at the beginning of a word, pronounced as a, i, u preceded by a very slight aspiration, like h in the English word ‘honour’.Please note that, in the translation that follows, words given in parentheses ( ) are the words of the Promised Messiah(as). If any explanatory words or phrases are added by the translators for the purpose of clarification, they are put in square brackets [ ]. Footnotes given by the publisher are marked ‘[Publisher]’.
References to the Holy Quran contain the name of the surah [i.e. chapter] followed by a chapter: verse citation, e.g. Surah al-Jumu‘ah, 62:4, and count Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim [‘In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful’] as the first verse in every chapter that begins with it.
The following abbreviations have been used:
sa — sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, meaning ‘may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him’, is written after the name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa).
as — ‘alaihis-salam, meaning ‘may peace be on him’, is written after the names of Prophets other than the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa) and select other holy personages.
ra — radiyallahu ‘anhu/‘anha/‘anhum, meaning ‘may Allah be pleased with him/her/them’, is written after the names of the Companions of a Prophet and select other holy people.
rh — rahmatullahi ‘alaihi/‘alaiha/‘alaihim, meaning ‘may Allah shower His mercy upon him/her/them’, is written after the names of those deceased, pious Muslims who are not Companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa) or of the Promised Messiah(as).
aba — ayyadahullahu Ta‘ala binasrihil-‘Aziz, meaning ‘may Allah the Almighty help him with His powerful support’, is written after the name of the presenthead of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad(aba), Khalifatul Masih V.
Readers are urged to recite the full salutations when reading the book. In general, we have adopted the system established by the Royal Asiatic Society for our transliteration.
at the beginning of a word, pronounced as a, i, u preceded by a very slight aspiration, like h in the English word ‘honour’.
th, pronounced like th in the English word ‘thing’.
h, a guttural aspirate, stronger than h.
kh, pronounced like the Scotch ch in ‘loch’.
dh, pronounced like the English th in ‘that’.
s, strongly articulated s.
d, similar to the English th in ‘this’.
t, strongly articulated palatal t.
z, strongly articulated z.
‘, a strong guttural, the pronunciation of which must be learnt by the ear.
gh, a sound approached very nearly in the r ‘grasseye’ in French, and in the German r. It requires the muscles of the throat to be in the ‘gargling’ position whilst pronouncing it.
q, a deep guttural k sound.
‘, a sort of catch in the voice.
Short vowels are represented by:
a for 
(like u in ‘bud’);
i for 
(like i in ‘bid’);
u for 
(like oo in ‘wood’);
Long vowels by:
à for 
or 
(like a in ‘father’);
í for 
or
(like ee in ‘deep’);
ú for 
(like oo in ‘root’);
Other vowels by:
ai for 
(like i in ‘site’);
au for 
(resembling ou in ‘sound’).
The consonants not included in the above list have the same phonetic value as in the principal languages of Europe. While the Arabic 
is represented by n, we have indicated the Urdu 
as ń. As noted above, the single quotation mark ‘ is used for transliterating 
which is distinct from the apostrophe ’ used for 
We have not transliterated some Arabic words which have become part of English language, e.g. Islam, Quran, hadith, Mahdi, jihad, Ramadan and ummah. The Royal Asiatic Society’s rules of transliteration for names of persons, places, and other terms, are not followed throughout the book as many of the names contain non-Arabic characters and carry a local transliteration and pronunciation style.