History of the Prophets. Maulana Muhammad Ali
History of the Prophets
AS NARRATED IN THE HOLY QUR’AN
COMPARED WITH THE BIBLE
by
MAULANA MUHAMMAD ALI
First Edition — 1946
Retypeset USA Edition — 2003
E-book — 2011
Copyright 2011 Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam (Lahore) USA,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore USA
Converted by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-9342-7116-2
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
AHMADIYYA ANJUMAN ISH‘AAT ISLAM (LAHORE) U.S.A.
P.O. Box 3370
Dublin, Ohio, 43016 USA
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 614-873-1030
Fax: 614-873-1022
E-book Publisher’s Note
“And when the books are spread” (81:10)
It gives us great pleasure to present Maulana Muhammad Ali’s History of the Prophets 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. In order to continue to have the world-renowned literary treasures written by Maulana Muhammad Ali and other Lahore Ahmadiyya authors easily accessible to the general public, we have ventured to generate e-books of our standard publications.
This e-book of History of the Prophets by Maulana Muhammad Ali is a result of this new venture. The original work of Maulana Muhammad Ali is presented. 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, The Early Caliphate, 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
May 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 gutteral 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 — (gutteral 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