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Al-Baqara البقرة

In plain wordsEditorial

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

Two hundred and eighty-six verses, the longest surah by both verse and word count. It opens with disconnected letters and a statement about the book itself, and it takes its name from the cow described from verse 67.

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.

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

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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.

2:276
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.84. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.90.

Edward Henry Palmer · 1880

God shall blot out usury, but shall make almsgiving profitable, for God loves not any sinful misbeliever

John Medows Rodwell · 1861

God will bring usury to nought, but will increase alms with usury, and God loveth no infidel, or evil person
2:207
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.76. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.88.

Edward Henry Palmer · 1880

And there is among men one who selleth his soul craving, those things that are pleasing unto God and God is kind unto His servants

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

And of mankind is he who would sell himself, seeking the pleasure of Allah; and Allah hath compassion on (His) bondmen
Show all verses the translators word differently
2:224
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.75. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.88.

Talal Itani · 2012

And do not allow your oaths in God's name to hinder you from virtue, and righteousness, and making peace between people. God is Listener and Knower.

John Medows Rodwell · 1861

Swear not by God, when ye make oath, that ye will be virtuous and fear God, and promote peace among men; for God is He who Heareth, Knoweth
2:205
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.75. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.86.

Talal Itani · 2012

When he gains power, he strives to spread corruption on earth, destroying properties and lives. God does not like corruption.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

And when he turneth away (from thee) his effort in the land is to make mischief therein and to destroy the crops and the cattle; and Allah loveth not mischief
2:81
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.73. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.81.

Talal Itani · 2012

Indeed, whoever commits misdeeds, and becomes besieged by his iniquities-these are the inmates of the Fire, wherein they will dwell forever.

George Sale · 1734

Verily who so doth evil, and is encompassed by his iniquity, they shall be the companions of hell fire, they shall remain therein for ever
More about this surahDerived
Verses
286
Words
6,117
Place
Medinan
Revelation position
87th of 114 in an ordering its source does not name
Opening letters
الٓمٓ one of 29 surahs that open this way
Bismillah
Carried by the surah, unnumbered
Word-by-word breakdown
54.8% of 6,117 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
0.59 across 286 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