Le soleil glorieux.

The sunset was especially glorious yesterday evening. Don't ask me how I know, or why I say it was so. Somehow, yesterday's sunset was unlike any other sunsets I've seen. Too bad I didn't catch it on camera. The image still sticks in my mind--even now, when the new day is halfway through.

There are words that go with it too. Verses from my favorite chapter in the Quran. One can't help but marvel at the way the words are placed together. There is a musical ring to it, a poetic resonance that, even when recited by the most ordinary person, never fails to captivate you. And if you know the language, it's even more profound and beautiful.

They say the words of the Quran are the words of the Almighty himself.

And by these words, the protesting skeptic in me is (temporarily) silenced.

By the Sun and his glorious splendor;

By the Moon as she follows him;

By the Day as it shows the Sun's glory;

By the Night as it conceals it;

By the Firmament and its (wonderful) structure;

By the Earth and its vast expanse;

By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it;

And its enlightenment, as to its wrong and its right;

Truly he succeeds that purifies it,

and he fails that corrupts it!

-- Ash-Shams (The Sun): Verses 1-10 --