1 Preface هَل أَتىٰ عَلَى الإِنسانِ حينٌ مِنَ الدَّهرِ لَم يَكُن شَيئًا مَذكورًاYusuf AliHas there not been1 over Man a long period of Time,2 when he was nothing - (not even) mentioned?The undoubted fact is mentioned in the form of a question, to get the assent of man. It is certain that the physical world existed long before man was ever heard of or mentioned, as geological records prove. It is also true that the spiritual world existed long before man came on the scene: see 2:30-31. Man is here taken in a generic sense.Dahr is Time as a whole, or for a long period. Time used to be deified by the Pagan Arabs, as explained in the Introduction to this Sūra. An analogy can be found in the Greek ideas connected with Chronos or Kronos, themselves a blend of different myths. Kronos (or Time), they said, was the father of Zeus himself.