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
When your Lord said to the angels, "I am placing a successor on earth." They said, "Will You place in it someone who will causecorruption in it and shed blood, while we declare Your praises and sanctify You?" He said, "I know what you do not know."
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
And when thy Lord said unto the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth, they said: Wilt thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn Thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said: Surely I know that which ye know not
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 thy Lord said unto the angels, 'I am about to place a vicegerent in the earth,' they said, 'Wilt Thou place therein one who will do evil therein and shed blood? we celebrate Thy praise and hallow Thee.' Said (the Lord), 'I know what ye know not
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
When thy Lord said to the angels, "Verily, I am about to place one in my stead on earth," they said, "Wilt thou place there one who will do ill therein and shed blood, when we celebrate thy praise and extol thy holiness?" God said, "Verily, I know what ye know not
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
When thy Lord said unto the angels, I am going to place a substitute on earth; they said, Wilt thou place there one who will do evil therein, and shed blood? But we celebrate thy praise, and sanctify Thee. God answered, verily I know that which ye know not
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
Kujto kur Zoti yt u tha melekëve: "Unë po krijoj një mëkëmbës në Tokë." Ata thanë: "A do të krijosh në të të atillë që bëjnë trazira dhe derdhin gjak, ndonëse ne të lavdërojmë, të madhërojmë e të lartësojmë?!" Ai tha: "Unë di atë që ju nuk dini."
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 স্মরণ করুন) যখন আপনার রব ফিরিশতাদের বললেন: ‘নিশ্চয় আমি জমিনে খলীফাহ সৃষ্টি করতে যাচ্ছি’। জবাবে তারা বলল: ‘আপনি কি সেখানে এমন কাউকে সৃষ্টি করবেন যে ফ্যাসাদ সৃষ্টি করবে ও রক্তপাত ঘটাবে? আর আমরাই তো আপনার সপ্রশংস তাসবীহ পাঠ করছি এবং পবিত্রতা ঘোষণা করছি । তিনি বললেন: ‘নিশ্চয়ই আমি যা জানি, তোমরা তা জান না’।
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 Gospodar tvoj reče melekima: "Ja ću na Zemlji namjesnika – halifu postaviti!", oni upitaše: "Zar ćeš na Zemlji postaviti onoga koji će na njoj nered širiti i krv prolijevati?! A mi Tebe veličamo hvalom i kako Tebi dolikuje štujemo." On reče: "Ja, doista, znam ono što vi ne znate."
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 Gospodar tvoj reče melecima: "Ja ću na Zemlji nasljednika – halifu postaviti!" oni upitaše: "Zar ćeš na Zemlji postaviti onoga koji će na njoj nered širiti i krv prolijevati?! A mi Tebe veličamo hvalom i kako Tebi dolikuje štujemo." On reče: "Ja, doista, znam ono što vi ne znate."
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
Nde Joom maa wiy maleykaaji ɗii maa Mi waɗ lomto Am he lesdi (leydi) ndii, ɓe mbi'i mbela a waɗat heen bonnoowo dufoowo ƴiiƴe , tawa minen ko Aan tan min njettata mi-ɗen cennu maa, O wi'i Miin Miɗo anndi ko on nganndaa.
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 აი, უთხრა შენმა უფალმა ანგელოზებს: «მე დავადგენ დედამიწაზე ხალიფას [ადამიანებს, რომლებიც მასზე იცხოვრებენ]». (ანგელოზებმა) თქვეს: «(ო, ჩვენო უფალო, გვამცნე, რა სიბრძნეა იმაში, რომ) შენ დაადგენ მასზე მათ,
ვინც იქ უწესრიგობას დათესავენ და სისხლს დაღვრიან,
ხოლო ჩვენ (შენ გემორჩილებით და) გადიდებთ შენ ქებით და ვაღიარებთ შენს სიწმინდეს?» მან [ალლაჰმა] თქვა: «ჭეშმარიტად, მე ვიცი ის [სიბრძნე, რატომაც ვქმნი ადამიანებს], რაც თქვენ არ იცით!»
