Muhammad (saw) – The Perfect Man — Page xiii
xiv System of Transliteration The name of Muhammad sa , the Holy Prophet Muhammad of Islam, has been followed by the symbol sa , which is an abbreviation for the salutation 'may peace and blessings of All a h be upon him. ' The names of other prophets and messengers are followed by the symbol as , an abbreviation for '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 Muhammad sa and those of the Promised Messiah as. It stands for Ra di- All a h u ‘anhu/‘anh a / ‘anhum (May All a h be pleased with him/with her/with them). 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. ع ‘, a strong guttural, the pronunciation of which must be learnt by the ear.