Minorities in an Islamic State — Page iv
iv Publishers ’ Note The name of Muhammad, the Holy Prophet sa of Islam, has been followed by the symbol sa , which is an abbrevia- tion for the salutation S allall a hu ‘Alaihi Wasallam (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The names of other Prophet s and Messengers are followed by the sym- bol as , an abbreviation for ‘ Alaihis-Sal a m (on whom be peace). The actual salutations 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 d i- yall a hu ‘anhu/‘anha/‘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 have mercy on him). at stands for Ay- yadahull a hu Ta‘ a l a (may Allah be his Helper). In transliterating Arabic words we have followed the following system adopted by the Royal Asiatic Society. ا at the beginning of a word, pr o nounced as a , i , u preceded by a very slight aspiration, like h in the English word 'honour'. ث th , pronounced like th in the En g lish 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'.