Marked words appear in this translation and in no other English translation of this verse. Common small words and older spellings are not marked. The marks show where the wording differs, not where the meaning does.
Talal Itani· published 2012
If only there were, among the generations before you, people with wisdom, who spoke against corruption on earth-except for the few whom We saved. But the wrongdoerspursued the luxuries they were indulged in, and thus became guilty.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
If only there had been among the generations before you menpossessing a remnant (of goodsense) to warn (their people) from corruption in the earth, as did a few of those whom We saved from them! The wrong-doers followed that by which they were madesapless, and were guilty
Sources
Translation Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran·Public domain — copyright term expired
Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran·1930 translation, digital edition of unverified printing·None — public domain work
·Public domain — copyright term expired·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
Edward Henry Palmer1840–1882 · published 1880
And were there among the generations before you any endowed with a remnant (of piety) forbiddingevildoing in the earth, save a few of those whom we saved; but the evildoers followed what they enjoyed, and were sinners
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Were the generations before you, endued with virtue, and who forbad corruptdoings on the earth, more than a few of those whom we delivered? but the evil doers followed their selfishpleasures, and became transgressors
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Were such of the generations before you, indued with understanding and virtue, who forbad the actingcorruptly in the earth, any more than a few only of those whom We delivered? But they who were unjust followed the delights which they enjoyed in this world, and were wicked doers
Sources
Translation George Sale, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
George Sale, English translation of the Qur'an·1734 translation, digital edition of unverified printing·None — public domain work
·Public domain — copyright term expired·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
Other languages (18)Shqip · Albanian
Përse nuk pati nga brezat para jush një pjesë që do të pengonin prishjen në Tokë, përveç një pakice nga ata të cilët i shpëtuam?! Ata që bënë padrejtësi shkuan pas kënaqësive (të kësaj jete) dhe ishin keqbërës.
Translated by the team of Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
বাংলা · Bengali
অতএব তোমাদের পূর্ববর্তী (শাস্তিপ্রাপ্ত) সম্প্রদায়গুলোর মধ্যে এমন প্রজ্ঞাবান কেন হয়নি, যারা জমিনে (তাদের জাতিগুলোকে কুফরি এবং পাপ কাজের মাধ্যমে) ফ্যাসাদ করা থেকে নিষেধ করতো? অল্প সংখ্যক ছাড়া, যাদেরকে আমি তাদের মধ্য থেকে মুক্তি দিয়েছিলাম। আর যারা যুলম করেছে, তারা বিলাসিতার পেছনে পড়ে ছিলো এবং তারা ছিলো অপরাধী।
Translated by the team of Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Dawah Association in Rabwah, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.2
Bosanski · Bosnian
A da je barem među narodima prije vas bilo čestitih koji su branili da se na Zemlji nered čini, osim malo njih koje smo Mi spasili! A oni koji su nepravdu činili odavali su se onome u čemu su uživali, a prestupnici su bili.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 2.0.4
Hrvatski · Croatian
A da je barem među narodima prije vas bilo čestitih koji su branili da se na Zemlji nered čini, osim malo njih koje smo Mi spasili! A oni koji su nepravdu činili odavali su se onome u čemu su uživali, a prestupnici su bili.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.1
Fulfulde · Fulani
Ko haɗnoo wona e gire adinooɓe on ɓen, joomiraa- ɓe kedde, ɓe no haɗa e bonnugol ka leydi! si seeɗaaɓe e ɓen ɓe min ndaɗndunoo e maɓɓe. Tooñuɓe ɓen nokki e ko ɓe neeminaa e mun kon, ɓe laatii bonɓe.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
ქართული · Georgian
ო, ნეტავ ყოფილიყვნენ თქვენამდე მცხოვრებ თაობებში ისეთი ადამიანები, რომლებიც რწმენითა და გონიერებით იქნებოდნენ გამორჩეულნი, და რომლებიც შეაკავებდნენ ხალხს ბოროტებისგან მიწაზე [ურწმუნოებისგან და ცოდვისგან]! მაგრამ ასეთი ადამიანები ცოტანი აღმოჩნდნენ მხოლოდ მცირედნი მათგან, ვისაც ჩვენ გადავარჩინეთ. (მათგან კი ცოტანი უსმენდნენ, და კიდევ უფრო ცოტანი მისდევდნენ მათ), ხოლო ვინც უსამართლობას სჩადიოდნენ, მიჰყვნენ იმ ფუფუნებას, რომლითაც იყვნენ დაჯილდოებულნი
და გახდნენ ბოროტმოქმედნი [ურწმუნონი].
