The transliteration of Arabic words in this thesis follows a general English standard. But in regard to the names of persons or institutions I leave them written as the Indonesian write them. The name of ‘Usman or Usman, for example, will not be written with ‘Uthman as the general English standard does. This includes other non-Indonesian Arabic names. Also the name of Indonesian institutions, such as madrasah aliyah will not be written as madrasa aliya.

In addition, certain concepts of Indonesianised Arabic which are important in relation to the topic of this thesis, like tarekat or mu‘tabarah, will not be transliterated into the general English standard. It is best that these concepts be more contextual to the Indonesian situation as Indonesian Muslims use them.

Although I follow a general English standard in regard to transliteration, I do not transliterate the Arabic words precisely as the standard requires. For example, I do not use any punctuation symbol to differentiate a long vowel from a short vowel. Also certain Arabic harf (characters) would be written in the same character. This is because my computer does not have the punctuation symbol required for Arabic transliteration. These harf are:

The general transliterations I use therefore in this thesis are as follow:

Another area I need to mention here is my usage of Indonesian names. In almost all cases I call the Indonesians by their first name. This is not only because I want to be more contextual in accordance with my discussion but also because there are differences between Indonesian and Westerners in regard with name usage. Firstly, the Indonesian do not acknowledge surname or family name as the Westerners do. It is common that a person has a very short name, such as Soekarno. Secondly, those Indonesian who have family name do not relate their name to larger family but strictly to their father; and many who use a family name take the first name of their father. For example, a member of the Hasyim Asy‘ary family will not use Asy‘ary as his family name. Only Hasyim's children would use ‘Hasyim’ as their family name, such as Wahid Hasyim. But Abdurrahman as Wahid Hasyim's son does not use Hasyim but Wahid as his family name. So his full name is Abdurrahman Wahid, not Abdurrahman Hasyim. Finally those who have a multi word name do not necessarily included a family name. The name of my son, Fikri Zaki Muhammadi, for example, does not incorporate our family name. Therefore I would call Musta‘in Romly Musta‘in. However, because Indonesian Muslims commonly attache informal titles, such as kiai, to those deserve them, I will call Musta‘in, Kiai Musta‘in as all Muslims in Jombang did it.