Saleh Al-Osaimi

Saleh bin Abdullah bin Hamad al-Osaimi al-Otaibi, kunya Abu Amr, is a Saudi hadith scholar and musnid, born in Riyadh in Safar 1391 AH, corresponding to the year 1971, who grew up there and remains based there. ^{1 2} He is counted among the hadith scholars, transmitters and editors of Najd, and was nicknamed "Musnid of the Najdi lands" (musnid al-diyar al-najdiyya). ^{1 2}

Al-Osaimi sought knowledge from childhood, combining formal and informal study. ² He took his bachelor's degree from the College of Usul al-Din at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, then a master's in hadith sciences at Umm al-Qura University, with a thesis titled "al-Mutaba'at wa'l-Shawahid: a theoretical and applied study on Sahih Muslim", supervised by Muwaffaq Abd al-Qadir; he then took his doctorate at the university's Higher Institute of Judiciary in 1436 AH, an edition of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani's Kitab al-Asl, supervised by Sulayman Aba al-Khayl. ^{1 2}

He studied under a group of the leading scholars of his age, among them Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Aqeel — whom he accompanied for a long time until his death — Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Jibrin, Bakr Abu Zayd, Saleh ibn Fawzan al-Fawzan, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Ghudayyan, Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbad, the hadith scholar Abd al-Wakil Abd al-Haqq al-Hashimi, and the readings scholar Hasan Hammad al-Naqadi. ^{1 2}

He travelled widely in search of knowledge and transmission — to Kuwait, Qatar, the Emirates, Oman, Yemen, the Levant, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Pakistan and India — meeting their hadith and readings scholars and reciting the long works to them; he holds an ijaza in the ten readings and then in the additional four, and combined comprehension (diraya) with transmission (riwaya) until, according to the Alsiyars encyclopedia, his teachers exceeded a thousand. ^{1 2}

He worked as director of ifta' in the religious affairs of the medical services at the Ministry of Defence, as khatib of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may God be pleased with him) Mosque at the Military Hospital in Riyadh, and as imam of the Mus'ab ibn Umayr Mosque in the al-Jazira district, then moved as an adviser to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Endowments. ¹ The Alsiyars encyclopedia adds that he serves as a religious guide in the Ministry of Defence medical services, preaches at the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Mosque at the Military Hospital, and leads prayers at the al-Iman Mosque in the eastern al-Nasim district where he lives. ²

On Friday 3 Rabi' al-Awwal 1438 AH, corresponding to 2 December 2016, a royal order appointed him a member of the Council of Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia; he remained in that post until the Council's reformation in 1442 AH, then returned to concentrate on teaching and the recitation of the foundational texts. ^{1 2} He teaches in the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque. ¹

Al-Osaimi designed tightly structured scholarly programmes of fixed duration that guarantee a student completes the set texts; the Alsiyars encyclopedia counts this project a qualitative shift in the structuring of the scholarly lesson. ² His best-known programmes, as the Arabic article and the encyclopedia list them, include: ^{1 2}

• Muhimmat al-'Ilm (The Essentials of Knowledge): held annually at the Prophet's Mosque between the two academic terms, in which 15 foundational texts are read in 8 days.
• Usul al-'Ilm (The Foundations of Knowledge): held weekly in Riyadh through the academic year, explaining 12 texts.
• Al-Dars al-Wahid (The Single Lesson): an annual six-day programme explaining five books a day after each prayer; over ten years it completed 300 books and treatises in 300 lectures.
• Al-Yawm al-Wahid (The Single Day): a whole book explained in one day in three lectures, held one day each month.
• Asas al-'Ilm (The Basis of Knowledge): a travelling programme held each year in a different region of the Kingdom, and also held in Kuwait.
• Jumal al-'Ilm: the extension of his programmes outside the Kingdom, held in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the Emirates, explaining 12 texts.
• Further programmes include Taysir al-'Ilm, al-Ta'lim al-Mustamirr (continuing education), al-Mawa'iz al-Hisan, al-Sard al-Mujawwad at the Prophet's Mosque in Ramadan, the rulings of Hajj and of fasting, and Mafatih al-'Ilm.

In these programmes he adopted the methodology of his book Ta'zim al-'Ilm: discipline of times and texts, reverence for teachers, and care for memorisation and chains of transmission. ²

Among his best-known works, as the sources list them, are: "Ta'zim al-'Ilm" (The Glorification of Knowledge), his most celebrated and most widely circulated book; "al-Bayyina fi Iqtibas al-'Ilm wa'l-Hidhq fih"; "al-Masa'il al-Arba'in 'an al-A'imma al-Arba'a al-Muttaba'in"; "al-Mu'jam al-Mukhtar min al-Ahadith al-Nabawiyya al-Qisar"; "al-Qarid al-Mubdi' Nazm al-Qawa'id al-Arba'"; "Ma'ani al-Fatiha wa Qisar al-Mufassal"; "al-Turfa al-Saniyya fi'l-Qawa'id al-Fiqhiyya"; "Khulasat Muqaddimat Usul al-Tafsir"; "Imta' al-Mashikha al-Ahmadiyya" (printed 1413 AH); "al-Dar' al-Nadid fi Takhrij Kitab al-Tawhid"; "Fiqh al-Waqi' 'ind Ahl al-Sunna wa'l-Jama'a"; "Hadhihi hiya al-Salafiyya: Manhaj Ahl al-Sunna wa'l-Jama'a"; and "al-Wafa' bi-Sahih Adhkar al-Sabah wa'l-Masa'". ^{1 2} He also has hundreds of commentaries and glosses on the foundational texts circulating among his students, not officially printed. ²

This section sets out positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum.

The Alsiyars encyclopedia reports that people given to disparagement (tajrih) faulted him in posts and clips circulated on their networks — among other things for praise, in old clips, of scholars and preachers they hold to be in error, and for some of his comments on hadith science — and that some of them composed series refuting him. The same encyclopedia answers those faults in his defence and describes his method as occupation with educational building rather than with platforms of insult and classification. The museum presents both the criticism and the defence attributed to their single source in this section, without preferring either. ²

Al-Osaimi's impact rests on his teaching project, which gathered thousands of students at the Prophet's Mosque, in Riyadh, in the Kingdom's regions and beyond around the foundational texts and the chains of transmission, and on his lessons in the two sanctuaries. ² His YouTube channel (@alosyme) publishes all his full lessons and scholarly programmes; its description states that it is devoted to publishing all the lessons and programmes of Sheikh Saleh bin Abdullah bin Hamad al-Osaimi, as the museum verified on 25 October 2026, and the descriptions of his lessons on the companion clips channel (@qutofosaimi) call this channel his channel for the full lessons and count it among his official accounts. ³

• Arabic Wikipedia, «صالح العصيمي», read on 25 October 2026.
• "Who is Saleh al-Osaimi? — biography", Alsiyars encyclopedia of contemporary figures (alsiyars.com), published 1 September 2026, read on 25 October 2026.
• Saleh al-Osaimi's YouTube channel (@alosyme), description read on 25 October 2026.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.