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 when it is said to them, "Follow what God has revealed," they say, "We will follow what we found our ancestors following." Even if their ancestorsunderstood nothing, and were not guided?
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
And when it is said unto them: Follow that which Allah hath revealed, they say: We follow that wherein we found our fathers. What! Even though their fathers were whollyunintelligent and had no guidance
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
When it is said to them, 'Follow what God has revealed,' they say, 'Nay, we will follow what we found our fathers agreed upon.' What! and though their fathers had no sense at all or guidance
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And when it is said to them, "Follow ye that which God hath sent down;" they say, "Nay, we follow the usages which we found with our fathers." What! though their fathers were utterlyignorant and devoid of guidance
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And when it is said unto them who believe not, follow that which God hath sent down; they answer, nay, but we will follow that which we found our fathers practise. What? Though their fathers knew nothing, and were not rightlydirected
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 atyre u thuhet: "Ndiqni atë që ka shpallur Allahu!", ata thonë: "Jo! Ne do të ndjekim rrugën në të cilën i gjetëm të parët tanë." Vallë, edhe nëse të parët e tyre nuk kuptonin gjë dhe nuk ishin në rrugë të drejtë?!
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 তাদেরকে বলা হয়: ‘আল্লাহ যা নাযিল করেছেন, তোমরা তার অনুসরণ কর।’ তখন তারা বলে: ‘না; বরং আমরা অনুসরণ করবো তার, যার ওপর আমাদের পিতৃ-পুরুষদেরকে পেয়েছি।’ যদিও তাদের পিতৃ-পুরুষরা কিছু বুঝতো না এবং তারা সৎপথেও পরিচালিত ছিল না, তবুও কি তারা তাদেরই অনুসরণ করবে?
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
A kada im se kaže: "Slijedite ono što je Allah objavio!" – oni odgovaraju: "Ne, nego ćemo slijediti ono na čemu smo naše pretke zatekli." Zar i onda kada im preci nisu ništa shvaćali, niti su na Pravom putu bili?!
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
A kada im se kaže: "Slijedite ono što je Allah objavio!" oni odgovaraju: "Ne, nego ćemo slijediti ono na čemu smo naše pretke zatekli." Zar i onda kada im predci nisu ništa shvaćali, niti su na Pravom putu bili?!
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 ɓe wi'amaa:"Jokkee kon ko Allah Jippini", ɓe mbi'a:"Ko woni, men njokkay ko men tawri kon baabiraaɓe amen"; si tawii noon baabiraaɓe maɓɓe ɓen hakkilataa hay e huunde ɓe peewataa?!
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 როცა მათ [გზააბნეულებს] ეუბნებიან: «მიჰყევით (ყველა საქმეში) იმას, რაც ალლაჰმა გარდმოავლინა [ყურანსა და სუნნაში]!» — ისინი ამბობენ: «არა, ჩვენ მივყვებით იმას, რაზეც ვპოვეთ ჩვენი მამები». ნუთუ (ასე ბრმად მიჰყვებიან), და თუ მათი მამები ვერაფერს გებულობდნენ (რწმენისა და ჭეშმარიტი გზის საკითხებში) და სწორ გზაზე არ იდგნენ?
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 zu ihnen gesagt wird: „Folgt dem, was Allah hinabgesandt hat“, sagen sie: „Vielmehr folgen wir dem, worin wir unsere Väter vorgefunden haben.“ Was aber, wenn ihre Väter nichts begriffen und nicht rechtgeleitet waren?
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
Και όταν ειπωθεί σ' αυτούς (τους άπιστους): «Ακολουθήστε ό,τι έστειλε ο Αλλάχ.» Απαντούν: «Όχι! Αλλά θα ακολουθήσουμε αυτό που βρήκαμε τους πατέρες μας να ακολουθούν.» Ακόμη κι αν οι πατέρες τους δεν αντιλαμβάνονταν τίποτα, ούτε ήταν καθοδηγημένοι;
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 जब उनसे[90] कहा जाता है कि उसका अनुसरण करो जो अल्लाह ने (क़ुरआन) उतारा है, तो कहते हैं : बल्कि हम तो उसका अनुसरण करेंगे जिसपर हमने अपने बाप-दादा को पाया है। क्या अगरचे उनके बाप-दादा न कुछ समझते हों और न मार्गदर्शन पाते हों?
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E quando si disse: «Seguite quello che Allāh ha fatto discendere», dissero: «Invece noi seguiamo la dottrina che abbiamo trovato dai nostri padri», anche se i loro padri non ragionavano per nulla e non seguivano la Retta Via.
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
170. Kai jiems sakoma: „Sekite tuo, ką Allahas nuleido.“ Jie sako: „Ne, mes seksime tuo, ką mūsų tėvai sekė.“ (Argi jie taip darytų!), net jei jų tėvai nieko nesuvokė ir nebuvo teisingai vedami?
