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.
When Our clear revelations are recited to them, those who disbelieve say to those who believe, "Which of the two parties is better in position, and superior in influence?"
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
And when Our clear revelations are recited unto them, those who disbelieve say unto those who believe: Which of the two parties (yours or ours) is better in position, and more imposing as an army
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 when our signs are recited to them manifest, those who misbelieve say to those who believe, 'Which of the two parties is best placed and in the best company
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And when our clear signs are rehearsed to them, the infidels say to those who believe: "Which of the two parties is in the best plight? and which is the most goodly company
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
When our manifest signs are read unto them, the infidels say unto the truebelievers, which of the two parties is in the more eligiblecondition, and formeth the more excellentassembly
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
Kur u lexohen ajetet Tona të qarta, jobesimtarët u thonë atyre që besuan: "Cili grup ka pozitë më fisnike dhe rreth më të mirë?"
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 যখন তাদের কাছে আমার সুস্পষ্ট আয়াতসমূহ তিলাওয়াত করা হয়, তখন কাফিররা মুমিনদের বলে, দুই দলের মধ্যে কে মর্যাদায় উত্তম এবং আসর (সমাবেশস্থল)-এর দিক থেকে অধিক 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
Kad su im se Naši jasni ajeti kazivali, onda su oni koji nisu vjerovali govorili onima koji su vjerovali: “Ili smo mi ili vi u boljem položaju i ko ima više pobornika?”
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
Kad su im se Naši jasni ajeti kazivali, onda su oni koji nisu vjerovali govorili onima koji su vjerovali: “Ili smo mi ili vi u boljem položaju i tko ima više pobornika?”
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
Si janngaama e taweede maɓɓe aayeeje amen Ɓannguɗe ɗe yedduɓe ɓe mb'a gom- ɗimɓe ɓen: "Ko honnde e feddeeji ɗi ɗiɗi ɓuri moƴƴude darnde ɓuri moƴƴude kadi batu".
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 როდესაც მათ [ადამიანებს] ეკითხებათ ჩვენი აიათები ნათლად და აშკარად განმარტებულნი [მკაფიო მნიშვნელობის მქონენი], ურწმუნოები ეუბნებიან მორწმუნეებს: «ამ ორი ჯგუფიდან [მორწმუნეთა და ურწმუნოთა შორის] რომელი არის უკეთეს მდგომარეობაში და უფრო დიდებული შემადგენლობით (ამქვეყნიურ ცხოვრებაში)?»
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 wenn ihnen Unsere Zeichen als klare Beweise verlesen werden, sagen diejenigen, die ungläubig sind, zu denjenigen, die glauben: „Welcher der beiden Gruppen hat nun eine bessere Stellung und eine schönere Gesellschaft?“
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
Όταν τα Εδάφιά Μας απαγγέλλονται σ' αυτούς (στους ανθρώπους), ξεκάθαρα, λένε οι άπιστοι (από τη φυλή Κουράις) στους (φτωχούς) πιστούς: «Ποια από τις δύο ομάδες (ανάμεσά μας) έχει τον καλύτερο τόπο κατοικίας και τον καλύτερο τόπο συγκέντρωσης (με περισσότερους παρόντες); [δηλ. Πώς ισχυρίζεστε ότι το Ισλάμ είναι καλύτερο από την ειδωλολατρία, ενώ μένετε σε χάλια σπίτια και συναντιέστε κρυφά στον οίκο του Αλ-Άρκαμ;]»
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
तथा जब उनके समक्ष हमारी स्पष्ट आयतें पढ़ी जाती हैं, तो काफ़िर लोग ईमान लाने वालों से कहते हैं कि दोनों गिरोहों में से किसकी स्थिति बेहतर और सभा की दृष्टि से कौन अधिक अच्छा है?
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E quando i Nostri chiari Segni venivano recitati loro, i miscredenti dicevano a quelli che hanno creduto: “Qual è la fazione che ha migliore dimora e di migliore posizione?”
