrāf.

5) Takhrīj (principles and practice)

Maḥmūd al-Ṭaḥḥān, Uṣūl al-Takhrīj wa-Dirāsat al-Asānīd (+ ʿImād ʿAlī Jumuʿa’s charts).
Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī, al-Takhrīj wa-Dirāsat al-Asānīd (audio + mudhakkira).
ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Shayāʿ, Takhrīj al-Ḥadīth and Dirāsat al-Asānīd.
See method in action: Ibn al-Mulaqqin, Badr al-Munīr; Ibn Ḥajar, Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr.

6) Entering the major corpora

Preferred sequence (with prep):

Al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (Mālik)
- Prep: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr’s Muqaddimat al-Tamhīd + Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, Waṣl al-Balāghāt al-Arbaʿa fī al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (both in Abū Ghuddah’s Khams Rasāʾil fī ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth).
- Context: ʿUmar F. Wymann-Landgraf, Mālik and Medina (updated from 1978 Chicago PhD).
- Commentaries: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr’s al-Tamhīd (more ʿulūm) and al-Istidhkār (more fiqh); also al-Bājī’s al-Muntaqā, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s al-Masālik; for concise synthesis: al-Zurqānī; modern: Ibn ʿĀshūr, Kashf al-Mughattā.
- Edition note: Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf’s 2-vol. ed. remains excellent; Kilāl Ḥasan ʿAlī’s is also strong.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
- Introductions: Ghassān ʿAbd al-Jabbār, al-Bukhārī; Scott Lucas, “The Legal Principles of Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī”; Mohammad Fadel on Ibn Ḥajar’s Hady al-Sārī; Jonathan Brown, The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.
- Commentary: Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī (or al-Qasṭallānī, Irshād al-Sārī; al-ʿAynī, ʿUmdat al-Qārī).
- Read Ibn Ḥajar’s Hady al-Sārī with al-Dāraqutnī’s al-Ilzāmāt; audio: ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd.
- Edition note: al-Sulṭāniyya (ed. Muḥammad Zuhayr al-Naṣr) is outstanding; al-Maknaz al-Islāmī also strong.
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim
- Before starting: Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī, Ijmāʿ al-Muḥaddithīn (on Bukhārī/Muslim conditions and muʿanʿan issue); read with Ibrāhīm al-Lahīm, al-Ittiṣāl wa-l-Intiqāʾ.
- Prep texts: Muslim’s Muqaddima and Kitāb al-Tamyīz (ed. al-Aʿẓamī) with ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd’s audio.
- Commentary: al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (fiqh); al-Ḥarari, al-Kawkab al-Wahhāj (isnād-oriented); al-ʿUthmānī, Fatḥ al-Mulhim (insightful).
- Method note: Muslim orders each chapter by descending strength; the first 1–2 aḥādīth are the aṣl (~3,145), followed by mutābaʿāt to a total of ~7,748. Many commentaries miss this methodological point.
- Chapter headings are later editorial; most editions use al-Nawawī’s. Compare other commentaries for nuance.
- Edition note: al-ʿĀmirah (ed. Muḥammad Zuhayr al-Naṣr) remains best; al-Firyābī’s footnotes are useful.

While reading the Ṣaḥīḥayn keep at hand: Muṣṭafā Bāhū, al-Aḥādīth al-Muntaqadah fī al-Ṣaḥīḥayn (collates critiques and evaluations).

Mastery

Aim: Specialise in ʿilal, rijāl, and jarḥ wa-taʿdīl; analyse sunan chains independently; calibrate yourself to early-master method.

1) Jarḥ wa-taʿdīl

ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Lakhnawī, al-Rafʿ wa-l-Takmīl (ed. Abū Ghuddah).
Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī, Khulāṣat al-Taʾṣīl (book + audio).
ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, Ḍawābiṭ al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl.
Ibrāhīm al-Lahīm, al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl.
ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd (audio series): al-Qawāʿid, al-Ḍawābiṭ, al-Mabāḥith fī al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl.

2) ʿIlal (hidden defects)

Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī, al-Madkhal ilā Fahm ʿIlm al-ʿIlal (brief, excellent).
Ḥamza al-Mallibarī, al-Ḥadīth al-Maʿlūl.
ʿAlī al-Sayyāḥ, al-Ḥadīth al-Muʿall; al-Manhaj al-ʿIlmī fī Dirāsat al-Ḥadīth al-Muʿall.
Ṭāriq b. ʿAwaḍ Allāh, al-Irshādāt (common pitfalls in using mutābaʿāt/shawāhid).