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.7
Deutsch · German
Wenn es unter den Generationen vor euch doch einen tugendhaften Rest von Leuten gäbe, die das (Anrichten von) Unheil auf der Erde verbieten - bis auf wenige unter denen, die Wir von ihnen gerettet haben! Und diejenigen, die Unrecht taten, folgten dem ihnen verliehenen üppigen Leben und wurden Übeltäter.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.15
Ελληνικά · Greek
Αν υπήρχαν μεταξύ των γενεών πριν από σας, εκείνοι που είχαν καλοσύνη (και λογική και υπακοή προς τον Αλλάχ και έσωζαν τον εαυτό τους από την Οργή Του) με το να απαγορεύουν (στα έθνη τους) τη διάδοση του κακού στη γη, (αλλά δεν υπήρχαν) εκτός από λίγους που τους σώσαμε απ' εκείνες (τις γενιές)! Όσο για τους άδικους, ακολούθησαν αυτά που απολάμβαναν, και ήταν κακοί.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
हिन्दी · Hindi
फिर तुमसे पहले गुज़रे हुए समुदायों में ऐसे बचे खुचे भले-समझदार लोग क्यों न हुए, जो धरती में बिगाड़ से रोकते? सिवाय उन थोड़े-से लोगों के, जिन्हें हमने उनमें से बचा लिया। और अत्याचारी लोग तो उसी सुख-सामग्री के पीछे पड़े रहे, जिसमें वे रखे गए थे और वे तो थे ही अपराधी।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
Se solo fossero esistiti, tra le stirpi che vi hanno preceduto, dei possessori di un po’ di buona volontà, che avessero impedito ai loro simili di compiere azioni malvagie in terra, tranne pochi di loro che abbiamo salvato! E gli ingiusti seguirono i loro divertimenti, e furono criminali.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
Lietuvių · Lithuanian
116. Jei tik būtų buvę tarp kartų iki jūsų žmonių, turėjusių išmintį, draudusių (kitiems) Al-Fasad (netikėjimą, daugiadievystę, ir visų rūšių nusikaltimus ir nuodėmes) žemėje (tačiau nebuvo) – išskyrus kelis iš tų, kuriuos Mes išgelbėjome iš jų tarpo! Tie, kurie darė bloga, sekiojo mėgavimusi (šio pasaulio) gyvenimo gerais dalykais ir buvo Mudžrimūn (nusikaltėliai, netikintieji Allahą, daugiadieviai, nuodėmiautojai).
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.0
Русский · Russian
Почему же среди поколений, живших до вас, не нашлось сохранивших остаток [благоразумия], которые удерживали бы от беззакония на земле, — за исключением немногих из тех, кого Мы спасли из их числа? Те же, которые поступали несправедливо, погнались за роскошью, в которой они погрязли, и стали преступными.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.1
Српски · Serbian
А да је барем међу народима пре вас било честитих који су бранили да се на Земљи чини неред, осим мало њих које смо Ми спасили! А они који су били незнанобошци одавали су се страстима у којима су уживали, и били су тешки грешници.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.4
Kiswahili · Swahili
Basi mbona hawakuwepo katika vizazi vya kabla yenu wenye vyeo na wasaa wanaokataza uharibifu katika nchi, isipokuwa wachache tu, miongoni mwa wale tuliowaokoa miongoni mwao? Na wale waliodhulumu walifuata yale waliyostareheshwa kwayo, na walikuwa wahalifu.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Om ändå en rättskaffens skara hade funnits kvar bland samfunden före er som förbjöd fördärv på jorden! De vi räddade [från straffet] utgjorde endast ett fåtal av dem, medan de orättfärdiga försjönk i sina njutningar och förblev obotliga syndare.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
Türkçe · Turkish
Sizden önceki nesiller arasında yeryüzünde fesâdı engelleyecek fazilet sahipleri olmalı değil miydi? Fakat onlardan, kurtuluşa erdirdiğimiz az bir kısmı müstesnadır. Zalimler ise, yalnız kendilerine verilen refahın ardına düştüler ve günahkâr kimseler oldular.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.4
اردو · Urdu
پس کیوں نہ تم سے پہلے زمانے کے لوگوں میں سے ایسے اہل خیر لوگ ہوئے جو زمین میں فساد پھیلانے سے روکتے، سوائے ان چند کے جنہیں ہم نے ان میں سے نجات دی تھی[1] ، ﻇالم لوگ تو اس چیز کے پیچھے پڑ گئے جس میں انہیں آسودگی دی گئی تھی اور وه گنہگار تھے.[2]
Translated by Muhammad Ibrahim Junagarhi, developed under the supervision of the Rowwad Translation Center. The original translation is available for the purpose of expressing opinion, evaluation, and continuous development.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.3
About these translations
5 cleared translations, newest first, by year of publication, so the modern English comes before the historical ones. That is an ordering by date, not a judgement. Each is shown complete — this platform never excerpts a translation — and each renders under its translator's name. No translation here is marked as the correct one.
