The Heavenly Sign — Page vii
غ gh , a sound approached very nearly in the r ' grasseye ' in French, and in the German r. It re- quires the muscles of the throat to be in the 'gar- gling' position whilst pronouncing it. ق q , a deep guttural k sound. ء ’, 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'); the long vowels by a for or (like a in 'father'); i for ى or (like ee in 'deep'); ai for ى (like i in 'site') ♦ ; u for و (like oo in 'root'); au for و (resembling ou in 'sound'). The consonants not included in the above list have the same phonetic value as in the principal languages of Europe. We have not transliterated Arabic, Persian or Urdu and Hindi words which have become part of English language, e. g. , Islam, Mahdi, Qur’an, Hijra, Ramadan, Rahman, Hadith, Zakat, ulema, umma, sunna, kafir, Hindu, Hinduism, karma etc. For quotes straight commas (straight quotes) are used to differentiate them from the curved commas used in the system of transliteration, ‘ for ع , ’ for ء. Commas as punctuation marks are used according to the normal usage. The Publishers ♦ In Arabic words like ﺷﻴﺦ (Shaikh) there is an element of diphthong which is missing when the word is pronounced in Urdu. iii