The Light of Truth — Page xvii
PUBLISHER'S NOTE The Light of Truth is an English translation of Nūrul-Haqq, an origi- nal Arabic work of the Promised Messiahas, accompanied by its Urdu translation, which was published with the Arabic in 1894 and con- sulted throughout the translation process, for the poetry in particular. The translator's primary objective was to adhere to the original text of the Promised Messiahas as strictly as possible. Classical Arabic lexicons were utilized to precisely define Arabic words and phrases; in particular, An Arabic-English Lexicon by Edward G. Lane (1801–1876), which is based on primary sources such as Lisān al-Arab, Tāj al-'Arūs, and Qāmūs al-Muhīt. To preserve the author's writing style, and par- ticularly his points of emphasis, where possible we have retained his original underlined, varying font sizes, and bold text styling. However, to facilitate readability for an English speaking audience, punctuation and pauses were inserted as considered necessary, and lengthy par- agraphs and sentences were broken into smaller ones. Grammatical rules, literary conventions, and presentation were generally applied in conformity to the Oxford Guide to Style. Please note that, in the translation that follows, words given in parentheses () are the words of the Promised Messiahas. If any explan- atory words, translations, or phrases are added by the translator for the purpose of clarification, they are put in square brackets [ ]. Footnotes given by the publisher are marked [Publisher]. To ensure that readers can easily distinguish between the Promised Messiah's words and longer quoted material, we have inserted grey sidebars and side notes alongside the latter.