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
73. Ir kai Mūsų Aiškios Eilutės recituojamos jiems, tie, kurie netiki (turtingi ir stiprūs iš Kuraišų pagonių tarpo, kurie gyvena prabangų gyvenimą) sako tiems, kurie tiki (silpni, vargingi Pranašo Muchammedo ﷺ komapnjonai, kurių gyvenimas sunkus): „Kuri iš dviejų grupių (t. y. tikintieji ar netikintieji) yra geriausioje padėtyje ir poste (tarybos vietoje konsultuojantis).“
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
Когда им читаются Наши аяты ясно изложенными, те, которые отвергли веру, говорят тем, которые уверовали: «Какая из двух групп лучше по положению и прекраснее собранием?»
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
Када су им се Наше јасне речи казивале, онда су неверници говорили верницима: “Шта мислите, ко је у бољем положају и ко има више поборника?”
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 wanaposomewa Aya zetu zilizo wazi, wale waliokufuru huwaambia wale walioamini: Ni lipi katika makundi mawili haya lenye cheo kizuri na lililo zuri zaidi barazani?
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
När våra klara verser reciteras för dem säger de otrogna [hånfullt] till de troende: ”Vilka [av oss] lever i bättre förhållanden och samlas i mer förnämliga sällskap?”
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
Ayetlerimiz kendilerine apaçık bir şekilde okunduğu zaman, kâfir olanlar, iman edenlere; "İki gruptan hangisi makam bakımından daha iyi ve topluluk bakımından daha güzeldir?" dediler.
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
جب ان کے سامنے ہماری روشن آیتیں تلاوت کی جاتی ہیں تو کافر مسلمانوں سے کہتے ہیں بتاؤ ہم تم دونوں جماعتوں میں سے کس کا مرتبہ زیاده ہے؟ اور کس کی مجلس شاندار 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.
Easy-read (simplified)wakam ahlaknaa qablahum min qarnin hum ahsanu athaathan wari'yaa
DIN 31635wakam ʾahlaknā qablahum min qarnin hum ʾaḥsanu ʾaṯāṯan wariʾyan
Talal Itani2012 How many a generation have We destroyed before them, who surpassed them in riches and splendor?
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 How many a generation have We destroyed before them, who were more imposing in respect of gear and outward seeming
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And how many generations before them have we destroyed who were better off in property and appearance
John Medows Rodwell1861 But how many generations have we brought to ruin before them, who surpassed them in riches and in splendour
George Sale1734 But how many generations have We destroyed before them, which excelled them in wealth, and in outward appearance
Easy-read (simplified)qul man kaana fee d-dalaalati falyamdud lahu r-rahmaanu maddan hattaa idhaa ra'aw maa yoo'adoona immaa l-'adhaaba wa'immaa s-saa'ata fasaya'lamoona man huwa sharrun makaanan wa'ad'afu jundaa
DIN 31635qul man kāna fī ḍ-ḍalālati falyamdud lahu r-raḥmānu maddan ḥattā ʾiḏā raʾaw mā yūʿadūna ʾimmā l-ʿaḏāba waʾimmā s-sāʿata fasayaʿlamūna man huwa šarrun makānan waʾaḍʿafu ǧundan
Talal Itani2012 Say, "Whoever is in error, the Most Merciful will lead him on." Until, when they see what they were promised-either the punishment, or the Hour. Then they will know who was in worse position and weaker in forces.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Say: As for him who is in error, the Beneficent will verily prolong his span of life until, when they behold that which they were promised, whether it be punishment (in the world), or the Hour (of doom), they will know who is worse in position and who is weaker as an army
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Say, 'Whosoever is in error, let the Merciful extend to him length of days!- until they see what they are threatened with, whether it be the torment or whether it be the Hour, then they shall know who is worse placed and weakest in forces
John Medows Rodwell1861 SAY: As to those who are in error, the God of Mercy will lengthen out to them a length of days Until they see that with which they are threatened, whether it be some present chastisement, or whether it be "the Hour," and they shall then know which is in the worse state, and which the more weak in forces
George Sale1734 Say, whosoever is in error, the Merciful will grant him a long and prosperous life; until they see that with which they are threatened, whether it be the punishment of this life, or that of the last hour; and hereafter they shall know who is in the worse condition, and the weaker in forces
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 —
0.53 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 Sale0.66
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.64
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.61
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.59
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.59
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.57
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.47
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.45
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.39
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.35
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.
Sources, editions and licences for everything above
ReceiptsSource fact
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.