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
He said, "My Lord, prison is more desirable to me than what they call me to. Unless You turn their scheming away from me, I may yield to them, and become one of the ignorant."
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
He said: O my Lord! Prison is more dear than that unto which they urge me, and if Thou fend not off their wiles from me I shall incline unto them and become of the foolish
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
Said he, 'My Lord! Prison is dearer to me than what they call on me to do; and unless Thou turn from me their craftiness I shall feel a passion for them and shall be among the ignorant
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
He said, "O my Lord! I prefer the prison to compliance with their bidding: but unless thou turn away their snares from me, I shall play the youth with them, and become one of the unwise
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Joseph said, O Lord, a prison is more eligible unto me than the crime to which they invite me; but unless thou turn aside their snares from me, I shall youthfully incline unto them, and I shall become one of the foolish
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
Ai tha: "O Zoti im! Burgu është më i dashur për mua sesa ajo në të cilën më thërrasin ato. Nëse Ti nuk e largon prej meje dredhinë e tyre, unë do të anoj nga ato dhe do të bëhem prej të paditurve."
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
সে (ইউসুফ তার রবকে ডেকে) বললো: ‘হে আমার রব, তারা আমাকে যে অসৎকর্মের প্রতি আহ্বান করছে, তা থেকে কারাগারই আমার নিকট অধিক প্রিয়। আর আপনি যদি আমার থেকে তাদের চক্রান্ত প্রতিহত না করেন, তবে আমি তাদের প্রতি আকৃষ্ট হয়ে পড়বো এবং আমি মূর্খদের অন্তর্ভুক্ত হয়ে পড়ব।’
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
"Gospodaru moj", rekao je on, "draža mi je tamnica od ovoga na što me one navraćaju! I ako Ti ne odvratiš od mene lukavstva njihova, ja mogu prema njima naklonost osjetiti i jedan od lahkomislenih postati."
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
"Gospodaru moj," rekao je on, "draža mi je tamnica od ovoga na što me one navraćaju! I ako Ti ne odvratiš od mene lukavstva njihova, ja mogu prema njima naklonost osjetiti i jedan od lakomislenih postati."
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
O maaki: "Joomi am, Ko kaso oon ɓurani kam e ko ɓe noddata kam e mun kon. Si a pottinaani kam pewje maɓɓe ɗen, mi ooñoto e maɓɓe, mi jeyee e majjuɓe ɓe".
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
თქვა (იუსუფმა): «ღმერთო ჩემო! საპყრობილე უფრო სასურველია ჩემთვის, ვიდრე ის, რისკენაც მიხმობენ. და თუ შენ არ ამარიდებ მათ მზაკვრობას, მე მათკენ გადავიხრები და უგუნურთაგან ვიქნები».
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
Er sagte: „Mein Herr, mir ist das Gefängnis lieber als das, wozu sie mich auffordern. Und wenn Du ihre List von mir nicht abwendest, werde ich mich zu ihnen hingezogen fühlen und einer der Törichten sein.“
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
(Ο Ιωσήφ) είπε: «Ω, Κύριέ μου! Η φυλακή είναι πιο αγαπητή σε μένα απ’ αυτό στο οποίο με καλούν. Αν δεν απομακρύνεις το σχέδιό τους από μένα, σίγουρα θα κλίνω προς αυτές και θα είμαι από τους αδαείς.»
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
यूसुफ़ ने प्रार्थना की : ऐ मेरे पालनहार! मुझे क़ैद उससे अधिक प्रिय है, जिसकी ओर ये औरतें मुझे बुला रही हैं। और यदि तूने मुझसे इनके छल को दूर नहीं किया, तो मैं इनकी ओर झुक जाऊँगा और अज्ञानियों में से हो जाऊँगा।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
Disse: «Mio Dio, preferisco la prigione a quello che mi chiedono! Oppure allontana da me la loro tentazione per non cadere nelle loro richieste ed essere tra gli ignoranti!»
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
33. Jis tarė: „Mano Viešpatie, kalėjimas man mielesnis nei tai, kam jie mane kviečia. Jei Tu nenugręši jų sąmokslo nuo manęs, palinksiu link jų ir būsiu vienas (iš tų, kurie daro nuodėmę ir nusipelno kaltės arba tų, kurie daro darbus) neišmanančiųjų.
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 1.0.8
Afaan Oromoo · Oromo
[Inni] nijedhe “Gooftaa kiyya! Hidhaatu waan isaan itti na waaman irra ana biratti jaalatamaadha. Yoo Ati shira isaanii narraa deebifte malee, ani gara isaaniin daba; wallaaltota irraa taha”. [15]
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
Он сказал: «Господь мой! Темница милее мне, чем то, к чему они меня призывают. И если Ты не отвратишь от меня их козни, я поддамся им и окажусь из числа невежд».
