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
And cite for them the parable of the present life: it is like water that We send down from the sky; the plants of the earth absorb it; but then it becomes debris, scattered by the wind. God has absolute power over everything.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
And coin for them the similitude of the life of the world as water which We send down from the sky, and the vegetation of the earth mingleth with it and then becometh dry twigs that the winds scatter. Allah is able to do all things
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
Strike out for them, too, a parable of the life of this world; like water which we send down from the sky, and the vegetation of the earth is mingled therewith; - and on the morrow it is dried up, and the winds scatter it; for God is powerful over all
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And set before them a similitude of the present life. It is as water which we send down from Heaven, and the herb of the Earth is mingled with it, and on the morrow it becometh dry stubble which the winds scatter: for God hath power over all things
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And propound to them a similitude of the present life. It is like water which We send down from heaven; and the herb of the earth is mixed therewith, and after it hath been green and flourishing, in the morning it becometh dry stubble, which the winds scatter abroad: And God is able to do all things
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
Sillu atyre edhe shembullin e jetës së kësaj bote: ajo është si uji që e lëshojmë nga qielli, me të cilin përzihen bimët e tokës e më pas bëhet bar i thatë që e shpërndajnë erërat. Allahu është i Fuqishëm për çdo gjë.
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
আর (হে রাসূল!) তুমি তাদের জন্য(১৫) দুনিয়ার জীবনের দৃষ্টান্ত পেশ করো, (ধ্বংস ও দ্রুত নিঃশেষ হওয়ার ক্ষেত্রে) দুনিয়ার জীবন হলো (বৃষ্টির) পানির মতো, যা আমি আকাশ থেকে বর্ষণ করেছি। তারপর তা মাটির উদ্ভিদজাতির সঙ্গে মিশে যায় (এবং সবুজ স্নিগ্ধ উদ্ভিদ জন্ম দেয়), তারপর সেগুলো শুকিয়ে চূর্ণ-বিচূর্ণ হয়ে যায়। ফলে বাতাস সেগুলোকে উড়িয়ে নিয়ে যায়। আর আল্লাহ সবকিছুর উপর পূর্ণ ক্ষমতাবান।
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
Navedi im kao primjer da je život na ovom svijetu kao bilje, koje i poslije natapanja vodom, koju Mi s neba spuštamo, ipak postane suho, i vjetrovi ga raznesu. A Allah sve može!
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
Navedi im kao primjer da je život na ovom svijetu kao bilje, koje i poslije natapanja vodom, koju Mi s neba spuštamo, ipak postane suho, i vjetrovi ga raznesu. A Allah sve može!
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
Fiyan ɓe yeru nguurndam aduna ɗam no wa'i wa ndiyam Min njippiniɗam immorde ka kammu jillondiri e majjam puɗi leydi ndin, ɗi wonti munciiɗi keneeli no jarooɗi, Alla wonii ko o kattanɗo e dow kala hu'unde.
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
და მოუყევი მათ [ო, შუამავალო] [ხალხს] მაგალითი ამქვეყნიური ცხოვრების შესახებ, ის ჰგავს წყალს, რომელიც ჩვენ ზეციდან გარდმოვავლინეთ [წვიმის სახით], ამ წყალს შეერწყა მიწის მცენარეულობა და ამოიზარდა, და მალევე ის იქცა გამომშრალ, მტვრად ქცეულ ბალახად, რომელსაც ქარი აქეთ-იქით ფანტავს. ნამდვილად, ალლაჰი ყოველი საქმის ზედამხედველი, ყოვლისშემძლეა.
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
Und führe ihnen das Gleichnis vom diesseitigen Leben an. (Es ist) wie Wasser, das Wir vom Himmel hinabkommen lassen, worauf sich damit das Gewächs der Erde vermischt. Dann wird es zu vertrocknetem Zeug, das die Winde verwehen. Und Allah hat ja zu allen Dingen die Macht.
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
Δώσε τους (ω, Προφήτη, στους ειδωλολάτρες που ζήτησαν να απομακρύνεις τους φτωχούς πιστούς για να καθίσουν να σε ακούσουν για το Ισλάμ) το παράδειγμα της εγκόσμιας ζωής: η οποία είναι σαν νερό που στείλαμε κάτω από τον ουρανό, και αναμείχθηκαν μαζί του τα φυτά της γης (και μεγάλωσαν), και έπειτα έγιναν άχυρα που τα σκόρπισαν οι άνεμοι. Πράγματι, ο Αλλάχ είναι για τα πάντα Ικανός.
