‘Bahá’í Words’ List

Version: 2018-02(a) (This link offers the latest version of this file.)

Transliteration

As you may know, early in his ministry, The Guardian formalized a system of transliteration, which is a means of representing the sound of Arabic and Persian words using the ordinary English alphabet, plus some letters with diacritical marks either above or below them— “glyphs”, really. He repeatedly emphasized that this system should be widely and ‘scrupulously’ used:

“…in connection with the transliteration of certain Oriental terms, Shoghi Effendi would urge you to follow, in all such matters, the system which is universally adopted by the Bahá’ís the world over, and which you will find clearly stated in various issues of ‘The Bahá’í World’.”

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 7 April 1935 to an individual believer)

“I feel confident that all the friends will from now on follow this system and adhere scrupulously and at all times to this code in all their writings.”

(Shoghi Effendi, Baha’i Administration, p. 43, March 12, 1923)

“The preparation of Bahá’í articles, committee reports, etc., should therefore employ the system of transliteration which the Guardian has supplied.”

(Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 79)

Even so, using the system presents at least four difficulties.

The first is that these letters-with-diacriticals or glyphs are usually not very convenient to insert into documents. (Indeed, many people do not even know they exist.)

The second is that although the Guardian called for uniformity in this regard, it can be time-consuming to find out how any of these transliterated words should actually be spelled because many variations exist in Bahá’í literature, especially on the web.

The third is that only half of these glyphs are found among the characters in the standard set of letters and punctuation marks used on many computers (the “extended ASCII” character set). These widely available “ASCII” glyphs consist of three vowels, in upper and lower case (Á, á, Í, í, Ú, ú). The remaining glyphs consist of five consonants, all under-dotted (Ḍ, ḍ, Ḥ, ḥ, Ṣ, ṣ, Ṭ, ṭ, Ẓ, ẓ), and they require a special font for their proper display. (As an example, technically speaking, one cannot properly spell “Riḍván” without using the under-dotted small letter “ḍ” as shown.)

Finally, in order to present (properly, one cannot say “spell”) some words correctly, some of their letters need to be underlined. (One example is the eleventh month of the Badí‘ calendar, Mashíyyat.) But it is difficult to remember which words require such a treatment, and inconvenient to interrupt the flow of typing to highlight a couple of letters and underline them.

Intentions

This document is intended to do three things, therefore.

The first is to raise awareness among believers of this system of transliteration.

The second is to provide access to fonts that contain the strangest and rarest of the necessary glyphs— the under-dotted characters.

The third, finally, is to make it easier— practical!— to apply the system of transliteration in at least one context: using Microsoft Word.

The autocorrect feature of Word

Now, in order to understand how we have tried to accomplish the final goal, it is necessary to know that, in Microsoft Word, there is an “autocorrect” feature, which you may have seen and appreciated (or which may have plagued you) if you ever encountered it, because (depending on how you have Word set up) autocorrect will immediately change certain things you typed into something else. Thus, for example, if you type ‘(c)’, Word (in its default condition) will immediately change that to ‘©’, the symbol for a copyrighted work. As well, many common typos will be corrected, as for example if you type ‘abotu' into Word, that will be changed into ‘about’.

Obviously this can be convenient and helpful— assuming you know that Word will do that for you, and perhaps a bit about why— because, for example, if your fingers habitually insist on mistyping a word, you can teach Word to automatically correct it. But autocorrect can also be frustrating and mysterious, if you do not know about this feature, when you are trying to type something that is getting ‘autocorrected’ and you do not want it to be, or worse, do not know why the magic is happening.

Thus, using the tools provided in this document, when you type [abh], Word will immediately change that to [‘Abdu’l-Bahá]. How lovely to have the blessed name of The Master properly spelled— that is, with the proper diacriticals— immediately at your fingertips!

Even better, you can add, delete or change any items in the table presented below, then following the directions herein, add those unique-to-you items to the set of autocorrect entries on your own computer so that your copy of Word responds the way you think it should.

