44 Preface بَل مَتَّعنا هٰؤُلاءِ وَآباءَهُم حَتّىٰ طالَ عَلَيهِمُ العُمُرُ ۗ أَفَلا يَرَونَ أَنّا نَأتِي الأَرضَ نَنقُصُها مِن أَطرافِها ۚ أَفَهُمُ الغالِبونَYusuf AliNay, We gave the good things of this life to these men and their fathers until the period1 grew long for them; See they not that We2 gradually reduce the land (in their control) from its outlying borders? Is it then they who will win?'Umr, or 'Umur. age, generation, period, time, life. Here “period” is most appropriate, as it covers many generations, “these men and their fathers.”Cf. 13:41 and n. 1865. The particular signification is that Islam spread from the outer borders, social and geographical, gradually inwards. The social fringe was the humbler people, such as slaves and poor men. The geographical reference is to Medīna and tribes away from the Mecca centre. The proud and unbelieving Quraish were the last to come in when the circle was gradually drawn tighter and tighter around them. The general signification applies to all times. God’s Truth makes its way first among the poor and the lowly, those whose minds are unsoiled by prejudices of false pride or false knowledge, but it gradually hems in the obstinate, until it prevails in the end.