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
Introduction
One of the fundamental principles of Islam is a belief in all the prophets of the world, a belief in the fact that before the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace and the blessings of God be upon him, different prophets had been raised among different nations. Thus the great change that the advent of the mighty Prophet of Arabia brought about was that the day of the national prophet was over to give place to the Great World Prophet, to the new order which was to bring about the unity of the whole human race. A belief in all the prophets of the world being thus the basic principle of the faith of Islam, the Muslims have always been averse to institute comparisons between the various prophets of the world, because comparisons, as they say, are odious. In fact, they were forbidden by the Prophet himself to do so unnecessarily lest in the heat of controversy on such points, things might be said which may be derogatory to the dignity of a prophet. At the same time the Holy Qur’an declares in plain words that there are varying degrees of excellence even among the prophets:
We have made some of these apostles to excel others. [2:253]
It must, however, be borne in mind that it is one thing to say that one prophet possesses an excellence which another