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 als dein Herr zu den Engeln sagte: „Wahrlich, Ich werde auf der Erde einen Statthalter einsetzen.“ Sie sagten: „Willst Du auf ihr etwa jemanden einsetzen, der auf ihr Unheil stiftet und Blut vergießt, wo wir Dich doch lobpreisen und Deine Heiligkeit rühmen?“ Er sagte: „Wahrlich, Ich weiß, was ihr nicht wisst.“
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 (ανάφερε, ω, Μωχάμμαντ) όταν ο Κύριός σου είπε στους αγγέλους: «Στ’ αλήθεια, θα κάνω πάνω στη γη ανθρώπους που η κάθε γενιά θα διαδέχεται η μια την άλλη.» Είπαν (ρώτησαν για να μάθουν τη σοφία πίσω από αυτό): «Θα βάλεις πάνω της κάποιον που θα σκορπίζει το κακό εκεί και θα χύνει το αίμα, ενώ εμείς Σε δοξάζουμε ευγνωμονώντας Εσένα και Σε επαινούμε;» (Ο Αλλάχ) είπε: «Στ’ αλήθεια, γνωρίζω αυτό που δεν γνωρίζετε.»
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! याद कीजिए) जब आपके पालनहार ने फ़रिश्तों से कहा कि मैं धरती में एक ख़लीफ़ा[14] बनाने वाला हूँ। उन्होंने कहा : क्या तू उसमें उसको बनाएगा, जो उसमें उपद्रव करेगा तथा बहुत रक्तपात करेगा, जबकि हम तेरी प्रशंसा के साथ तेरा गुणगान करते और तेरी पवित्रता का वर्णन करते हैं। (अल्लाह ने) फरमाया : निःसंदेह मैं जानता हूँ जो तुम नहीं जानते।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E quando il tuo Dio disse agli Angeli: «Sto per stabilire un Vicario sulla terra!» Dissero: «Stabilisci in essa chi porterà corruzione e spargerà sangue, mentre noi Ti lodiamo e Ti osanniamo?» Disse: «Io so quello che voi non sapete!»
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
30. Ir (atminkite), kaip jūsų Viešpats sakė angelams: „Iš tiesų, aš apgyvendinsiu (žmonijos) kartas po kartų žemėje.“ Jie tarė: „Ar Tu apgyvendinsi ten tuos, kurie darys piktadarybes ir lies kraują, kai mes garbiname Tave šlovindami ir dėkodami ir šventiname Tave.“ Jis (Allahas) tarė: „Aš žinau tai, ko jūs nežinote.“
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
Вот твой Господь сказал ангелам: «Воистину, Я сделаю на земле наместника». Они сказали: «Неужели Ты установишь на ней того, кто станет творить на ней беззаконие и проливать кровь, тогда как мы прославляем Тебя хвалой и святим Тебя?» Он сказал: «Воистину, Я знаю то, чего вы не знаете».
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 Господар твој рече анђелима: "Ја ћу на Земљи намесника поставити!" Они упиташе: "Зар ћеш на Земљи поставити онога који ће на њој неред ширити и крв пролевати?! А ми Тебе славимо захваљујући Ти и светост Теби призивамо." Он рече: "Ја, заиста, знам оно што ви не знате."
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 pale Mola wako Mlezi alipowaambia Malaika: 'Hakika Mimi nitamweka katika ardhi Khalifa (mfwatizi)', wakasema: Utaweka humo atakayefanya uharibifu humo na kumwaga damu, hali sisi tunakutakasa kwa sifa zako na tunakutaja kwa utakatifu wako? Akasema: 'Hakika Mimi nayajua msiyoyajua.'