Which translations appear here is set by copyright: they are the ones whose rights could be documented and cleared. The selection is not a judgement that these are the best.
About easy-read
Easy-read
Easy-read is a simplified pronunciation,
not authoritative — a rule-by-rule romanisation, not a reading.
Each verse ends in its pause form, as it is said when you stop there. Pauses inside a verse and other tajwid rules are not shown. It is derived from the Tanzil
Simple edition, while the Arabic above is the
Uthmani edition; both are cleared, but they are not the
same edition and their orthography differs.
DIN 31635waʾaqimi ṣ-ṣalāta ṭarafayi n-nahāri wazulafan mina llayli ʾinna l-ḥasanāti yuḏhibna s-sayyiʾāti ḏālika ḏikrā lilḏḏākirīna
The translators word this verse differently
Talal Itani2012 Perform the prayer at the borders of the day, and during the approaches of the night. The good deeds take away the bad deeds. This is a reminder for those who remember.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Establish worship at the two ends of the day and in some watches of the night. Lo! good deeds annul ill-deeds. This is reminder for the mindful
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And be thou steadfast in prayer at the two ends of the day and the (former and latter) parts of the night. Verily, good works remove evil works;- that is a reminder to the mindful
John Medows Rodwell1861 And observe prayer at early morning, at the close of the day, and at the approach of night; for the good deeds drive away the evil deeds. This is a warning for those who reflect
George Sale1734 Pray regularly morning and evening; and in the former part of the night, for good works drive away evils. This is an admonition unto those who consider
Talal Itani2012 Had your Lord willed, He could have made humanity one community, but they continue to differ.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And if thy Lord had willed, He verily would have made mankind one nation, yet they cease not differing
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Had thy Lord pleased, He would have made men one nation; but they will not cease to differ
John Medows Rodwell1861 Had thy Lord pleased he would have made mankind of one religion: but those only to whom thy Lord hath granted his mercy will cease to differ
George Sale1734 And if thy Lord pleased, He would have made all men of one religion: But they shall not cease to differ among themselves
These figures count the words the translations share. They measure wording, not meaning, and they do not say which translation is right.
Derived measure: mean pairwise Jaccard distance over the
lowercased word sets of the 5 renderings above —
0.67 on a scale
where 0 means identical wording and 1 means no shared words. It is
computed, not judged.
The page says a verse is worded differently only above the cut below. The cut is a stated convention, not a property of the text, and it can be changed.
The cut
0.644
Share of measured verses above it
33%
Verses above it
2,079
Verses measured
6,236
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.74
Talal Itani · George Sale0.72
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.72
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.71
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.67
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.67
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.66
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.65
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.61
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.53
One bar per pair of renderings, longest bar for the pair
sharing fewest words. Every pair is shown; none is singled out.
Method Wording differences — derived 13 September 2026
Method
Mean pairwise Jaccard distance over the lowercased word sets of the cleared translations of each verse. A verse is marked as worded differently when its score falls in the top third of the corpus — the cut set out in Analysis details.
As at
13 September 2026, 10:56 UTC
Gate
verify/divergence_gate.py re-derives and fails on drift
The platform does not say which is right, and does not
characterise what the difference means. The renderings are placed
together so the difference is visible; reading it is the reader's work.
7 sources
stand behind this page. Each is listed once, in the order the page first
cites it, with the licence it was cleared under and what was actually read.
