7 – Whenever a hadith has corroborative transmissions (mutabaʿāt) or supporting narrations (shawāhid), he makes a brief, graceful reference to them; by this the benefit of the work, as a collection, far exceeds its modest size.

8 – The author arranged his “books,” chapters, and individual hadiths in the order followed by the manuals of fiqh, so that the reader can consult it with ease and so that it keeps step with the jurisprudential works whose rulings it documents.

9 – At the end he added a chapter that gathers a fine selection of hadiths on etiquette, which he entitled “A Compendium on Manners,” enabling the reader to profit from it both in legal rulings and in personal conduct.

In short, Bulugh al-Maram is a rare jewel among the works devoted to practical rulings. It deserves that students of knowledge memorize it, grasp it, and give it their full attention, for its author refined it with great care so that whoever learns it by heart will shine among his peers. The beginner relies upon it, and the advanced scholar cannot dispense with it. May Allah reward its author with the best reward.

My connection with Bulugh al-Maram
Our teacher, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Nasir al-Saʿdi—may Allah have mercy on him—used to teach the book in the library of the central mosque of ʿUnayzah. Hardly an hour would pass without a lesson on it taking place, whether a private class for students of knowledge or a public session for the regular worshippers. I was one of his students, may Allah have mercy on him, and he constantly urged us to memorize Bulugh al-Maram. By Allah’s grace I was among those who did so, repeatedly reciting its hadiths for fear of forgetting them and reviewing their meanings through its commentary, Sabil al-Salam.

That memorization, revision, and review continued from 1362 AH to 1367 AH. I then enrolled in Dar al-Tawhid in Taʾif and found the book assigned in its curriculum, divided across the years of study; it was taught to us by Shaykh Muhammad ʿAbd al-Hakim, an emissary from al-Azhar. Later, when I graduated from the Faculty of Sharia in Mecca in 1374 AH, I combined my judicial duties with teaching in the Sacred Mosque and began a class on the book after the prayer