The Living Thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad. Maulana Muhammad Ali

and Director of Translation and Publication,

      Lahore Ahmadiyya Islamic Society USA

      September 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

      Prefatory Note

      The following brief sketch of the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the reformation he brought about and the great ideas which he gave to the world are based almost entirely on the Holy Quran. The Prophet’s best-known name is Muhammad, which means the praised one. Another name by which he was known is Ahmad which means the praising one. The Quran, properly Qur’an, is the name of the Scripture which the Prophet claimed to have been revealed to him by God. This too is a significant name, and means what is or should be read or recited. The name of the religion which the Prophet preached is Islam, which again is a significant name and means entering into peace; the follower of this religion is called a Muslim, which means one who has found peace. The terms Muhammadan and Muhammadanism have never been in vogue among the followers of this religion.

      The Holy Quran was revealed to the Prophet piecemeal during a period of twenty-three years, from the fortieth year of his life to his death. It is divided into 114 chapters, each chapter being called a sura. The larger chapters are sub-divided into sections, each section being called a ruk‘u. Each chapter consists of a number of verses. The chapters are of unequal length, the longest chapter containing about one-twelfth of the entire book while the smallest contains only three verses. Some of the chapters were revealed entire, but the revelation of the majority of the larger chapters extended over years, and some of the smaller ones were also revealed in pieces. When a chapter was revealed in parts, the Prophet specified the place of the verse or verses revealed. Thus the arrangement of the verses in each chapter was entirely his own. The arrangement of the chapters was also the Prophet’s own work. Every part revealed was both written down and committed to memory, as soon as it was revealed, by the Prophet’s companions. The whole of the Quran according to the Prophet’s arrangement was safe in the memories of men in the Prophet’s life-time, while the written manuscripts were gathered together immediately