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.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
He calleth unto him whose harm is nearer than his benefit; verily an evil patron and verily an evilfriend
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
He calls on him whose harm is nigher than his profit,- a bad lord and a bad comrade
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
He will invoke him who will sooner be of hurt to his worshipper than of advantage. Such is surely a miserable patron, and a miserable companion
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
Ata adhurojnë diçka, dëmi i së cilës është më afër se dobia. Sa mbrojtës i keq dhe sa shok i keq që është!
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
সে (এ মূর্তিপূজারীরা) এমন কিছুকে ডাকে, যার ক্ষতি তার উপকার অপেক্ষা নিকটতর। কতই না নিকৃষ্ট এই অভিভাবক এবং কতই না নিকৃষ্ট এই সঙ্গী!
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
moli onoga što će mu prije nauditi nego od koristi biti; takav je, doista, loš zaštitnik i zao drug!
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
moli onoga što će mu prije nauditi nego od koristi biti; takav je, doista, loš zaštitnik i zao drug!
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
Homo rewa on mo lorra mum no ɓuri ɓadaade diini nafa mum kan, bonii welddiɗo bonii kadi wuuridaaɗo.
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
მოუხმობენ იმას, ვისაც ზიანი მოაქვს, და არ მოაქვს სარგებელი.
უეჭველად, ცუდია ასეთი მფარველი [ცრუ ღმერთი], და უეჭველად, ცუდია ასეთი მეგობარი!
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
Er ruft denjenigen an, dessen Schaden näher (und eher zu erwarten) ist als sein Nutzen. Wahrlich, welch schlimmer Schutzherr und welch schlimmer Gefährte!
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
Επικαλείται αυτά (τα είδωλα) των οποίων το κακό είναι πιο κοντά (σ' αυτόν) από το (χαμένο) όφελός τους [δηλ. εξαιτίας αυτών θα ριχτεί στη Φωτιά, και δε θα του προσφέρουν ποτέ κανένα όφελος). Τι άθλιος υποστηρικτής είναι αυτός (που δεν μπορεί να υποστηρίξει αυτόν που τον επικαλείται), και τι άθλιος σύντροφος είναι αυτός (γι' αυτόν που τον λατρεύει και τον παίρνει ως σύντροφο)!
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
वह उसे पुकारता है, जिसका नुक़सान उसके लाभ से अधिक निकट है। निःसंदेह वह बुरा संरक्षक तथा निःसंदेह बुरा साथी है।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
Invoca ciò il cui danno è più vicino al vantaggio: che infausto protettore, e che infausto compagno!
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
13. Jis šaukiasi to, kurio žala yra artimesnė nei jo nauda: iš tikrųjų, blogas Maula (globėjas) ir tikrai blogas draugas!
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
Он взывает к тому, чей вред ближе, нежели польза. Сколь же скверен такой покровитель и сколь же скверен такой спутник!
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
моли се ономе због чије ће молитве пре штету имати него корист; лош је то заштитник и зао пријатељ!
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
Humuomba yule ambaye bila ya shaka madhara yake yapo karibu zaidi kuliko manufaa yake. Kwa hakika huyo ni mlinzi muovu, na rafiki muovu.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Han tillber den som med större sannolikhet skadar honom än gagnar honom. Vilken usel beskyddare och vilket uselt 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
O, zarar vermesi, fayda vermesinden daha yakın olana ibadet eder. Ne kötü bir yardımcı, ne kötü bir arkadaştır.
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
اسے پکارتے ہیں جس کا نقصان اس کے نفع سے زیاده قریب ہے، یقیناً برے والی ہیں اور برے ساتھی.[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.
