5 Preface رَبُّ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضِ وَما بَينَهُما وَرَبُّ المَشارِقِYusuf AliLord of the heavens and of the earth and all between them, and Lord of every point at the rising of the sun!1God is the Lord of everything that exists-’the heavens and the earth, and all between them'. He is the Lord of the Maskariq-of every point at the rising of the sun. As the Commentators tell us, there are in the solar year only two equinoctial days, when the sun rises due east: on every other the sun rises at a shifting point either north or south of due east. In 7:137 we have mashariq al ardi wa magharibaha, where the plural of the words for East and West is negligible, as the conjunction of the two embraces all points. The same may be said of 70:40, where God is called “Lord of all points in the East and the West”. If we are speaking of longitudes, they may embrace all latitudes. In 55:17 God is called “Lord of the two Easts and the two Wests”, referring to the extreme points in either case. A cursory reader may ask, why is only the East referred to here? The reply is that it is not so much the East as the rising of the sun, on which stress is laid. The Arabic mashriq or mashariq is close enough to the root word sharaqa, to suggest, not so much the East as the rising of the sun, especially when the plural form is used. The glorious sun rises from different points, as seen by us, but it illuminates the whole heaven and earth. It is an emblem of Unity.