Al Islam

References in this book to verses of the Holy Quran count the opening verse of each chapter as verse 1. Readers referring to texts which do not use this system should deduct 1 from the number quoted to arrive at the relevant verse.

The name of Muhammad, the Holy Prophet of Islam, has in general been followed by a symbol sa for the salutation ‘may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.’ The names of other prophets and messengers of God are followed by the symbol as, an abbreviation for ‘on whom be peace’. The actual salutations have not been set out in full except in a few particular instances, in order to accommodate the text to the non-Muslim readers. They should, nevertheless, be understood as being repeated in full in each case.

In this translation the form ‘ibn’ has been used in both initial and medial positions in the names of persons, in order to conform with current usage, although ‘bin’ also occurs medially in some original texts (abbreviated usually as b.).

For the sake of consistency with quoted references, the words Mecca and Medina have been used in place of the current local transliterations of Makkah and Madina