Blessings of Khilafat — Page x
x The name of Muhammad sa , the Holy Prophet of Islam, has been followed by the symbol sa , which is an abbreviation for the prayer ( ) s allall a hu ‘alaihi wasallam (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The names of other Prophets as and messengers are followed by the symbol as , an abbreviation for ( / ) ‘ alaihissal a m/ ‘ alaihimussal a m (on whom be peace). The actual prayers have not generally been set out in full, but they should nevertheless, be understood as being repeated in full in each case. The symbol ra is used with the name of the Companions of the Holy Prophet sa and those of the Promised Messiah as. It stands for ( / / ) ra di all a hu ‘anhu/‘anh a /‘anhum (may Allah be pleased with him/with her/with them). rh stands for ( ) ra h imahull a hu ta‘ a l a (may Allah’s blessing be on him). aa stands for ( ) ayyadahull a hu ta‘ a l a bina s rihil-az i z (may Allah, the Almighty help him). In transliterating Arabic words we have followed the following system adopted by the Royal Asiatic Society: ا at the beginning of a word, pronounced as a , i , u preceded by a very slight aspiration, like h in the English word honour. ث th , pronounced like th in the English word thing. ح h , a guttural aspirate, stronger than h. خ kh , pronounced like the Scotch ch in loch. ذ dh , pronounced like the English th in that. ص s , strongly articulated s. ض d , similar to the English th in this. ط t , strongly articulated palatal t. ظ z , strongly articulated z.