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Minns då din Herre sa till änglarna: ”Jag ska tillsätta en efterträdare på jorden.” De sa: ”Ska du sätta någon där som sprider fördärv och spiller blod, medan vi upphöjer dig och prisar ditt lov, och vi helgar dig?” Han svarade: ”Jag vet vad ni inte vet.”
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
Hani Rabbin meleklere: "Ben yeryüzünde bir halife yaratacağım." demişti. Melekler de: "Yeryüzünde bozgunculuk edecek, kanlar dökecek birini mi yaratacaksın? Oysa biz seni (durmadan) hamt ile tesbih ve takdis ediyoruz." dediler. Allah da "Sizin bilmediğiniz şeyleri ben bilirim." buyurmuştu.
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 جب تیرے رب نے فرشتوں[1] سے کہا کہ میں زمین میں خلیفہ بنانے واﻻ ہوں، تو انہوں[2] نے کہا ایسے شخص کو کیوں پیدا کرتا ہے جو زمین میں فساد کرے اور خون بہائے؟ اور ہم تیری تسبیح، حمد اور پاکیزگی بیان کرنے والے ہیں۔ اللہ تعالیٰ نے فرمایا، جو میں جانتا ہوں تم نہیں جانتے۔[3]
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 How can you deny God, when you were dead and He gave you life, then He will put you to death, then He will bring you to life, then to Him you will be returned?
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 How disbelieve ye in Allah when ye were dead and He gave life to you! Then He will give you death, then life again, and then unto Him ye will return
Edward Henry Palmer1880 How can ye disbelieve in God, when ye were dead and He made you alive, and then He will kill you and then make you alive again, and then to Him will ye return
John Medows Rodwell1861 How can ye withhold faith from God? Ye were dead and He gave you life; next He will cause you to die; next He will restore you to life: next shall ye return to Him
George Sale1734 How is it that ye believe not in God? Since ye were dead, and He gave you life; He will hereafter cause you to die, and will again restore you to life; then shall ye return unto Him
Talal Itani2012 It is He who created for you everything on earth, then turned to the heaven, and made them seven heavens. And He is aware of all things.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth. Then turned He to the heaven, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is knower of all things
Edward Henry Palmer1880 It is He who created for you all that is in the earth, then he made for the heavens and fashioned them seven heavens; and He knows all things
John Medows Rodwell1861 He it is who created for you all that is on Earth, then proceeded to the Heaven, and into seven Heavens did He fashion it: and He knoweth all things
George Sale1734 It is He who hath created for you whatsoever is on earth, and then set his mind to the creation of heaven, and formed it into seven heavens; He knoweth all things
Talal Itani2012 And He taught Adam the names, all of them; then he presented them to the angels, and said, "Tell Me the names of these, if you are sincere."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And He taught Adam all the names, then showed them to the angels, saying: Inform Me of the names of these, if ye are truthful
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And He taught Adam the names, all of them; then He propounded them to the angels and said, 'Declare to me the names of these, if ye are truthful
John Medows Rodwell1861 And he taught Adam the names of all things, and then set them before the angels, and said, "Tell me the names of these, if ye are endued with wisdom
George Sale1734 and He taught Adam the names of all things, and then proposed them to the angels, and said, declare unto Me the names of these things if ye say truth
Talal Itani2012 They said, "Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. It is you who are the Knowledgeable, the Wise."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 They said: Be glorified! We have no knowledge saving that which Thou hast taught us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower, the Wise
Edward Henry Palmer1880 They said, 'Glory be to Thee! no knowledge is ours but what Thou thyself hast taught us, verily, Thou art the knowing, the wise
John Medows Rodwell1861 They said, "Praise be to Thee! We have no knowledge but what Thou hast given us to know. Thou! Thou art the Knowing, the Wise
George Sale1734 They answered, praise be unto thee, we have no knowledge but what Thou teachest us, for Thou art knowing and wise
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 —
0.47 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 Sale0.60
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.58
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.57
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.54
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.45
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.41
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.41
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.40
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.37
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.37
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.