بَلْ قَالُوا۟ مِثْلَ مَا قَالَ ٱلْأَوَّلُونَ
Easy-read (simplified)bal qaaloo mithla maa qaala l-'awwaloon
DIN 31635bal qālū miṯla mā qāla l-ʾawwalūna
EditionTanzil Qur'an text (Uthmani) ·Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
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.
But they say the like of what the ancients said.
Talal Itani, ClearQuran ·ClearQuran, "God" edition, EPUB·Talal Itani / ClearQuran.com ·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International·retrieved 7 Sep 2026
Translation by Talal Itani, ClearQuran.com https://clearquran.com
Nay, but they say the like of that which said the men of old
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
Nay, but they said like that which those of yore did say
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an ·1880 translation, digital edition of unverified printing·None — public domain work ·Public domain — copyright term expired·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
But they say, as said those of old
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an ·1861 translation, digital edition of unverified printing·None — public domain work ·Public domain — copyright term expired·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
But the unbelieving Meccans say as their predecessors said
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
Por, ata thonë njësoj siç thanë të mëparshmit.
বরং তারা পূর্ববর্তীরা যা বলেছিল, ঠিক তেমনই বলেছে।
Ali, oni govore kao što su govorili oni prije njih.
Ali, oni govore kao što su govorili oni prije njih.
Ko woni, ɓe mbii' yeru ko aramɓe ɓe mb'inoo ko.
თუმცა, მათ [ურწმუნოებმა] იგივე თქვეს, რაც თქვეს პირველებმა [ადრე მცხოვრებმა ურწმუნოებმა].
Vielmehr sagen sie das gleiche, was die Früheren gesagt haben.
(Δε συλλογίζονται οι άπιστοι τα Σημάδια του Αλλάχ για την ανάσταση), αλλά είπαν τα ίδια που έλεγαν οι προηγούμενοι (άπιστοι) λαοί.
बल्कि उन्होंने वही बात कही, जो अगलों ने कही थी।
Ma loro dissero ciò che dissero i loro antenati.
81. Ne, tačiau jie sako panašiai, ką senovės žmonės sakydavo.
Fakkaatuma waan warri duraanii jedhanii jedhan.
Нет, напротив, они сказали то же, что сказали прежние.
Али, они говоре као што су говорили они пре њих.
Bali wanasema kama walivyosema watu wa kwanza.
Men de upprepar bara vad tidigare folk har sagt.
Aksine bunlar da öncekilerin dedikleri gibi dediler.
بلکہ ان لوگوں نے بھی ویسی ہی بات کہی جو اگلے کہتے چلے آئے.
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.
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.
shown so it's never read alone
وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى ذَرَأَكُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَإِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ
Easy-read (simplified)wahuwa lladhee dhara'akum fee l-'ardi wa'ilayhi tuhsharoon
DIN 31635wahuwa llaḏī ḏaraʾakum fī l-ʾarḍi waʾilayhi tuḥšarūna
And it is He who multiplied you on earth, and to Him you will be gathered.
And He it is Who hath sown you broadcast in the earth, and unto Him ye will be gathered
And He it is who created you in the earth, and unto Him shall ye be gathered
It is He who hath caused you to be born on the earth: and unto Him shall ye be gathered
It is He who hath produced you in the earth; and before Him shall ye be assembled
وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُحْىِۦ وَيُمِيتُ وَلَهُ ٱخْتِلَٰفُ ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
Easy-read (simplified)wahuwa lladhee yuhyee wayumeetu walahu khtilaafu llayli wan-nahaari afalaa ta'qiloon
DIN 31635wahuwa llaḏī yuḥyī wayumītu walahu ḫtilāfu llayli wan-nahāri ʾafalā taʿqilūna
And it is He who gives life and brings death, and to Him is the alternation of night and day. Do you not understand?
And He it is Who giveth life and causeth death, and His is the difference of night and day. Have ye then no sense
And He it is who gives you life and death; and His is the alternation of the night and the day; have ye then no sense
And it is He who maketh alive and killeth, and of Him is the change of the night and of the day: Will ye not understand
It is He who giveth life, and putteth to death; and to Him is to be attributed the vicissitude of night and day: Do ye not therefore understand
23:81 — the verse above
قَالُوٓا۟ أَءِذَا مِتْنَا وَكُنَّا تُرَابًا وَعِظَٰمًا أَءِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ
Easy-read (simplified)qaaloo a'idhaa mitnaa wakunnaa turaaban wa'izaaman a'innaa lamab'oothoon
DIN 31635qālū ʾaʾiḏā mitnā wakunnā turāban waʿiẓāman ʾaʾinnā lamabʿūṯūna
They say, "After we have died, and become dust and bones, will we be resurrected?
They say: When we are dead and have become (mere) dust and bones, shall we then, forsooth, be raised again
They said, 'What! when we have become earth and bones, are we then going to be raised
They say,"What! When we shall be dead, and have become dust and bones, shall we, indeed, be waked to life
They say, when we shall be dead, and shall have become dust and bones, shall we really be raised to life
لَقَدْ وُعِدْنَا نَحْنُ وَءَابَآؤُنَا هَٰذَا مِن قَبْلُ إِنْ هَٰذَآ إِلَّآ أَسَٰطِيرُ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ
Easy-read (simplified)laqad wu'idnaa nahnu wa'aabaa'unaa haadhaa min qablu in haadhaa illaa asaateeru l-'awwaleen
DIN 31635laqad wuʿidnā naḥnu waʾābāʾunā hāḏā min qablu ʾin hāḏā ʾillā ʾasāṭīru l-ʾawwalīna
We were promised this before-we and our ancestors-these are nothing but legends of the ancients."
We were already promised this, we and our forefathers. Lo! this is naught but fables of the men of old
We have been promised this, and our fathers too, before;- this is naught but old folks' tales
This have we been promised, we and our fathers aforetime: but it is only fables of the ancients
We have already been threatened with this, and our fathers also heretofore: This is nothing but fables of the ancients
EditionTanzil Qur'an text (Uthmani) ·Uthmani, Version 1.1·Tanzil Project ·Creative Commons Attribution 3.0·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
بَلْ قَالُوا مِثْلَ مَا قَالَ الْأَوَّلُونَ
EditionTanzil Qur'an text (Simple) ·Simple, Version 1.1·Tanzil Project ·Creative Commons Attribution 3.0·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
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 — 0.62 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.
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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.
SourceTanzil Qur'an text (Simple) ·Simple, Version 1.1·Tanzil Project ·Creative Commons Attribution 3.0·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
SourceTanzil Qur'an text (Simple) ·Simple, Version 1.1·Tanzil Project ·Creative Commons Attribution 3.0·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
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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.
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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.
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.
CLEARED. Parallel edition, held in ayah_text_variants. It sits alongside the Uthmani spine for search normalisation and is never used to correct it.
Qur'anic text from the Tanzil Project. Copyright (C) 2007-2026 Tanzil Project License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Source: tanzil.net · Updates: tanzil.net/updates/ https://tanzil.net/updates/