3) Conditions of the compilers & allied prolegomena

Al-Ḥāzimī, Shurūṭ al-Aʾimma al-Khams; al-Maqdisī, Shurūṭ al-Aʾimma al-Sitta (both with Abū Dāwūd’s Risāla ilā Ahl Makka in Abū Ghuddah’s Thalāth Rasāʾil fī ʿIlm al-Muṣṭalaḥ).
Al-Zarkashī, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ (rich in hadith-usūl cross-over).
Ibn Ḥibbān’s Ṣaḥīḥ by legal categories—study his taxonomy to see how uṣūl operates within hadith arrangement.
Al-Bayhaqī, Madkhal al-Sunan al-Kubrā; al-Ḥākim, Maʿrifat al-Iklīl; al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, al-Kifāya and al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlaq al-Rāwī.

4) Reading the sunan (chain-first discipline)

Principle: Analyse each isnād independently, in context, using early masters’ method; consult ʿIlal al-Dāraqutnī, ʿIlal Ibn Abī Ḥātim, ʿIlal Ibn al-Madīnī. Compare your work with Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ, Naṣr al-Dīn al-Albānī, and ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd.

Abū Dāwūd, Sunan
Prep: Risāla ilā Ahl Makka (Abū Ghuddah ed.); audio: ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd (opening chapters, method-heavy).
Commentaries: al-Khaṭṭābī, Maʿālim al-Sunan (concise); ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd (fiqh discussions); Badhl al-Majhūd.
Edition: Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah’s is widely praised.
al-Nasāʾī, al-Mujtabā
Intro: Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī, Mashayikh al-Nasāʾī wa-Dhikr al-Mudallisīn; audio: ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd.
Commentaries: al-Wallāwī, Sharḥ Sunan al-Nasāʾī; al-Shanqīṭī, Sharḥ.
Edition: Dār al-Taʾṣīl likely best on text; Dār al-Maʿrifa (with marginalia) well-liked by many.
al-Tirmidhī, al-Jāmiʿ
Read with Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr, al-Imām al-Tirmidhī wa-l-Muwāzana bayna Jāmiʿihi wa-bayna al-Ṣaḥīḥayn; Ibn Rajab, Sharḥ ʿIlal al-Tirmidhī (ed. ʿItr); audio: Ḥātim al-ʿAwnī.
Modern study: ʿAdab al-Hamsh, al-Imām al-Tirmidhī wa-Manhajuhu.
Favourite commentary: al-Mubārakfūrī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥwadhī; also Ibn al-ʿArabī, ʿĀriḍat al-Aḥwadhī.
Edition: Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ’s leading; ʿIṣām Mūsā Hādī flags some errata; Aḥmad Shākir’s partial ed. has valuable notes.
Method note: Use ʿIlal al-Dāraqutnī where possible; pay attention to al-Tirmidhī’s taḥsīn usage.
Ibn Mājah, Sunan
Use this to fully apply your skills: isolate zawāʾid and analyse chains independently; compare with al-Arnaʾūṭ and al-Albānī.
Counts (your research): zawāʾid (with repetition) ≈ 1,213 (vs 1,476 in al-Būṣīrī’s Miṣbāḥ al-Zujāja).
From these: 98 ṣaḥīḥ isnād; 113 ṣaḥīḥ with mutābaʿāt; 219 ṣaḥīḥ with shawāhid; 58 ḥasan isnād; 42 ḥasan with mutābaʿāt; 65 ḥasan with shawāhid; 6 possibly ḥasan.
Edition: al-Maknaz (2nd ed., 2016, 2 vols.) is preferred.

5) After the sunan—broad rivers of hadith

Many move to al-Ṭaḥāwī’s Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār and Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār; others to the zawāʾid of al-Dārimī, Ibn Khuzayma, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Dāraqutnī; or to Musnad Aḥmad.
Recommended milestone: al-Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā—a quasi-mustadrak over the canonical corpus, praised by Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, al-Nawawī, al-Suyūṭī, al-Sakhāwī, and others (≈22,000 narrations). Al-Dhahabī made a 10-vol. abridgement.
Notes on sources (Najm ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Khalaf, al-Mawārid): among hundreds, al-Bayhaqī cites al-Bazzār, Ibn Khuzayma, Abū ʿAwāna, al-Ṭaḥāwī, al-Dāraqutnī, Abū Ḥanīfa’s Musnad, al-Shāfiʿī’s Musnad/Sunan, Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, al-Ḥumaydī, Ibn Abī Shayba, Isḥāq b. Rāhūyah, Aḥmad, al-Dārimī, Abū Yaʿlā, and more.