DIN 31635wamina n-nāsi man yaʿbudu llāha ʿalā ḥarfin faʾin ʾaṣābahu ḫayrun ṭmaʾanna bihi waʾin ʾaṣābathu fitnatun nqalaba ʿalā waǧhihi ḫasira d-dunyā wal-ʾāḫirata ḏālika huwa l-ḫusrānu l-mubīnu
The translators word this verse differently
Talal Itani2012 And among the people is he who worships God on edge. When something good comes his way, he is content with it. But when an ordeal strikes him, he makes a turnaround. He loses this world and the next. That is the obvious loss.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And among mankind is he who worshippeth Allah upon a narrow marge so that if good befalleth him he is content therewith, but if a trial befalleth him, he falleth away utterly. He loseth both the world and the Hereafter. That is the sheer loss
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And amongst men is one who serves God (wavering) on a brink; and if there befall him good, he is comforted; but if there befall him a trial, he turns round again, and loses this world and the next - that is an obvious loss
John Medows Rodwell1861 There are some who serve God in a single point. If good come upon one of them, he resteth in it; but if trial come upon him, he turneth him round (to infidelity) with the loss both of this world and of the next! This same is the clear ruin
George Sale1734 There are some men who serve God in a wavering manner, standing, as it were, on the verge of the true religion. If good befall one of them, he resteth satisfied therein; but if any tribulation befall him, he turneth himself round, with the loss both of this world, and of the life to come. This is manifest perdition
Easy-read (simplified)inna llaaha yudkhilu lladheena aamanoo wa'amiloo s-saalihaati jannaatin tajree min tahtihaa l-'anhaaru inna llaaha yaf'alu maa yureed
DIN 31635ʾinna llāha yudḫilu llaḏīna ʾāmanū waʿamilū ṣ-ṣāliḥāti ǧannātin taǧrī min taḥtihā l-ʾanhāru ʾinna llāha yafʿalu mā yurīdu
Talal Itani2012 God will admit those who believe and do righteous deeds into Gardens beneath which rivers flow. God does whatever He wills.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Lo! Allah causeth those who believe and do good works to enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow. Lo! Allah doth what He intendeth
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Verily, God makes those who believe and do aright enter into gardens beneath which rivers flow; verily, God does what He will
John Medows Rodwell1861 But God will bring in those who shall believe and do the things that are right, into gardens 'neath which the rivers flow: for God doth that which He pleaseth
George Sale1734 But God will introduce those who shall believe, and do righteous works, into gardens through which rivers flow; for God doth that which He pleaseth
Easy-read (simplified)man kaana yazunnu an lan yansurahu llaahu fee d-dunyaa wal-'aakhirati falyamdud bisababin ilaa s-samaa'i thumma lyaqta' falyanzur hal yudhhibanna kayduhu maa yagheez
DIN 31635man kāna yaẓunnu ʾan lan yanṣurahu llāhu fī d-dunyā wal-ʾāḫirati falyamdud bisababin ʾilā s-samāʾi ṯumma lyaqṭaʿ falyanẓur hal yuḏhibanna kayduhu mā yaġīẓu
The translators word this verse differently
Talal Itani2012 Whoever thinks that God will not help him in this life and in the Hereafter-let him turn to heaven, then sever, and see if his cunning eliminates what enrages him.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Whoso is wont to think (through envy) that Allah will not give him (Muhammad) victory in the world and the Hereafter (and is enraged at the thought of his victory), let him stretch a rope up to the roof (of his dwelling), and let him hang himself. Then let him see whether his strategy dispelleth that whereat he rageth
Edward Henry Palmer1880 He who thinks that God will never help him in this world or the next - let him stretch a cord to the roof and put an end to himself; and let him cut it and see if his stratagem will remove what he is enraged at
John Medows Rodwell1861 Let him who thinketh that God will not help His Apostle in this world and in the next, stretch a cord aloft as if to destroy himself; then let him cut it, and see whether his devices can bring that to nought at which he was angry
George Sale1734 Whoso thinketh that God will not assist his apostle in this world, and in the world to come, let him strain a rope towards heaven, then let him put an end to his life, and see whether his devices can render that ineffectual, for which he was angry
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 —
0.76 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 · John Medows Rodwell0.93
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.82
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.78
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.77
Talal Itani · George Sale0.77
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.73
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.72
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.71
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.68
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.67
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.