Unicode fonts

Many who read this may never have knowingly added a font to their system, and indeed may be a bit vague about what a font is in the first place. Fonts are the graphic representation of the glyphs which represent our human languages, and in some cases they represent other symbols. Thus:

This font is called Comic Sans. The quick brown fox…

This font is called Courier. The quick brown fox…

This font is called Algerian. It only offers capital letters.

The font called Wingdings features many symbols, including a familiar one:

But again, the main point is that in order to be able to show the under-dotted glyphs in the system of transliteration chosen by the Guardian, we need to have one or more ‘Unicode’ fonts on our system. These fonts are in essence ‘world fonts’, because they can represent many more characters than ordinary ‘ASCII’. Thus a single font can represent the glyphs in many more languages than ours, such as Arabic, Hindi, Vietnamese and the like.

Gentium

To make life simpler, we are recommending only one Unicode font, Gentium (the name apparently means ‘of the nations’), which is the dignified font you are looking at as you read these words. Gentium Basic is available here. To learn how to install Gentium or any other font on your Windows computer, please see the Microsoft web page titled “How to install or remove a font in Windows”.

Notes about the list of ‘Bahá’í words’

Below is list of about 180 ‘Bahá’í words’— mostly proper nouns— that this document can add to the autocorrect entries in your copy of Word, on your computer. The table is presented on its own pages (which are landscaped to allow more room horizontally) so that you can print just these pages if you need a reminder of the list of Bahá’í-centric autocorrect entries you have installed.

As an example of its content, you may note that the list contains most of the words needed to write Bahá’í (or Badí‘) calendar date— such as including today’s Bahá’í date in a given document— but it is not set up to ‘autocorrect’ all such words. Note, for example that the entry for Alif (“A”, the name of the 1st year in a Badí‘ Váḥid of 19 years) has nothing in the second column of the table, the column where we put the correctly transliterated words or phrases. That is because ‘Alif’ does not have any diacriticals: one can simply type it, and as a consequence, there is very little point in putting it into the set of autocorrect entries. Likewise, Qawl (“Speech”, the 14th month) or Mulk (“Dominion”, the 18th month) have no diacriticals and thus those words do not have anything in the second column of their row.

Beyond that, the list is idiosyncratic: it may contain words that are useful to you, and some that are not, and it may not contain some of the words you wish to use. If you wish to remove some words and add others, there are options to pursue, as we will explain below.

How do I modify entries in the ‘Bahá’í words’ table?

It may be that you may prefer that some of the autocorrect ‘text-to-type’ entries are shorter or different. In that case, we would suggest that you modify whatever is in the first (‘text-to-type’) column to reflect your preference— and in the best instance, that you do this before clicking on the ‘add words’ button. Then add the list of words to your set of autocorrect entries.

How do I add entries in the ‘Bahá’í words’ table?

If you want to add a completely new entry to the table, you will first need to add an empty row in the table. It does not matter, particularly, where you add the row. Some may prefer to maintain the present organization of the table; others might wish to group their additions together or simply add new words at the end of the list/table.

Once you have a blank row, simply fill it out. If you think the word you have added is important, please contact us (see below) so that we might consider adding it to a future version of this tool.

How do I delete entries in the ‘Bahá’í words’ table?

Deleting entries in the table is simple: highlight the entire row and press ctrl-X. Deleting entries which are already in autocorrect or the dictionary is modestly more complicated.

That’s all fine for Word, but what about my email (or other program)?

Well, we suggest you use Word to produce the word or phrase you want (as already described), and then copy and paste. It should work… with the exception that you may run into a bit of trouble regarding the font used in the target program, as you might intuit if the explanations above make sense.

Telling Word these words are properly spelled

Now, if you have looked at the words in the list below (that is, all those words in the second column of the table; the “To get this” column), they may look a bit odd. Do they have red squiggles under them? That means that Word does not know they are properly spelled. When you add words to the autocorrect list (using the button below), you will have the option of also telling Word those words are properly spelled: (Don’t worry: We’ll ask.)

