عَالَمِين AALAMIN Read the Qur'an in context Read the Qur'an

Yusuf يوسف

In plain wordsEditorial

An editorial summary of the translations. Not a translation or tafsir.

One hundred and eleven verses given almost entirely to one story, the story of Joseph, who is named from verse 4 onward and whom the surah is named after. It opens by calling itself an Arabic recitation and the best of the narratives, and closes by saying that in these histories is a lesson for those who understand.

AALAMIN Editor · signed 25 August 2026

not a scholar — what this signature means

I am not a scholar, and nothing here asks you to treat me as one. The plain words on this site are my restatement of what the five translations shown above say, together with counts derived from the text itself — nothing more. I sign them so that a named person is accountable for every sentence, not so you'll take my word for anything. The authority on this page is the text and its translators. If my words don't match theirs, mine are the ones that are wrong.

Read the surah Go to a verse

Every verse as a number; tap one to open it. Shaded numbers mark verses where the translations differ most.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111

worded differently

Where the translators differDerived

The verses of this surah whose wording differs most, most differently worded first. Under each, the two renderings that share the fewest words are quoted in full under their translators' names; every rendering is on the verse's own page. This measures wording, not meaning.

12:3
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.75. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.85.

Talal Itani · 2012

We narrate to you the most accurate history, by revealing to you this Quran. Although, prior to it, you were of the unaware.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

We narrate unto thee (Muhammad) the best of narratives in that We have inspired in thee this Qur'an, though aforetime thou wast of the heedless
12:88
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.72. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.82.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

And when they came (again) before him (Joseph) they said: O ruler! Misfortune hath touched us and our folk, and we bring but poor merchandise, so fill for us the measure and be charitable unto us. Lo! Allah will requite the charitable

George Sale · 1734

Wherefore Joseph's brethren returned into Egypt: And when they came into his presence they said, noble lord, the famine is felt by us and our family, and we are come with a small sum of money: Yet give unto us full measure, and bestow corn upon us as alms; for God rewardeth the alms-givers
Show all verses the translators word differently
12:103
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.72. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.91.

Talal Itani · 2012

But most people, for all your eagerness, are not believers.

George Sale · 1734

But the greater part of men, although thou earnestly desire it, will not believe
12:104
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.72. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.83.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

Thou askest them no fee for it. It is naught else than a reminder unto the peoples

John Medows Rodwell · 1861

Thou shalt not ask of them any recompense for this message. It is simply an instruction for all mankind
12:85
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.71. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.82.

Talal Itani · 2012

They said, "By God, you will not stop remembering Joseph, until you have ruined your health, or you have passed away."

Edward Henry Palmer · 1880

They said, 'By God! thou wilt not cease to remember Joseph till thou art at the point of death, or art of those who perish
More about this surahDerived
Verses
111
Words
1,777
Place
Meccan
Revelation position
53th of 114 in an ordering its source does not name
Opening letters
الٓر one of 29 surahs that open this way
Bismillah
Carried by the surah, unnumbered
Word-by-word breakdown
59.5% of 1,777 words carry an analysis
  1. 96
  2. 68
  3. 73
  4. 74
  5. 1
  6. 111
  7. 81
  8. 87
  9. 92
  10. 89
  11. 93
  12. 94
  13. 103
  14. 100
  15. 108
  16. 102
  17. 107
  18. 109
  19. 105
  20. 113
  21. 114
  22. 112
  23. 53
  24. 80
  25. 97
  26. 91
  27. 85
  28. 95
  29. 106
  30. 101
  31. 75
  32. 104
  33. 77
  34. 50
  35. 90
  36. 86
  37. 54
  38. 38
  39. 7
  40. 72
  41. 36
  42. 25
  43. 35
  44. 19
  45. 20
  46. 56
  47. 26
  48. 27
  49. 28
  50. 17
  51. 10
  52. 11
  53. 12
  54. 15
  55. 6
  56. 37
  57. 31
  58. 34
  59. 39
  60. 40
  61. 41
  62. 42
  63. 43
  64. 44
  65. 45
  66. 46
  67. 51
  68. 88
  69. 18
  70. 16
  71. 71
  72. 14
  73. 21
  74. 23
  75. 32
  76. 52
  77. 67
  78. 69
  79. 70
  80. 78
  81. 79
  82. 82
  83. 84
  84. 30
  85. 29
  86. 83
  87. 2
  88. 8
  89. 3
  90. 33
  91. 60
  92. 4
  93. 99
  94. 57
  95. 47
  96. 13
  97. 55
  98. 76
  99. 65
  100. 98
  101. 59
  102. 24
  103. 22
  104. 63
  105. 58
  106. 49
  107. 66
  108. 64
  109. 61
  110. 62
  111. 48
  112. 5
  113. 9
  114. 110

Meccan Medinan

Counted from the text and the spine at build time, not written into the page. Opening letters are derived from the edition's orthography: an opening token of at most five letters carrying none of its vocalisation marks. The revelation position is reproduced from Revelation order as encoded by the Tanzil metadata, which does not name whose ordering it is.

Analysis detailsDerived

These figures count the words the translations share. They measure wording, not meaning, and they do not say which translation is right.

Mean score across this surah
0.58 across 111 scored verses

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
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.
Scored
6,236 verses
As at
13 September 2026, 10:56 UTC
Sources for this page

Surah metadataTanzil Qur'an metadata ·quran-data.xml v1.0·Tanzil Project ·Creative Commons Attribution — version not specified by the source·retrieved 24 Aug 2026

Surah metadata from Tanzil Qur'an metadata (quran-data.xml, version 1.0), Tanzil Project, tanzil.net. (C) 2008-2009 Tanzil.info. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution; the source does not state a version. Values are reproduced unchanged; this site selects and arranges them, and derives verse ranges from the division start points. https://tanzil.net/res/text/metadata/quran-data.xml