The Early Caliphate. Maulana Muhammad Ali

the Caliphs was added in a second edition, and it is now that second edition that is being presented in English garb. The translation has been done by my able and esteemed friend Maulana Muhammad Ya‘qub Khan, Editor of Light, to whom my sincerest thanks are due for his labour of love. I must also thank him for the help he has given me in reading the proofs.

      Muhammad ‘Ali

      President

      Ahmadiyyah Anjuman Ish‘at Islam,

      Ahmadiyyah Buildings,

      Lahore, 12-9-32.

      E-book Publisher’s Note

      “And when the books are spread” (81:10)

      It gives us great pleasure to present Maulana Muhammad The Early Caliphate in this e-book format. With the increasing popularity of e-readers, e-books have, by many accounts, become a preferred means to read literature.

      This e-book of The Early Caliphate by Maulana Muhammad Ali is a result of this new venture. Additional titles converted to e-book format include, English Translation and Commentary of the Holy Quran, Teachings of Islam, Muhammad the Prophet, The Religion of Islam, The Manual of Hadith, History of the Prophets, Living Thoughts of Prophet Muhammad, and others.

      We would like to thank our proofreaders within the USA and abroad for their meticulous checking of the proofs of this e-book. May Almighty Allah bless and reward all who have contributed and sacrificed in this cause.

      Samina Malik,

      Vice-President and Director of Translation and Publication,

      Lahore Ahmadiyya Islamic Society USA

      June 2011, Dublin, Ohio

      Transliteration of Arabic Words

      The transliteration system adapted for the e-book format from the standard transliteration system is given below. Due to the limitations of the e-book format in producing some of the diacritical signs, alternative diacritical signs have been used. These changes are indicated by red type.

      Consonants

      Arabic Letter — Sound — Represented by

      hamzah — (sounds like h in hour — a sort of catch in the voice) — ’

      ba — (same as b) — b

      ta — (the Italian dental, softer than t) — t

      tha — (between th in thing and s) — th

      jim — (like g in gem) — j

      ha — (very sharp but smooth guttural aspirate) — h

      kha — (like ch in the Scotch word loch) — kh

      dal — (Italian dental, softer than d) — d

      dhal — (sounds between z and th in that) — dh

      ra — (same as r) — r

      za — (same as z) — z

      sin — (same as s) — s

      shin — (same as sh in she) — sh

      sad — (strongly articulated s, like ss in hiss) — s

      dad — (aspirated d, between d and z) — dz

      ta — (strongly articulated palatal t) — t

      za — (strongly articulated palatal z) — z

      ‘ain — (somewhat like a strong guttural hamzah, not a mere vowel) — ‘

      ghain — (guttural g, but soft) — gh

      fa — (same as f) — f

      qaf — (strongly articulated guttural k) — q

      kaf — (same as k) — k

      lam — (same as l) — l

      mim — (same as m) — m

      nun — (same as n) — n

      ha — (same as h) — h

      waw — (same as w) — w

      ya — (same as y) — y

      Vowels

      The vowels are represented as follows:

      Short vowels:

      — ’ — fathah, as u in tub — a

      — ’ — kasrah, as i in pin — i

      Long vowels:

      — — long fathah, as a in father — a

      — — long kasrah, as ee in deep — i

      — ‘ — long dammah, as oo in moot — u

      — — fathah before waw — au

      — — fathah before ya — ai

      Tanwin ’’ ’’ ‘’ is represented by an, in, un, respectively. The short and long vowels at the end of a word are shown as parts of the words, as qala where the final a stands for the fathah on lam, but the tanwin is shown as a separate syllable, as Muhammad-in.

      Proper Names

      Biblical proper names are not transliterated, but their Biblical form is adopted; other names are transliterated according to the rules of transliteration. Hence the reader will notice a change in such names as Mecca which should be written as Makkah, Medina which should be written as Madinah, Yemen which should be written as Yaman, and so on.

      The following list shows the Biblical names and their Arabic equivalents:

      Biblical Names— Arabic Form

      Aaron — Harun

      Abraham — Ibrahim

      Adam — Adam

      Amran — ‘Imran

      Babel — Babil

      David — Dawud

      Egypt — Misr

      Elias — Ilyas

      Ezra — ‘Uzair

      Elisha — Al-Yash‘a

      Gabriel — Jibril

      Gog — Ya’juj

      Goliath — Jalut

      Gospel — Injil

      Isaac — Ishaq

      Ishmael — Isma‘il

      Jacob — Ya‘qub

      Jesus — ‘Isa

      Jew — Yahudi

      Job — Ayyub

      John — Yahya

      Jonah — Yunus

      Korah — Qarun

      Lot — Lut

      Magog — Ma’juj

      Mary — Maryam

      Michael — Mikal

      Moses — Musa

      Noah — Nuh

      Pharaoh — Fir‘aun

      Saul — Talut

      Sheba — Saba’

      Soloman — Sulaiman

      Torah — Taurat

      Zacharias — Zakariyya