It’s your computer, certainly, but in our view, you should not tell Word that the words in the first column are correct. That is, many of them have and should have the red squiggles under them, because they are not words, they are shorthand stand-ins. ‘Bha’ is not a correctly spelled anything, so again, I suggest you don’t tell Word it is correctly spelled. (“Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.”)

How do I add these words to my set of autocorrect entries?

When you are ready— and you may be well served in reading the rest of this document before proceeding; but when you are ready— click the button on the right side there. (Check the bottom of Word’s window to see an indicator of progress.)

How can I help correct, improve and extend this tool?

Please contact David, david.w.house@gmail, with corrections, suggestions and offers for help, particularly help in coding better solutions, extensions to the list of words, or better definitions (if they are short!).

The list of words…

Type this…	To get this:	Comment
Books, Tablets, Texts
Bayan	Bayán	“Exposition” Generally a reference to the Persian Bayán
Hadith	Ḥadíth	“Ḥadíth or ‘the traditions’ are the sayings of Muhammad or the Imams (successors of Muhammad), recorded by those who themselves claimed to have heard them either directly or indirectly.” (The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, v1, p. 48)
Kitab	Kitáb	Book
Kitab-i-Ahd	Kitáb-i-‘Ahd	Book of the Covenant; See Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 217
Kitab-i-Aqdas	Kitáb-i-Aqdas	Most Holy Book; book of laws
Kitab-i-Badi	Kitáb-i-Badí‘	“The Kitáb-i-Badí‘ is Bahá’u’lláh’s apologia written in defence of His Faith and to demonstrate the validity and the truth of His Own Mission.” (The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, v2, p. 370)
Kitab-i-Iqan	Kitáb-i-Íqán	“…the Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude), one of the most important of Bahá'u'lláh's works, was revealed in the course of two days and two nights.” (AT, The Child of the Covenant, p. 3)
Lawh	Lawḥ	Tablet
Qayyumul-Asma	Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’	“Bahá'u'lláh alone was the object and the center of the cryptic allusions, the glowing eulogies, the fervid prayers, the joyful announcements and the dire warnings recorded in both the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’ and the Bayán, designed to be respectively the first and last written testimonials to the glory with which God was soon to invest Him.” (God Passes By, p. 67)
Quran	Qur’án	The Holy Book of Islám
Suratul-Haykal	Súratu’l-Haykal	“Discourse of the Temple”
Surih	Súrih	Chapter or section, as in a Súrih of the Qur’án
Tajalliyat	Tajallíyát	“Effulgences”
Tarazat	Ṭarázát	“Ornaments”
Calendar
Ramaḍán	Ramaḍán	Islámic (lunar) month of fasting
Naw-Ruz	Naw-Rúz	Bahá’í new year
Ridvan	Riḍván	“Most Great Festival”
Ayyam-i-Ha	Ayyám-i-Há	“Days of Há” (‘H’)
Baha	Bahá	Splendour; 1st month of the Badí‘ calendar
Jalal	Jalál	Glory; 2nd month of the Badí‘ calendar; Saturday
Jamal	Jamál	Beauty; 3rd month of the Badí‘ calendar; Sunday
Azamat	‘Aẓamat	Grandeur; 4th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Nur	Núr	Light; 5th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Rahmat	Raḥmat	Mercy; 6th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Kalimat	Kalimát	Words; 7th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Kamal	Kamál	Perfection; 8th month of the Badí‘ calendar; Monday
