Favours of the Gracious God — Page xi
xi Please note that words in the text in normal brackets ( ) and in between the long dashes—are the words of the Promised Messiah as. If any explanatory words or phrases are added by the translator for the purpose of clarification, they are put in square brackets [ ]. The name of Muhammad s as , the Holy Prophet of Islam, has been followed by the symbol s as , which is an abbreviation for the salutation S allall a hu ‘Alaihi Wasallam (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The names of other Prophets and Messengers are followed by the symbol as , an abbreviation for ‘ Alaihis-Sal a m (on whom be peace). The actual saluta - tions 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 s as and those of the Promised Messiah as , and it stands for Ra d i All a hu ‘anhu/‘anh a /‘anhum (May Allah be pleased with him/with her/with them). Likewise, the symbol rta stands for Ra h imatull a hi ‘Ala i hi (may Allah have mercy on him), and aba stands for Ayyadahull a hu Ta‘ a l a bina s rihil-‘Az i z (May Allah, the Mighty help him). In transliterating Arabic words we have mainly followed the following system adopted by the Royal Asiatic Society. ا at the beginning of a word, pronounced as a , i , u PUBLISHER’S NOTE