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
"O My fellow inmates, are diverse lords better, or God, the One, the Supreme?"
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
O my fellow-prisoners! Are divers lords better, or Allah the One, Almighty
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
O ye twain fellow-prisoners! Are manifold lords better, or God, the one, the dominant
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
O my fellow-prisoners, are sundry lords better, or the only true and mighty God
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
O shokët e mi të burgut! A janë më të mirë disa zota të ndryshëm apo Allahu, i Vetmi, Ngadhënjimtari i Pamposhtur?!
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
(ইউসুফ তার জেলের সঙ্গীদ্বয়কে সম্বোধন করে বলল:) ‘হে আমার কারা সঙ্গীদ্বয়! (তোমরা বলো তো দেখি ) বহু সংখ্যক ভিন্ন ভিন্ন রব উত্তম, নাকি মহাপরাক্রমশালী এক আল্লাহ উত্তম ?‘
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
"O drugovi moji u tamnici, da li su raznorazna božanstva bolja ili Allah, Jedini i Potčinitelj svega?
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
"O drugovi moji u tamnici, da li su raznorazna božanstva bolja ili Allah, Jedini i Podčinitelj svega?
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
Eehey mon won´diiɓe am ɗiɗo ka kaso! E ko deweteeɗi ceertuɗi ɓuri moƴƴude, kaa ko Alla Gooto poolɗo o?
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, ჩემო ციხის მეგობრებო! მრავალი სხვადასხვა ღმერთი სჯობს თუ ერთადერთი, ყოვლისმპყრობელი ალლაჰი?
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
O meine beiden Gefängnisgefährten! Sind denn verschiedene Herren besser oder Allah, der Eine, der Allbezwinger?
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
Ω, σύντροφοί μου στη φυλακή! Είναι καλύτερη η λατρεία προς διάφορους κυρίους (οι οποίοι είναι δημιουργήματα) ή προς τον Αλλάχ, ο Οποίος είναι ο Αλ-Ουάχειντ (ο Ένας Αληθινός Θεός), ο Αλ-Καχάρ (Αυτός που νικά και υποτάσσει όποιον θέλει);
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
ऐ मेरे जेल के दोनों साथियो! क्या अलग-अलग अनेक पूज्य बेहतर हैं या एक प्रभुत्वशाली अल्लाह?
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
O Compagni di prigione, le varie divinità sono forse meglio di Allāh, l’Unico, il Dominatore?
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
39. Du kalėjimo kompanjonai, ar geriau daug skirtingų viešpačių (dievų) ar Allahas, Vienintelis, Nenugalimasis?
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
Yaa hiriyoota kiyya lamaan kan mana hidhaa! Sila gooftota adda addaa (tandharaa) (baay’ee) moo Rabbii tokkicha hunda mo’ataa ta’etu caala?
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
О два моих товарища по темнице! Что лучше: разрозненные господа или Аллах — Единый, Всеподчиняющий?
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
„О моји другови у тамници, да ли су разноразна божанства боља или Аллах, Једини и Свемоћни?
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
Enyi wafungwa wenzangu wawili! Je, mabwana wengi tofautitofauti ni bora au Mwenyezi Mungu Mmoja Mwenye nguvu?
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Mina kamrater i fångenskapen! Är det bättre att ha olika herrar, eller [att endast dyrka] Gud – den Ende, den Allhärskande?
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
“Ey zindan arkadaşlarım! Ayrı ayrı ilâhlar mı daha iyidir, yoksa mutlak hâkimiyet sahibi olan tek Allah mı?”