Asma	Asmá’	Names; 9th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Izzat	‘Izzat	Might; 10th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Mashiyyat	Mashíyyat	Will; 11th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Ilm	‘Ilm	Knowledge; 12th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Qudrat	Power; 13th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Qawl	Speech; 14th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Masail	Masá’il	Questions; 15th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Sharaf	Sharaf	Honour; 16th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Sultan	Sulṭán	Sovereignty; 17th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Mulk	Dominion; 18th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Ala	‘Alá’	Loftiness; 19th (fasting) month of the Badí‘ calendar
Jalal	Jalál	Glory; Saturday, 1st day of the week; 2nd month of the Badí‘ calendar
Jamal	Jamál	Beauty; Sunday, 2nd day of the week; 3rd month of the Badí‘ calendar
Kamal	Kamál	Perfection; Monday, 3rd day of the week; 8th month of the Badí‘ calendar
Fidal	Fiḍál	Grace; Tuesday, 4th day of the week
Idal	‘Idál	Justice; Wednesday, 5th day of the week
Istijlal	Istijlál	Majesty; Thursday, 6th day of the week
Istiqlal	Istiqlál	Independence; Friday, 7th day of the week, Bahá’í day of rest
Alif	A; 1st year in a Váḥid
Ba	Bá’	B; 2nd year in a Váḥid
Ab	Father; 3rd year in a Váḥid
Dal	Dál	D; 4th year in a Váḥid
Bab	Báb	Gate; 5th year in a Váḥid
Vav	Váv	V; 6th year in a Váḥid
Abad	Eternity; 7th year in a Váḥid
Jad	Jád	Generosity; 8th year in a Váḥid
Baha	Bahá	Splendour; 9th year in a Váḥid
Hubb	Ḥubb	Love; 10th year in a Váḥid
Bahhaj	Bahháj	Delightful; 11th year in a Váḥid
Javab	Javáb	Answer; 12th year in a Váḥid
Ahad	Aḥad	Single; 13th year in a Váḥid
Vahhab	Vahháb	Bountiful; 14th year in a Váḥid
Vidad	Vidád	Affection; 15th year in a Váḥid
Badi	Badí‘	Beginning, wondrous or unique; 16th year in a Váḥid; youth who delivered a Tablet to the Sháh.
Bahi	Bahí	Luminous; 17th year in a Váḥid
Abha	Abhá	Most luminous; 18th year in a Váḥid, etc.
Vahid	Váḥid	Unity; 19th and last year in a Váḥid, therefore also the name of the 19-year cycle in the Badí‘ calendar. (As well, there is “Vaḥíd,” the famous disciple of the Báb.)
Culture and religion
aba	‘aba	A cloak, as for example that worn by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
adhan	adhán	Call to prayer in Islám
Allah-u-Abha	Alláh-u-Abhá	Bahá’í greeting. (See this compilation.)
alab	Alláh-u-Abhá
Allah'u'Abha	Alláh-u-Abhá
Bismillah	Bismi’lláh	“In the name of God…”
farman	farmán	Order, command or royal decree
Huququllah	Ḥuqúqu’lláh	The Right of God; a law of the Faith concerning wealth…
huquq	Ḥuqúqu’lláh
Islam	Islám	The Faith established by Muḥammad
Marhaba	Marḥabá	“Welcome!”
Miraj	Mi‘ráj	The Night Journey of Muḥammad
Qurban	Qurbán	Sacrifice; see The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, v3, p. 245
Shariah	Sharí‘ah	Islamic laws
Tawhid	Tawḥíd	In Islám, absolute monotheism
Tuman	Túmán	A unit of money in Persia during the time of Bahá’u’lláh
yba	Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá	“O Thou God the Most Glorious!”
Names and titles
Abbas	‘Abbás	Father
Abdul	‘Abdu’l	Servant of
Abdu'l	‘Abdu’l
abh	‘Abdu’l-Bahá	Servant of the Glory
Abdul-Baha	‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Akhund	Ákhúnd	Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar-i-Shahmírzád, known as Ḥájí Ákhúnd, was one of the Hands of the Cause of God appointed by Bahá'u'lláh.
Ali	‘Alí	Common Persian/Arabic name
Ali-Muhammad	‘Alí-Muḥammad	Given name of the Báb
Amatul-Baha	Amatu’l-Bahá	Handmaiden of Bahá
abrk	Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum	Hand of the Cause, wife of the Guardian
Amin	Amín	Trusted
Aqa	Áqá	Master; also mullá or sir