Nothing on this page rests on a source that is not here.
Source Tanzil Qur'an text (Uthmani) · Uthmani, Version 1.1
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 ayahs. The bismillah is delivered as a separate `bismillah` attribute on ayah 1 and is NOT fused into the ayah text. 112 surahs carry one: every surah except al-Fatiha, where the bismillah is ayah 1:1 itself, and at-Tawba, which has none. Sourced from the XML output; the plain-text output of the same release DOES fuse it, which is defect D1.
CLEARED. Licence read verbatim from the block embedded in this very file. Ingested exactly as shipped: no normalisation, no stripping of marks, no Unicode recomposition.
Parsed structurally from the EPUB: an h3 names the surah, one p per verse with its number in its own span. An unnumbered p is the basmala and is not a verse, except in surah 1 where the basmala IS verse 1. 112 unnumbered paragraphs were found, which is 114 surahs less surah 1 and surah 9. Text is stored VERBATIM: NFC normalisation and XML entity unescaping only, because CC BY-ND forbids modification.
CLEARED on a licence read first-hand from the translator's own download page, not from an aggregator. Tanzil also hosts this translation, but under a blanket "non-commercial purposes only" term that directs the user to the translator or publisher for permission - a hosting disclaimer, not a grant - so the grant was taken from the licensor directly. The "God" edition was ingested; ClearQuran also publishes an "Allah" edition, differing in how the divine name is rendered, which is not ingested.
CLEARED ON THE WORK, WITH TWO RECORDED CAVEATS ON THIS COPY. (1) Rights basis is the expired copyright term, NOT the redistributing repository's licence. That repository dedicates its contents to the public domain under the Unlicense while also redistributing plainly in-copyright translations (Abdel Haleem, Saheeh International, The Study Quran), so it is dedicating rights it cannot hold and its blanket grant is not relied upon here. (2) The file declares its own upstream as tanzil.net, and Tanzil attaches a non-commercial condition to its TRANSLATION distributions, though not to its Qur'anic text. Since Pickthall's copyright has expired, nobody holds rights in these words and no licence is required from anyone; Tanzil's terms are a contract binding those who download from Tanzil, which we did not. The chain is nonetheless not spotless and Anwar may prefer a clean digitisation of the 1930 printing. NOT VERIFIED: that this digital text matches the 1930 first printing rather than a later revised edition. No page images were collated. Recorded as unverified rather than presented as established. SERVED TEXT DIFFERS FROM THE CITED FILE AT ONE VERSE, 37:97: the file reads "red-hotfire" (a glued token, also in Gutenberg #16955); the served row reads "red-hot fire", restored 2026-09-13 from Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (London: George Allen & Unwin, printed for Alfred A. Knopf; 1930), p. 460, XXXVII 97 - scan archive.org in.ernet.dli.2015.216140, PDF page 475; banked data/derivation-sources/pickthall-1930-dli-2015.216140-text.pdf (sha256 70e81146c97fa3a590243a82e04e349108546074787e2551a78c616202138870) on Anwar Malik's grant.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. The digital edition's upstream is not stated by the redistributor and the printing is unverified. No statement of purpose is recorded for Palmer because none was sourced from his own preface in this pass; nothing is asserted on his behalf.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. TWO edition caveats. (1) The upstream is not stated by the redistributor. (2) Rodwell's own edition PRESENTS THE SURAHS IN HIS OWN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, not the mushaf order — he says so in his preface. This digital text is keyed to mushaf order, so it derives from a restored-order printing (such as the Everyman edition) rather than from Rodwell's own arrangement. Which printing is not stated and has not been established.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. The digital edition's upstream is NOT STATED by the redistributor, so the printing it represents is unverified; Sale's text was reprinted and re-edited many times between 1734 and 1900. Recorded as unverified rather than assumed to be the first edition.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 ayahs. The bismillah is delivered as a separate `bismillah` attribute on ayah 1 and is NOT fused into the ayah text. 112 surahs carry one: every surah except al-Fatiha, where the bismillah is ayah 1:1 itself, and at-Tawba, which has none. Sourced from the XML output; the plain-text output of the same release DOES fuse it, which is defect D1.
CLEARED. Parallel edition, held in ayah_text_variants. It sits alongside the Uthmani spine for search normalisation and is never used to correct it.