16 Preface فَلا أُقسِمُ بِالشَّفَقِYusuf AliSo I do call1 to witness the ruddy glow of Sunset;2The same form of adjuration as in 69:37. The substantive statement is in verse 19 below: “Ye shall surely travel from stage to stage”. Nothing in this life is fixed, or will last. Three things are mentioned which on the one hand have remained from age to age for as far back as the memory of man can go, and yet each of them is but a short phase, gone as it were in the twinkling of an eye. See the following notes: So our life here is but a fleeting show. Its completion is to be looked for elsewhere.(1) The sun seems such a great reality that people worshipped it as a divinity. The beautiful glow it leaves when it sets is but momentary: it changes every moment and vanishes with the twilight.