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.
If the truth conformed to their desires, the heavens, the earth, and everyone in them would have gone to ruin. In fact, We have given them their message, but they keepavoiding their message.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
And if the Truth had followed their desires, verily the heavens and the earth and whosoever is therein had been corrupted. Nay, We have brought them their Reminder, but from their Reminder they now turn away
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
But if the truth were to follow their lusts, the heavens and the earth would be corrupted with all who in them are! - Nay, we brought them their reminder, but they from their reminder turn aside
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
But if the truth had followed in the train of their desires, the heavens and the earth, and all that therein is, had surelycome to ruin! But we have brought them their warning; and from their warning they withdraw
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
If the truth had followed their desires, verily the heavens and the earth, and whoever therein is, had been corrupted. But We have brought them their admonition; and they turn aside from their admonition
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
Sikur e Vërteta të ndiqte dëshirat e tyre, do të shkatërroheshin qiejt e Toka dhe të gjithë ata që gjenden në to. Në të vërtetë, Ne ua kemi sjellë atyre Këshillën, por ata ia kthejnë shpinën Këshillës së tyre.
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 সত্য (আল্লাহ) যদি তাদের কামনা-বাসনার অনুগামী হতেন(১৪), তবে আসমানসমূহ, জমিন ও এতদুভয়ের মধ্যস্থিত সব কিছু ধ্বংস হয়ে যেতো। বরং আমি তাদেরকে দিয়েছি তাদের উপদেশবাণী (আলকুরআন)। অথচ তারা তাদের উপদেশ হতে মুখ ফিরিয়ে নিচ্ছে।
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
Da se Allah za prohtjevima njihovim povodi, sigurno bi nestalo poretka na nebesima i na Zemlji i u onom što je na njima. Mi smo im dali Kur’an, slavu njihovu, ali oni za slavu svoju ne haju.
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
Da se Allah za prohtjevima njihovim povodi, sigurno bi nestalo poretka na nebesima i na Zemlji i u onom što je na njima. Mi smo im dali Kuran, slavu njihovu, ali oni za slavu svoju ne haju.
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
Sinndo Alqur'aana jokkuno beleeɗe maɓɓe ɗen, kammuuji ɗin e leydi ndin bonayno e ɓen wonuɓe e majji, ko woni, Min addaniiɓe waaju maɓɓe ngun, kamɓe koɓe ɗurniiɓe ga waaju maɓɓe ngun.
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
ჭეშმარიტება მათ სურვილებს რომ აჰყოლოდა, გაფუჭდებოდა ცანი, დედამიწა და ის, ვინც მათშია. მაგრამ ჩვენ მივუტანეთ მათ [მექქელებს] შეგონება, რომელიც მათვე ეხება [ყურანი, სადაც მათზეა საუბარი], თუმცა ისინი ამ შეგონებისგან [ყურანისგან] ზურგს იქცევენ.
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 die Wahrheit ihren Neigungen gefolgt wäre, gerieten die Himmel und die Erde und wer in ihnen ist fürwahr ins Verderben. Vielmehr kamen Wir zu ihnen mit ihrer Ermahnung, sie aber wenden sich von ihrer Ermahnung ab.
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
Πράγματι, αν η αλήθεια ακολουθούσε τις επιθυμίες τους (και διευθετούσε ο Αλλάχ όλα τα θέματα σύμφωνα μ' αυτές), θα είχαν καταστραφεί οι ουρανοί και η γη, και ό,τι υπάρχει μέσα τους! Όχι (η αλήθεια δε θα ακολουθήσει τις επιθυμίες τους), αλλά τους στείλαμε την Υπενθύμιση γι' αυτούς (δηλ. το Κορ’άν που περιέχει δόξα και δύναμη γι' αυτούς αν το ακολουθήσουν), αλλά αυτοί αποστράφηκαν από την Υπενθύμισή τους.