Aziz	‘Azíz	Common Persian/Arabic name
Bab	Báb	Founder of an independent religion
Babi	Bábí	Follower of the Báb
Bahai	Bahá’í	Follower of Bahá’u’lláh
Baha'i	Bahá’í
bahai	Bahá’í
Bahaullah	Bahá’u’lláh	The Blessed Beauty
bha	Bahá’u’lláh
Bahiyyih	Bahíyyih	First name of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s beloved sister
Dhabih	Dhabíḥ	“The Sacrifice”, surname of Siyyid Ismá‘íl, extolled by the Blessed Beauty as “King and Beloved of Martyrs” (God Passes By, p. 136-137)
amv	Dr. ‘Alí-Muḥammad Varqá
Farrash-Bashi	Farrásh-Báshí	Chief attendant
Hadrat	Ḥaḍrat	His Holiness
hcg	Hand of the Cause of God
Haji	Ḥájí	One who has made pilgrimage
Husayn	Ḥusayn	3rd Imám; Common Persian/Arabic name
Imam	Imám	One who leads prayers in a mosque; also, the 12 direct descendants of the Imám ‘Alí
Iraqi	‘Iráqí	One who comes from ‘Iráq
Jamal-i-Mubarak	Jamál-i-Mubárak	“The Blessed Beauty”
jimu	Jamál-i-Mubárak
Kalantar	Kalántar	Mayor
Kazim	Káẓim	There have been several famous Káẓims in the Faith, including Siyyid Káẓim, who taught Quddús and Mullá Husayn.
Khan	Khán	A title given to rulers and officials
Khanum	Khánum	A woman of rank or position especially in Turkey and Iran
Mahmud	Maḥmúd	Common Persian/Arabic name
Mihdi	Mihdí	Mírzá Mihdí was the Purest Branch, second son of Bahá’u’lláh.
Mirza	Mírzá	High nobleman or Prince
Mishkin-Qalam	Míshkín-Qalam	Brilliant Bahá’í calligrapher and Apostle of Bahá’u’lláh
Mufti	Muftí	Expounders of Muslim law who rule on points of religious jurisprudence
Muhammad	Muḥammad	“There is no God but God, and Muḥammad is His Prophet.”
mulla	mullá	Muslim clergyman
Mulla Husayn	Mullá Ḥusayn	First disciple of the Báb
Munirih	Munírih	Munírih Khánum was the wife of 'Abdu'l-Bahá
Mustafa	Muṣṭafá	Common Persian/Arabic name
Mustaghath	Mustagháth	“He Who is invoked” (for help)
Nabil	Nabíl	Common Persian/Arabic name
Nabil-i-Azam	Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam	Author of the Dawn Breakers
Nasirid-Din	Náṣiri’d-Dín	Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh was the ruler of Persia at the time of the martyrdom of The Báb.
Navvab	Navváb	Mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Qaim	Qá’im	The Promised One of Islám; prophecy fulfilled by The Báb
Qajar	Qájár	Ruling dynasty of Iran from 1794 to 1925
Qayyum	Qayyúm	A Name of God: The Self-Subsisting. See God Passes By, p 97.
Quddus	Quddús	19th disciple of The Báb; recognized Him from a distance and behind, “by His gait.”
qay	Qurratu’l-‘Ayn	Solace of the eyes, a title both of The Báb and of Ṭáhirih
Qurratul-Ayn	Qurratu’l-‘Ayn
Rahim	Raḥím	Common Persian/Arabic name
Rahman	Raḥmán	Merciful, compassionate, beneficent
Ruhiyyih	Rúḥíyyih
Ruhullah	Rúḥu’lláh	“The spirit of God,” sometimes a title for Christ in Islám; also: son of Varqá; martyred with his father at age 12
Sadratul-Muntaha	Sadratu’l-Muntahá	The Tree beyond which there is no passing
Sahibuz-Zaman	Ṣáḥibu’z-Zamán	The Lord of the age; The Manifestation of God
Siyyid	A title often accorded to a descendant of the family of Muhammad
Siyyid Isma’il	Siyyid Ismá‘íl	(See Dhabíḥ, above)
Shah	Sháh	The king
Shahid	Shahíd	Martyr
Shaykhul-Islam	Shaykhu’l-Islám	The head of the Muslim ecclesiastical institution in his city
Shiah	Shí‘ah	Followers of the Imám ‘Alí; contrasted with Sunní
Shuhada	Shuhadá’	Martyrs
Sufi	Ṣúfí	Mystical sect of Islám; or member thereof
Sunni	Sunní	Largest branch of Islám; accepting the first three Caliphs
Tahirih	Ṭáhirih	Heroine, poet, 18th disciple of the Báb
Taqi	Taqí	Fear or fearful (of God), as in ‘the arbitrary, bloodthirsty, reckless,’ ‘obdurate, …iron-hearted’ Mírzá Taqí Khán, who signed the Báb’s death warrant.