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
और (ऐ नबी!) आप उन्हें सांसारिक जीवन का उदाहरण दें, वह उस पानी के समान है, जिसे हमने आकाश से बरसाया, तो पृथ्वी की वनस्पति (घनी होकर) उसके साथ मिल गई। फिर वह चूरा-चूरा हो गई, जिसे हवाएँ उड़ाए फिरती[17] हैं। और अल्लाह प्रत्येक चीज़ का सामर्थ्य रखने वाला है।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E porta loro come esempio questa vita terrena, che è come l’acqua che facciamo piovere dal cielo, a cui si mischia l’erba del terreno, e diventa stoppa dispersa dal vento. E Allāh è Onnipotente.
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
45. Ir pateik jiems šio pasaulio gyvenimo pavyzdį: tai kaip vanduo (lietus), kurį Mes nuleidome iš dangaus, ir žemės augmenija sąveikauja su juo, ir tampa šviežia ir žalia. Tačiau (vėliau) ji išdžiūsta ir suskilinėja į gabalus, kuriuos vėjas išmėto. Ir Allahas yra Galintis padaryti viską.
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
И приведи им притчу о мирской жизни: она подобна воде, которую Мы ниспослали с неба; и с нею смешалась растительность земли, а затем стала сухим сором, который развеивают ветры. Аллах всегда был [и пребудет] всевластным над всем сущим.
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
Наведи им као пример да је живот на овом свету као биље, које и после натапања водом, коју Ми спуштамо са неба, ипак постане суво и ветрови га разнесу. А Аллах над свиме има моћ.
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
Na wapigie mfano wa uhai wa dunia ambao ni kama maji tunayoyateremsha kutoka mbinguni, yakachanganyika na mimea ya ardhi, kisha mimea hiyo ikawa vibuwa vinavyopeperushwa na upepo. Na Mwenyezi Mungu ni Mwenye uweza juu ya kila kitu.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Framställ för dem en liknelse om det jordiska livet: det är som regnet som vi sänder ned från himlen, varigenom jordens växtlighet spirar upp; därefter blir den till torra strån som vinden skingrar. Gud har fullständig makt över allt.
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
Onlara dünya hayatının örneğini ver: (Dünya hayatı), gökten indirdiğimiz yağmur gibidir ki, onun sebebiyle yeryüzünün bitkileri boy verip birbirine karışırlar. Fakat bütün bu canlılık sonunda rüzgârın savurduğu kuru bir çer çöpe döner. Allah, her şey üzerinde kudret sahibidir.
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
ان کے سامنے دنیا کی زندگی کی مثال (بھی) بیان کرو جیسے پانی جسے ہم آسمان سے اتارتے ہیں اس سے زمین کا سبزه ملا جلا (نکلا) ہے، پھر آخر کار وه چورا چورا ہوجاتا ہے جسے ہوائیں اڑائے لئے پھرتی ہیں۔ اللہ تعالیٰ ہر چیز پر قادر ہے.[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 Wealth and children are the adornments of the present life. But the things that last, the virtuous deeds, are better with your Lord for reward, and better for hope.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Wealth and children are an ornament of the life of the world. But the good deeds which endure are better in thy Lord's sight for reward, and better in respect of hope
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Wealth and children are an adornment of the life of this world; but enduring good works are better with thy Lord, as a recompense, and better as a hope
John Medows Rodwell1861 Wealth and children are the adornment of this present life: but good works, which are lasting, are better in the sight of thy Lord as to recompense, and better as to hope
George Sale1734 Wealth and children are the ornaments of this present life: But good works, which are permanent, are better in the sight of thy Lord, with respect to the reward, and better with respect to hope
Talal Itani2012 On the Day when We set the mountains in motion; and you see the earth emerging; and We gather them together, and leave none of them behind.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And (bethink you of) the Day when we remove the hills and ye see the earth emerging, and We gather them together so as to leave not one of them behind
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And the day when we will move the mountains, and thou shalt see the (whole) earth stalking forth; and we will gather them, and will not leave one of them behind
John Medows Rodwell1861 And call to mind the day when we will cause the mountains to pass away, and thou shalt see the earth a levelled plain, and we will gather mankind together, and not leave of them any one
George Sale1734 On a certain day We will cause the mountains to pass away, and thou shalt see the earth appearing plain and even; and We will gather mankind together, and We will not leave any one of them behind
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 —
0.60 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
Talal Itani · George Sale0.74
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.69
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.67
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.64
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.64
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.60
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.56
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.53
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.52
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.46
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.