Classical study plans

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī Recommended and expanded by al-Nawawī, al-Suyūṭī, al-ʿIrāqī, al-Sakhāwī, and Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī

Begin with Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī then Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (many prefer Bukhārī first for juristic extraction and overall soundness).
Then Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, al-Tirmidhī (reasons: breadth of aḥādīth al-aḥkām; training in ʿilal; graded signalling).
Do not neglect al-Bayhaqī’s al-Sunan al-Kubrā—“we know nothing like it” (Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ).
Add: Ibn Khuzayma, Ibn Ḥibbān, Abū ʿAwāna, al-Dārimī, al-Shāfiʿī’s Musnad/Sunan, al-Nasāʾī’s Sunan al-Kubrā, Ibn Mājah, al-Dāraqutnī, al-Ṭaḥāwī Sharḥ Maʿānī.
Then masānīd: Aḥmad (plus Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, Ibn Humayd, al-Ḥumaydī, al-ʿAdanī, al-Musaddad, Abū Yaʿlā, al-Ḥārith b. Abī Usāma).
Then muṣannafāt: Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ → ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Abī Shayba (lower rank overall due to many non-connected reports).
Then ʿilal works: Aḥmad, al-Dāraqutnī, Ibn ʿUyayna, Ibn al-Madīnī, Muslim’s al-Tamyīz, Ibn Abī Ḥātim (with Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī’s commentary), al-Tirmidhī (with Ibn Rajab).
Alongside: rijāl—al-Bukhārī, al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl; weigh Yahyā b. Maʿīn’s verdicts.
Names and orthography: Ibn Makūlā, al-Ikmāl.
For lexicon: Ibn al-Athīr, al-Nihāya. Use commentaries throughout.

Study ethic (Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ): Investigate every problematic name or word as you go; memorise with isnād steadily (even two per day), continually reviewed.

Nūr al-Dīn ʿItr (from Manhaj al-Naqd)

Muwaṭṭaʾ (easiest length, shortest chains, excellent selection).
The Ṣaḥīḥayn.
The sunan (Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Mājah) with precision and understanding.
Masānīd: Aḥmad, Abū Yaʿlā (“rivers; Abū Yaʿlā’s is a sea”).
Comprehensive collections and specialist takhrīj.
Constant reliance on Fatḥ al-Bārī, al-Nawawī’s Sharḥ Muslim, and Ibn al-Athīr’s al-Nihāya.

Practical study advice

Ḥātim al-Awnī (Makkah), Naṣāʾiḥ Manhajiyya li-Ṭālib ʿIlm al-Sunnah

Read the Ṣaḥīḥayn obsessively: daily portion; complete annually if possible; aim for multiple complete readings in your formative years.
Then the “ṣaḥīḥ-only” works: al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, Ibn Ḥibbān, Ibn Khuzayma.
Then the sunan: Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, al-Tirmidhī, al-Dārimī, al-Dāraqutnī, al-Bayhaqī al-Sunan al-Kubrā.
Memorisation path: al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyya (+ Ibn Rajab’s zawāʾid), ʿUmdat al-Aḥkām, Bulūgh al-Marām, al-Luʾluʾ wa-l-Marjān, the Ṣaḥīḥayn.
Commentaries (easier set): al-Nawawī (Muslim), al-Qurṭubī (Muslim), al-Ṭībī (Mishkāt), al-Munāwī (Fayḍ al-Qadīr).
Then expansive: Fatḥ al-Bārī; al-Ṭaḥāwī, Sharḥ Mushkil al-Āthār; al-ʿIrāqī, Ṭarḥ al-Tathrīb; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Tamhīd.
Muṣṭalaḥ sequence:
- Intermediate school: al-Ṭaḥḥān Taysīr / ʿAmr Salīm Taysīr ʿUlūm / Ṭāriq ʿAwaḍ Allāh Sharḥ Lughāt al-Muḥaddith / Ibn Ḥajar Nukhbah (with ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Khudayr).
- High school: Nuzhat al-Naẓar or al-Bāʿith al-Ḥathīth or al-Sakhāwī al-Ghāya Sharḥ al-Hidāya.
- Then: Muqaddimat Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ with the Nukat (Ibn Ḥajar, al-ʿIrāqī, al-Zarkashī) + Ḥātim’s own commentary; Ibn Daqīq al-Iqti rāḥ (and the Alfiyya of al-ʿIrāqī for memorisation), al-Dhahabī al-Mawqiza.
- Encyclopedias: al-Suyūṭī Tadrīb, al-Sakhāwī Fatḥ al-Mughīth, al-Ṣanʿānī Tawḍīḥ al-Afkār, al-Khaṭīb al-Kifāya, al-Ḥākim Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth, Ibn Rajab Sharḥ ʿIlal al-Tirmidhī, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr Muqaddimat al-Tamhīd, al-Khalīlī Muqaddimat al-Irshād.
- Culmination in the mutaqaddimūn: al-Shāfiʿī al-Risāla; Muslim Muqaddima; Abū Dāwūd Risāla.
- Takhrīj (start after Nuzha or during Muqaddima): al-Ṭaḥḥān Uṣūl al-Takhrīj; Ḥātim’s takhrīj course; Ibn al-Mulaqqin Badr al-Munīr; Ibn Ḥajar Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr; al-Zaylaʿī Naṣb al-Rāya; Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī Tanqīḥ al-Taḥqīq; al-Albānī Silsilatān, Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl.
- Jarḥ wa-taʿdīl: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Ḍawābiṭ; Ḍawābiṭ ʿinda al-Dhahabī; Ibrāhīm al-Lahīm al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl; Ḥātim Khulāṣa; al-Lakhnawī al-Rafʿ wa-l-Takmīl; Abū al-Ḥasan al-Miṣrī Shifāʾ al-ʿIlal.
- Sources of the Sunnah: al-Kattānī al-Risāla al-Mustatrafah; Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī Buḥūth.
- Analyse every chain individually; apply early-master method; avoid novel gradings.

ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿd (class advice)

ʿIlm al-riwāya: start with Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (listen to recordings where possible).
Then Bulūgh al-Marām (with Subul al-Salām and al-Bassām), then al-Muntaqā (Majd b. Taymiyya) with Nayl al-Awaṭār (≈5,000 hadith).
Theoretical core: al-Ḥākim Maʿrifat ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth; al-Khaṭīb al-Kifāya; Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ; Ibn Rajab Sharḥ al-ʿIlal; Ibn Ḥajar Nukat on Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ; al-Dhahabī al-Mawqiza.
Practical core (takhrīj): Ibn Ḥajar Talkhīṣ; al-Zaylaʿī Naṣb; Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī al-Taḥqīq; Ibn al-Qaṭṭān al-Fāsī Bayān al-Wahm wa-l-Īhām (extremely valuable).
Then al-Tirmidhī (observe his rulings and terminology), then ʿilal: Muslim al-Tamyīz → al-Tirmidhī al-ʿIlal al-Kabīr → al-Dāraqutnī’s ʿIlal (before Ibn Abī Ḥātim; the latter is harder).
Study high-standard Muwaṭṭaʾ chains:
- Mālik → Nāfiʿ → Ibn ʿUmar
- Hishām b. ʿUrwa → ʿUrwa → ʿĀʾisha
- al-Zuhrī → Abū Salama b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān → Abū Hurayra
- Abū Zinād → al-Aʿraj → Abū Hurayra
  Excellent aids: al-Zurāqī al-Mashhūr; his Ṭabaqāt al-Mukthirīn.

Heuristic profiles of critics (use cautiously; classifications are debated and subjective)

Mutashaddidūn (strict in disparagement; their taʿdīl carries weight):
Shuʿba b. al-Ḥajjāj; Sufyān al-Thawrī; Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān; ʿAffān b. Muslim; Abū Nuʿaym; Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn (also viewed as fair by some); ʿAlī b. al-Madīnī; Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī; ʿUthmān b. Abī Shayba; Ibn Khirāsh; al-Nasāʾī; Abū al-Fatḥ al-Azdī; al-ʿUqaylī; Ibn Shāhīn (inconsistent); Ibn Ḥibbān (strict with trustworthy but lenient with unknowns); Mālik b. Anas; Ibn Ḥazm.

Mutasāhilūn (lenient):
al-Tirmidhī (under reassessment by some mutaqaddimūn-method scholars); Ibn Khuzayma; al-Ṭabarī; al-Bazzār; Ibn Shāhīn (inconsistent); Ibn Ḥibbān (lenient with unknowns); al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī; al-Bayhaqī.

Muʿaddilūn / Mutawassiṭūn (most balanced; first-rank verdicts):
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī (slight strictness); Ibn Saʿd (some leniency); Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (a little leniency); Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn (a little strictness); al-Bukhārī; Muslim; Abū Dāwūd (a little leniency); Abū Zurʿa al-Rāzī; al-Nasāʾī (touch of strictness); Ibn ʿAdī; al-Dāraqutnī; al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (some leniency); al-Dhahabī; Ibn Ḥajar (touch of leniency per some).

Master critics (breadth + fairness):
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī; Ibn Saʿd; Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal; al-Bukhārī; Muslim; Abū Zurʿa; Ibn ʿAdī; al-Dāraqutnī; al-Dhahabī.

Note: These labels are heuristics to anticipate tendencies, not hard rules. Always examine the critic’s wording, context, and the narrator’s broader dossier.

Source:

Al Asiri (Updated May 19th, 2012) Ulum Hadith curriculum

Blog (WordPress). https://islamclass.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/ulum-al-hadith-curriculum/

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