Tarbiyat	Tarbíyat	First Bahá’í school, established in Ṭihrán
Ulama	‘Ulamá	Divines and men of learning
Uthman	‘Uthmán	Third Caliph of Sunní Islám
Varqa	Varqá	“…the renowned teacher, [martyr] and poet, Mírzá ‘Alí-Muḥammad, surnamed ‘Varqá’ (Dove) by Bahá'u'lláh…” (God Passes By, p. 296)
Yahya	Yaḥyá	John (Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 64)
Zaynul-Muqarrabin	Zaynu’l-Muqarrabín	‘The ornament of them that are nigh unto God,” a meticulous transcriber of the Writings, and one who was given the privilege of asking the questions found in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.
Places
Akka	‘Ákká	Last city in Bahá’u’lláh’s exiles
Baghdad	Baghdád	First city to which Bahá’u’lláh was exiled
Bahji	Bahjí	Delight; the Qiblih
Chihriq	Chihríq	Fortress in which the Báb was imprisoned
Iran	Írán	The country of Írán
Iraq	‘Iráq	The country of ‘Iráq
Isfahan	Iṣfahán	One “…of Iran's most celebrated cities…” (Balyuzi, Bahá’u’lláh— The King of Glory, p. 2)
Ishqabad	‘Ishqabád	Site of the first Mashríqu’l-Adhkár
Kabih	Ka‘bih	Qiblih of Islám, in the city of Mecca
Karbila	Karbilá	A city which is one of the ‘Atabát ‘Álíyát (Supreme Shrines) of Shí’ah Islám. (A Traveler’s Narrative, footnote, p 32)
Kashan	Káshan	Home of Mírzá Áqá Jan, amanuensis of Bahá’u’lláh for 40 years, and who broke the Covenant on His ascension. (God Passes By, p 115)
Kawthar	Kawthar	“Literally, a river in Paradise; symbolically, the life-giving waters of the Revelation of God.” (The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, v1, p. 196)
Khurasan	Khurásán	Iranian province, mentioned in a prophecy in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, ¶94.
Kirman	Kirmán	As above,26 mentioned in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, ¶164.
Kirmanshah	Kírmánsháh	A city in Írán where the remains of the Báb and Anís Zunúzí were once held. (God Passes By, p. 274)
Kurdistan	Kurdistán	A region covering some parts of Turkey, Syria, ‘Iráq and Írán. Bahá’u’lláh spent two years in the mountains of Kurdistán.
Mah-Ku	Máh-Kú	Fortress in which the Báb was imprisoned
Mashriqul-Adhkar	Mashriqu’l-Adhkár	“The Dawning Place of the Praise of God”, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 190
maad	Mashriqu’l-Adhkár
Mazindaran	Mázindarán	A province in Írán. Shaykh Ṭabarsí is in the forests of Mázindarán.
Nayriz	Nayríz	Capital of the province of Fars and site of several waves of persecution and martyrdom.
Paran	Párán	Mount Párán, in Saudi Arabia, is mentioned in Deuteronomy (33:2) and The Hidden Words (#71, Persian).
Qiblih	The Point of Adoration, i.e. Bahjí, ‘Ákká
Shahmirzad	Shahmírzád	Shahmírzád was a village in the province of Khurásán and the birthplace of Ḥájí Ákhúnd
Shaykh Tabarsi	Shaykh Ṭabarsí	A shrine honoring its namesake, a 12th-century Persian Shia scholar, and which Quddús, Mullá Husayn and at least 200 other Bábís were forced to fortify in order to defend themselves.
Shiraz	Shíráz	Storied city in Írán, home of Mullá Ḥusayn
Siyah-Chal	Síyáh-Chál	“…a dark and pestilential underground dungeon…” (The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, v1, p. 7)
Tabriz	Tabríz	City in Írán to which the Báb was transferred, summoned to a farcical tribunal ostensibly held to determine the truth of His claims, and to which He was later returned to suffer martyrdom
Takur	Tákúr	Village in the province of Núr, and home of Bahá’u’lláh prior to the declaration of the Báb. (See God Passes By, last ¶ of p. 78)
Tihran	Ṭihrán	Capital of Írán, prime meridian of the Bahá’í’ Faith
Zanjan	Zanján	City in Írán and scene of an historic siege against the Bábís (See God Passes By, p. 45)

