In contrast to many
European languages, in Persian, personal pronouns are never capitalized.
'Abdu'l-Bahá followed this established rule and did not capitalize the pronouns
that refer to Him. When the book was translated into English, the particular
translator employed the convention, common in English, of capitalizing
pronouns. It is interesting to note that when 'Abdu'l-Bahá signed His name in
English, He used a combination of upper and lower case letters. He, typically,
wrote "abdul Baha abbas" — the reference to Bahá'u'lláh being the
only word He capitalized.
On the same
principle it is the policy of the Universal House of Justice when approving
translations of Tablets written by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, generally to have
"me" and "my" and "mine" in lower case, following
the example given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the writing of His own name in Roman
letters. Pronouns used in referring to 'Abdu'l-Bahá by someone else, however,
are normally capitalized. This policy can be seen in "Selections from the
Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá"
(From a Memorandum of the Research department of
the Universal House of Justice dated 23 May 1991, attached to a letter dated 20
June, 1991, written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an
individual believer)