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
Yeroo "waan Rabbiin buuse hordofaa" isaanin jedhame "Lakki nuti waan abbootii keenya irratti garre hordofna" jedhu. Sila odoo abbootiin isaanii kan homaa hin beekneefi karaa qajeelatti hinqajeelfamin ta’anilleemoo (numa hordofanii)?
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 говорится: «Следуйте тому, что ниспослал Аллах», они говорят: «Нет, напротив, мы будем следовать тому, на чём застали своих отцов». А если их отцы ничего не разумели и не следовали верным путём?
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
А када им се каже: "Следите оно што је Аллах објавио!" - Они одговарају: "Не, него ћемо да следимо оно на чему смо наше претке затекли." Зар и онда када им преци нису ништа схватали, нити су били на Правом путу?!
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 wanapoambiwa: 'Fuateni aliyoyateremsha Mwenyezi Mungu;' wao husema: 'Bali tutafuata tuliyowakuta nayo baba zetu.' Je, hata ikiwa baba zao walikuwa hawaelewi kitu, wala hawakuongoka?
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Och när det sägs till dem: ”Följ det som Gud har uppenbarat!” svarar de: ”Vi följer hellre våra förfäders väg.” [Ska de blint följa] sina förfäder, fastän dessa inte använde sitt förstånd och inte alls var vägledda?
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, (Müşriklere) “Allah'ın indirdiği kitaba uyunuz!” dendiği zaman, “Hayır, biz atalarımızın yoluna uyarız” derler. Ya ataları akıl erdiremeyen ve doğru yolda olmayan kimseler idiyseler?
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
اور ان سے جب کبھی کہا جاتا ہے کہ اللہ تعالیٰ کی اتاری ہوئی کتاب کی تابعداری کرو تو جواب دیتے ہیں کہ ہم تو اس طریقے کی پیروی کریں گے جس پر ہم نے اپنے باپ دادوں کو پایا، گو ان کے باپ دادے بےعقل اور گم کرده راه ہوں۔[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 O people! Eat of what is lawful and good on earth, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. He is to you an open enemy.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and wholesome in the earth, and follow not the footsteps of the devil. Lo! he is an open enemy for you
Edward Henry Palmer1880 O ye folk! eat of what is in the earth, things lawful and things good, and follow not the footsteps of Satan, verily, to you he is an open foe
John Medows Rodwell1861 Oh men! eat of that which is lawful and good on the earth, but follow not the steps of Satan, for he is your avowed enemy
George Sale1734 O men, eat of that which is lawful and good on the earth; and tread not in the steps of the devil, for he is your open enemy
Talal Itani2012 He commands you to do evil and vice, and to say about God what you do not know.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 He enjoineth upon you only the evil and the foul, and that ye should tell concerning Allah that which ye know not
Edward Henry Palmer1880 He does but bid you evil and sin, and that ye should speak against God what ye do not know
John Medows Rodwell1861 He only enjoineth you evil and wickedness, and that ye should aver of God that which ye know not
George Sale1734 Verily he commandeth you evil and wickedness, and that ye should say that of God which ye know not
Talal Itani2012 The parable of those who disbelieve is that of someone who calls upon someone who hears nothing except screaming and yelling. Deaf, dumb, and blind-they do not understand.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 The likeness of those who disbelieve (in relation to the messenger) is as the likeness of one who calleth unto that which heareth naught except a shout and cry. Deaf, dumb, blind, therefore they have no sense
Edward Henry Palmer1880 The likeness of those who misbelieve is as the likeness of him who shouts to that which hears him not, save only a call and a cry; deafness, dumbness, blindness, and they shall not understand
John Medows Rodwell1861 The infidels resemble him who shouteth aloud to one who heareth no more than a call and cry! Deaf, Dumb, blind: therefore they have no understanding
George Sale1734 The unbelievers are like unto one who crieth aloud to that which heareth not so much as his calling, or the sound of his voice. They are deaf, dumb, and blind, therefore do they not understand
Easy-read (simplified)yaa ayyuhaa lladheena aamanoo kuloo min tayyibaati maa razaqnaakum washkuroo lillaahi in kuntum iyyaahu ta'budoon
DIN 31635yā ʾayyuhā llaḏīna ʾāmanū kulū min ṭayyibāti mā razaqnākum waškurū lillāhi ʾin kuntum ʾiyyāhu taʿbudūna
Talal Itani2012 O you who believe! Eat of the good things We have provided for you, and give thanks to God, if it is Him that you serve.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 O ye who believe! Eat of the good things wherewith We have provided you, and render thanks to Allah if it is (indeed) He Whom ye worship
Edward Henry Palmer1880 O ye who do believe! eat of the good things wherewith we have provided you, and give thanks unto God if it be Him ye serve
John Medows Rodwell1861 O ye who believe! eat of the good things with which we have supplied you, and give God thanks if ye are His worshippers
George Sale1734 O true believers, eat of the good things which we have bestowed on you for food, and return thanks unto God, if ye serve him
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 —
0.57 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 Sale0.67
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.62
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.60
Talal Itani · George Sale0.60
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.59
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.56
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.55
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.53
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.51
John Medows Rodwell · 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.