Please do whatever you like with this file on your own computer, and at the same time, please do not put the file itself on the Internet. Indeed, there is no need to package it up and send it to anyone either. Instead, publish a link to the file: http://completebiogas.com/bahai/autocorrect-tool.html. This will insure that everyone has access to the most current version of this file, which is bound to evolve as time passes…. Likewise, we apologize for the file size of this tool: we were forced to embed a Unicode font with it, and that dramatically increased its size….

‘ASCII’ is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Further information can be found on Wikipedia, for example here or here.

That is, a “Unicode” font must be used to properly display them. (For more information, see this Wikipedia article.) In this document, that font is Gentium Basic, about which more is said below.

For further information about this system, see any copy of ‘The Bahá’í World’, toward the back. There is also a short article by Moojan Momen, found here.

It has since been corrected, but when older versions were as they came, ‘out-of-the-box’, if you typed ‘Baha'i,' Word would helpfully respond by instantly changing that to ‘Baha'Í’.

By the way, if Word changes something via autocorrect and you do not want that change, then immediately after Word has made such a change— before typing anything else in the document— type ctrl-z— i.e. hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key and press the letter ‘z’ (and in some cases, you may need to do it twice…). Ctrl-z means “undo last change”, and it can be used whether Word has made a change to your document that you do not want, or you have (such as deleting a block of text accidentally).

Hundreds of other Unicode fonts are available for free. For example, see this page.

That link is to the download section of the web page featuring Gentium Basic, and it offers several options for downloading. However, if you do not know what a zip file is, we recommend using this link instead.

After installation, we further recommend modifying the ‘style’ for the ‘Normal’ paragraph so that, by default, Gentium is the font your Word documents will use. See this link, or this one. For more complete information about Word and its ‘styles’, see this.

Including the names of the months, the days of the week, and the names of each of the years in a Váḥid, or at least all of those which require diacriticals. (To see mention of all the words used in the Badí‘ calendar, look at this Wikipedia article.) Also note: “It is advisable to use both the Bahá'í dates, according to the Bahá'í Calendar, and the usual Gregorian dates as well. The friends at present are free to do as they please.” (From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, December 24, 1943: Bahá'í News, No. 173, February 1945, p. 11; Lights of Guidance, # 373)

We do, however include it in the table, because where there is a word or phrase in the first column but none in the second column, the second capability of this tool— adding properly spelled words to the dictionary— will make sure that the first-column word is in that dictionary. Just part of our service.

There are many resources on-line for learning how to add rows to tables, such as this link, or this one.

Of course, wherever you insert ‘custom’ words, they are unlikely to be matched by those in any newer version of this document that you may download. Grouping your custom/unique-to-you words together will make the process of transferring them into any new version of this tool/document easier….

Please note as well that whatever you type in, and however you want Word to autocorrect that, it can be in any alphabet supported by Unicode. That is, you can add entries to the table that are in Hindi or Arabic. Thus you can add a ‘Type this’ entry in English or Hebrew, and get back an autocorrected word or phrase in Sanskrit, should you wish.

Do forgive us for not explaining either of these ‘delete’ issues. Space is limited. Please consult Google or your preferred search engine….