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
„Мој Господару“, рече он, „дража ми је тамница од овога на шта ме оне навраћају! И ако Ти не одвратиш од мене њихова лукавства, ја могу према њима да осетим наклоност и да постанем један од лакомислених.“
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
Yusuf akasema: Ee Mola wangu Mlezi! Ninapendelea kifungo kuliko haya anayoniitia. Na usiponiondoshea vitimbi vya wanawake hawa, mimi nitaelekea kwao, na nitakuwa katika wajinga.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Han sa: ”Herre! Jag hamnar hellre i fängelse än gör det som de uppmanar mig till. Om du inte avvärjer deras list från mig kanske jag ger efter för dem och agerar oförståndigt.”
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
Yûsuf: “Ey Rabbim! Zindan bana, bunların beni dâvet ettiği şeyden daha sevimlidir. Onların tuzaklarını benden uzaklaştırmazsan, onlara meyleder ve cahillerden olurum.” dedi.
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
یوسف نے دعا کی کہ اے میرے پروردگار! جس بات کی طرف یہ عورتیں مجھے بلا رہی ہیں اس سے تو مجھے جیل خانہ بہت پسند ہے، اگر تو نے ان کا فن فریب مجھ سے دور نہ کیا تو میں تو ان کی طرف مائل ہو جاؤں گا اور بالکل نادانوں میں جا ملوں گا.[1]
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.
Talal Itani2012 And when she heard of their gossip, she invited them, and prepared for them a banquet, and she gave each one of them a knife. She said, "Come out before them." And when they saw him, they marveled at him, and cut their hands. They said, "Good God, this is not a human, this must be a precious angel."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And when she heard of their sly talk, she sent to them and prepared for them a cushioned couch (to lie on at the feast) and gave to every one of them a knife and said (to Joseph): Come out unto them! And when they saw him they exalted him and cut their hands, exclaiming: Allah Blameless! This is no a human being. This is not other than some gracious angel
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And when she heard of their craftiness, she sent to them and prepared for them a banquet, and gave each of them a knife; and she said, 'Come forth to them!' And when they saw him they said, 'Great God!' and cut their hands and said, 'God forbid! This is no mortal, this is nothing but an honourable angel
John Medows Rodwell1861 And when she heard of their cabal, she sent to them and got ready a banquet for them, and gave each one of them a knife, and said, "Joseph shew thyself to them." And when they saw him they were amazed at him, and cut their hands, and said, "God keep us! This is no man! This is no other than a noble angel
George Sale1734 And when she heard of their subtle behaviour, she sent unto them, and prepared a banquet for them, and she gave to each of them a knife; and she said unto Joseph, come forth unto them. And when they saw him, they praised him greatly; and they cut their own hands, and said, O God! This is not a mortal; he is not other than an angel, deserving the highest respect
Easy-read (simplified)qaalat fadhaalikunna lladhee lumtunnanee feehi walaqad raawadttuhu 'an nafsihi fasta'sama wala'in lam yaf'al maa aamuruhu layusjananna walayakoonan mina s-saaghireen
DIN 31635qālat faḏālikunna llaḏī lumtunnanī fīhi walaqad rāwadttuhu ʿan nafsihi fastaʿṣama walaʾin lam yafʿal mā ʾāmuruhu layusǧananna walayakūnan mina ṣ-ṣāġirīna
Talal Itani2012 She said, "Here he is, the one you blamed me for. I did try to seduce him, but he resisted. But if he does not do what I tell him to do, he will be imprisoned, and will be one of the despised."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 She said: This is he on whose account ye blamed me. I asked of him an evil act, but he proved continent, but if he do not my behest he verily shall be imprisoned, and verily shall be of those brought low
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Said she, 'This is he concerning whom ye blamed me. I did desire him for his person, but he was too continent. But if he do not what I bid him he shall surely be imprisoned and shall surely be among the small
John Medows Rodwell1861 She said, "This is he about whom ye blamed me. I wished him to yield to my desires, but he stood firm. But if he obey not my command, he shall surely be cast into prison, and become one of the despised
George Sale1734 And his mistress said, this is he, for whose sake ye blamed me: I asked him to lie with me, but he hath constantly refused. But if he do not perform that which I command him, he shall surely be cast into prison, and he shall be made one of the contemptible
Easy-read (simplified)thumma badaa lahum min ba'di maa ra'awu l-'aayaati layasjununnahu hattaa heen
DIN 31635ṯumma badā lahum min baʿdi mā raʾawu l-ʾāyāti layasǧununnahu ḥattā ḥīnin
Talal Itani2012 Then it occurred to them, after they had seen the signs, to imprison him for a while.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And it seemed good to them (the men-folk) after they had seen the signs (of his innocence) to imprison him for a time
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Then it appeared good to them, even after they had seen the signs, to imprison him until a time
John Medows Rodwell1861 Yet resolved they, even after they had seen the signs of his innocence, to imprison him for a time
George Sale1734 And it seemed good unto them even after they had seen the signs of his innocency, to imprison him for a time
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 —
0.59 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
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.68
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.67
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.64
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.62
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.61
Talal Itani · George Sale0.57
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.56
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.55
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.54
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.50
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.