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 यदि सत्य उनकी इच्छाओं के पीछे चले, तो निश्चय सब आकाश और धरती और जो कोई उनमें है, सब बिगड़ जाएँ। बल्कि हम उनके पास उनकी नसीह़त लेकर आए हैं। ते वे अपनी नसीह़त से मुँह मोड़ने वाले हैं।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E se la Verità (Il Creatore) si conformasse ai loro capricci, sarebbero andati in rovina i principi nei cieli e in terra e chi vi dimora. Ma è stato portato loro l’Avvertimento, ma furono avversi al loro Avvertimento.
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
71. Ir jei tiesa sutaptų su jų troškimais, iš tiesų, dangūs ir žemė ir visa, kas juose, būtų sugadinta! Ne, Mes atnešėme jiems priminimą, tačiau jie nusigręžia nuo savo priminimo.
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
Если бы истина следовала их прихотям, то непременно разрушились бы небеса и земля, и все, кто в них. Нет, напротив, Мы принесли им их напоминание, но они от своего напоминания отворачиваются.
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 би Аллах ствари усклађивао према прохтевима њиховим, сигурно би нестало поретка на небесима и на Земљи и у оном што је на њима. Ми смо им дали Кур’ан, славу њихову, али се они од славе своје окрећу.
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 lau kuwa Haki ingelifuata matamanio yao, basi zingeliharibika mbingu na ardhi na waliomo ndani yake. Bali tumewaletea ukumbusho wao, nao wanajitenga mbali na ukumbusho wao.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Och om sanningen hade rättat sig efter deras önskningar, skulle himlarna och jorden och allt däri gå under. Nej, vi har gett dem [Koranen] som är källan till deras ära, men de vänder sig bort från den.
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
Eğer hak, onların hevâ ve heveslerine tâbi olsaydı, gökler, yer ve içindeki herkes, mutlaka bozguna uğrardı. Oysa biz onlara, şan ve şereflerini ihtiva eden Kur'an'ı getirdik. Fakat onlar, bundan yüz çevirmektedirler.
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
اگر حق ہی ان کی خواہشوں کا پیرو ہوجائے تو زمین وآسمان اور ان کے درمیان کی ہر چیز درہم برہم ہو جائے[1] ۔ حق تو یہ ہے کہ ہم نے انہیں ان کی نصیحت پہنچا دی ہے لیکن وه اپنی نصیحت سے منھ موڑنے والے ہیں.
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 31635ʾam yaqūlūna bihi ǧinnatun bal ǧāʾahum bil-ḥaqqi waʾakṯaruhum lilḥaqqi kārihūna
Talal Itani2012 Or do they say, "He is possessed?" In fact, he brought them the truth, but most of them hate the truth.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Or say they: There is a madness in him? Nay, but he bringeth them the Truth; and most of them are haters of the Truth
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Or do they say, 'He is possessed by a ginn?' Nay, he came to them with the truth, and most of them are averse from the truth
John Medows Rodwell1861 Or say they, "A Djinn is in him?" Nay! he hath come to them with the truth; but the truth do most of them abhor
George Sale1734 Or do they say, he is a madman? Nay, he hath come unto them with the truth; but the greater part of them detest the truth
DIN 31635ʾam tasʾaluhum ḫarǧan faḫarāǧu rabbika ḫayrun wahuwa ḫayru r-rāziqīna
Talal Itani2012 Or are you asking them for a payment? The revenue from your Lord is better, and He is the Best of providers.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Or dost thou ask of them (O Muhammad) any tribute? But the bounty of thy Lord is better, for He is Best of all who make provision
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Or dost thou ask them for a tribute? but the tribute of thy Lord is better, for He is the best of those who provide
John Medows Rodwell1861 Dost thou ask them for remuneration? But, remuneration from thy Lord is best; and He is the best provider
George Sale1734 Dost thou ask of them any maintenance for thy preaching? Since the maintenance of thy Lord is better; for He is the most bounteous provider
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 —
0.56 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 · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.68
Talal Itani · George Sale0.66
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.65
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.63
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.59
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.59
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.57
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.51
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.49
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.26
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.