Note that the red squiggles will persist, immediately after you add all the words to the autocorrect list and dictionary, until you close Word and re-open it, allowing it to reload the (changed) dictionary file….

The Aqdas “…not only preserves for posterity the basic laws and ordinances on which the fabric of His future World Order must rest, but ordains, in addition to the function of interpretation which it confers upon His Successor, the necessary institutions through which the integrity and unity of His Faith can alone be safeguarded.” (God Passes By, p. 213-214)

Bahá’u’lláh gifted to humanity “…unnumbered Tablets, which He continued to reveal until the last days of His earthly life, among which the ‘Ishráqát’ (Splendors), the ‘Bishárát’ (Glad Tidings), the ‘Ṭarázát’ (Ornaments), the ‘Tajallíyát’ (Effulgences), the ‘Kalimát-i-Firdawsíyyih’ (Words of Paradise), the ‘Lawḥ-i-Aqdas’ (Most Holy Tablet), the ‘Lawḥ-i-Dunyá’ (Tablet of the World), the ‘Lawḥ-i-Maqsúd’ (Tablet of Maqsúd), are the most noteworthy.” (God Passes By, p. 216)

“ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gives no reason whatever why Friday has been chosen as the day of rest in the Bahá'í calendar. He just affirms it.” (Lights of Guidance, #372)

In a highly significant prayer, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in memory of His son [Mírzá Mihdí]— a prayer that exalts his death to the rank of those great acts of atonement associated with Abraham's intended sacrifice of His son, with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the martyrdom of the Imám Husayn— we read the following: “I have, O my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be quickened, and all that dwell on earth be united.” (God Passes By, p. 188)

“Why seek you to hide Him from me? I can recognize Him by His gait. I confidently testify that none besides Him, whether in the East or in the West, can claim to be the Truth. None other can manifest the power and majesty that radiate from His holy person.” (The Dawn Breakers, p. 69-70)

“ ‘Sadratu’l-Muntahá’ in this passage literally means the tree beyond which there is no passing. The Arabs used to plant trees along certain roads and the last tree indicating the end of the road was known as ‘Sadratu’l-Muntahá’. This term which has been used by Bahá'u'lláh in many of His Writings is, in one sense, the symbol of the station of the Manifestation of God, a station which is beyond the reach and understanding of men.” (The Revelation of Baha'u'llah, v1, p. 83)

God Passes By, p. 7

God Passes By, p. 4

God Passes By, p. 37

As to the low-born and infamous Amír-Niẓám, Mírzá Taqí Khán, the first year of whose short-lived ministry was stained with the ferocious onslaught against the defenders of the Fort of Ṭabarsí, who authorized and encouraged the execution of the Seven Martyrs of Ṭihrán, who unleashed the assault against Vaḥíd and his companions, who was directly responsible for the death-sentence of the Báb, and who precipitated the great upheaval of Zanján, he forfeited, through the unrelenting jealousy of his sovereign and the vindictiveness of court intrigue, all the honors he had enjoyed, and was treacherously put to death by the royal order, his veins being opened in the bath of the Palace of Fín, near Káshán. (God Passes By, p. 82)

“ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, after enumerating in His ‘Some Answered Questions’ the far-reaching consequences of Abraham's banishment, significantly affirms that ‘since the exile of Abraham from Ur to Aleppo in Syria produced this result, we must consider what will be the effect of the exile of Bahá'u'lláh in His several removes from Ṭihrán to Baghdád, from thence to Constantinople, to Rumelia [Adrianople] and to the Holy Land.’ ” (God Passes By, p. 107-108)

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 164.

“References in the Bible to ‘Mt. Párán’ and ‘Paraclete’ refer to Muḥammad’s Revelation.” (Letters from the Guardian to Australia and New Zealand, p. 41)

c.f. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p. 99. And: “The outermost circle in this vast system, the visible counterpart of the pivotal position conferred on the Herald of our Faith, is none other than the entire planet. Within the heart of this planet lies the ‘Most Holy Land,’ acclaimed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as “the Nest of the Prophets” and which must be regarded as the center of the world and the Qiblih of the nations. (Citadel of Faith, p. 95)