Selected Persian Poems of the Promised Messiah (as) — Page x
rta ra h matull a hi ‘alaihi/‘alaih a /‘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 s as or of the Promised Messiah as. aba ayyadahull a hu Ta‘ a la bina s rihil-‘Az i z, meaning ‘may Allah the Almighty help him with His powerful support’, is written after the name of the present head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hadrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad aba , Khal i fatul- Mas ih V. Readers are urged to recite the full salutations when reading the book. In general, we have adopted the following system established by the Royal Asiatic Society for our transliteration. ا 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 ث th – pronounced like th in the English word thing. ح ح h – a guttural aspirate, stronger than h. خ خ kh – pronounced like the Scottish ch in loch. ذ ذ dh – pronounced like the English th in that. ص ص s – strongly articulated s. ض ض d – similar to the English th in this. ط ط t – strongly articulated palatal t. ظ ظ z – strongly articulated z. ع ع ‘ – a strong guttural, the pronunciation of which must be learnt by the ear. x