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
اے میرے قید خانے کے ساتھیو[1] ! کیا متفرق کئی ایک پروردگار بہتر ہیں[2]؟ یا ایک اللہ زبردست طاقتور؟
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 He said, "No food is served to you, but I have informed you about it before you have received it. That is some of what my Lord has taught me. I have forsaken the tradition of people who do not believe in God; and regarding the Hereafter, they are deniers."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 He said: The food which ye are given (daily) shall not come unto you but I shall tell you the interpretation ere it cometh unto you. This is of that which my Lord hath taught me. Lo! I have forsaken the religion of folk who believe not in Allah and are disbelievers in the Hereafter
Edward Henry Palmer1880 He said, 'There shall not come to you any food with which ye are provided, but I will inform you both of its interpretation before it comes to you. That is (some) of what my Lord has taught me; verily, I have left the faith of a people who do not believe in God, while in the future too they disbelieve
John Medows Rodwell1861 He said, "There shall not come to you in a dream any food wherewith ye shall be fed, but I will acquaint you with its interpretation ere it come to pass to you. This is a part of that which my Lord hath taught me: for I have abandoned the religion of those who believe not in God and who deny the life to come
George Sale1734 Joseph answered, no food, wherewith ye may be nourished, shall come unto you, but I will declare unto you the interpretation thereof, before it come unto you. This knowledge is a part of that which my Lord hath taught me: For I have left the religion of people who believe not in God, and who deny the life to come
Easy-read (simplified)waattaba'tu millata aabaa'ee ibraaheema wa'ishaaqa waya'qooba maa kaana lanaa an nushrika billaahi min shay'in dhaalika min fadli llaahi 'alaynaa wa'alaa n-naasi walaakinna akthara n-naasi laa yashkuroon
DIN 31635wāttabaʿtu millata ʾābāʾī ʾibrāhīma waʾisḥāqa wayaʿqūba mā kāna lanā ʾan nušrika billāhi min šayʾin ḏālika min faḍli llāhi ʿalaynā waʿalā n-nāsi walākinna ʾakṯara n-nāsi lā yaškurūna
Talal Itani2012 "And I have followed the faith of my forefathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. It is not for us to associate anything with God. This is by virtue of God's grace upon us and upon the people, but most people do not give thanks.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And I have followed the religion of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It never was for us to attribute aught as partner to Allah. This is of the bounty of Allah unto us (the seed of Abraham) and unto mankind; but most men give not thanks
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And I have followed the faith of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; we could not associate aught with God; that is from God's grace upon us and upon men: but most men give not thanks
John Medows Rodwell1861 And I follow the religion of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We may not associate aught with God. This is of God's bounty towards us and towards mankind: but the greater part of mankind are not thankful
George Sale1734 and I follow the religion of my fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. It is not lawful for us to associate any thing with God. This knowledge of the divine unity hath been given us of the bounty of God towards us, and towards mankind; but the greater part of men are not thankful
Talal Itani2012 "You do not worship, besides Him, except names you have named, you and your ancestors, for which God has sent down no authority. Judgment belongs to none but God. He has commanded that you worship none but Him. This is the right religion, but most people do not know.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Those whom ye worship beside Him are but names which ye have named, ye and your fathers. Allah hath revealed no sanction for them. The decision rests with Allah only, Who hath commanded you that ye worship none save Him. This is the right religion, but most men know not
Edward Henry Palmer1880 What ye worship beside Him are naught but names which ye have named, ye and your fathers, for which God has sent down no authority. Judgment is only God's; He bids you worship only Him. That is the standard of religion,- but most men do not know
John Medows Rodwell1861 Ye worship beside him mere names which ye have named, ye and your fathers, for which God hath not sent down any warranty. Judgment belongeth to God alone. He hath bidden you worship none but Him. This is the right faith: but most men know it not
George Sale1734 Ye worship not, besides Him, other than the names which ye have named, ye and your fathers, concerning which God hath sent down no authoritative proof: Yet judgment belongeth unto God alone; who hath commanded that ye worship none besides Him. This is the right religion; but the greater part of men know it not
Talal Itani2012 "O my fellow inmates! One of you will serve his master wine; while the other will be crucified, and the birds will eat from his head. Thus the matter you are inquiring about is settled."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 O my two fellow-prisoners! As for one of you, he will pour out wine for his lord to drink; and as for the other, he will be crucified so that the birds will eat from his head. Thus is the case judged concerning which ye did inquire
Edward Henry Palmer1880 O ye twain fellow-prisoners! as for one of you, he shall pour out wine for his lord: and as for the other, he shall be crucified, and the birds shall eat of his head. The matter is decreed whereon ye asked me for a decision
John Medows Rodwell1861 O my two fellow prisoners! as to one of you, he will serve wine unto his Lord: but as to the other, he will be crucified and the birds shall eat from off his head. The matter is decreed concerning which ye enquire
George Sale1734 O my fellow-prisoners, verily the one of you shall serve wine unto his lord, as formerly; but the other shall be crucified, and the birds shall eat from off his head. The matter is decreed concerning which ye seek to be informed
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 —
0.50 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 · George Sale0.55
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.53
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.53
Talal Itani · George Sale0.53
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.50
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.50
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.50
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.50
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.47
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.39
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.