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, "Bow down to the Merciful," they say, "And what is the Merciful? Are we to bow down to whatever you command us?" And it increases their aversion.
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: Prostrate to the Beneficent! they say: And what is the Beneficent? Are we to prostrate to whatever thou (Muhammad) biddest us? And it increaseth aversion in them
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 it is said, ' Adore ye the Merciful!' they say, 'What is the Merciful? shall we adore what thou dost order us?' and it only increases their aversion
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
But when it is said to them, "Bow down before the God of Mercy," they say, "Who is the God of Mercy? Shall we bow down to what thou biddest?" And they fly from thee the more
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
When it is said unto the unbelievers, adore the Merciful; they reply, and who is the Merciful? Shall we adore that which thou commandest us? And this preceptcauseth them to fly the faster from the faith
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 u thuhet atyre: "Bjerini në sexhde të Gjithëmëshirshmit!", ata thonë: "Çfarë është i Gjithëmëshirshmi? A t'i biem në sexhde Atij që na urdhëron ti?" Kjo vetëm sa ua shton largimin.
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 (কাফিরদেরকে) বলা হয়, তোমরা ‘রহমান’ কে সাজদা করো, তখন তারা বলে, রহমান আবার কে? তুমি আমাদেরকে (কাউকে সাজদা করার) আদেশ করলেই কি আমরা (তাকে) সাজদা করবো? আর তাদেরকে সাজদার আদেশ করা মূলত তাদের (আল্লাহর ওপর ঈমান আনা থেকে) দূরত্ব ও পলায়নপরতাই বৃদ্ধি করে।
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 kad im se rekne: “Padajte ničice pred Milostivim!”, oni pitaju: “A ko je Milostivi? Zar da padamo ničice samo zato što nam ti naređuješ?” I još se više otuđuju.
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 kad im se rekne: “Padajte ničice pred Milostivim!” oni pitaju: “A tko je Milostivi? Zar da padamo ničice samo zato što nam ti naređuješ?” I još se više otuđuju.
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 wi'anaama ɓe: "cujjanee jurmotooɗo On" Ɓe mbi"a: "Ko hommbo woni jurmotooɗo On? Enee, hara men sujjanay kon ko yamirɗaa min?" Ɗuum ɓeydi ɓe foɗɗitaare.
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 თუ ეტყვიან [ურწმუნოებს]: «აღასრულეთ საჯდა მოწყალის [ალლაჰის] წინაშე, ისინი ამბობენ: «ჩვენ არ ვიცით ვინ არის მოწყალე? ნუთუ საჯდა აღვუსრულოთ იმას [ო, მუჰამმად], ვისაც შენ გვიბრძანებ?!» და ემატებათ მათ ზიზღი [რწმენის მიმართ].
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: „Werft euch vor dem Allerbarmer nieder“ sagen sie: „Was ist denn der Allerbarmer? Sollen wir uns (einfach) vor dem niederwerfen, was du uns anordnest?“ Und das mehrt ihnen (nur noch mehr) Abneigung.
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
Όταν τους λέγεται (στους ειδωλολάτρες): «Πέστε σε Σιτζούντ στάση (με το μέτωπο στο έδαφος) ενώπιον του Αρ-Ραχμάν (Παντελεήμονα)», λένε: «Ποιος είναι ο Αρ-Ραχμάν; Να πέσουμε σε Σιτζούντ στάση γι' Αυτόν που μας διατάζεις εσύ;» Και τους οδηγεί (το κάλεσμά του, το να λατρεύουν τον Αρ-Ραχμάν), σε μεγαλύτερη αποστροφή (από την πίστη).
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 कहा जाता है कि 'रह़मान' (अत्यंत दयावान्) को सजदा करो, तो कहते हैं कि 'रह़मान' क्या है? क्या हम उसे सजदा करें, जिसके लिए तू हमें आदेश देता है? और यह बात उन्हें बिदकने में और बढ़ा देती है।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E se veniva detto loro: «prosternatevial Compassionevole!» ﴿اسْجُدُوا لِلرَّحْمَنِ﴾ Dicevano: «E chi è il Compassionevole? Dobbiamo prosternarci forse davanti a chi ci ordini?» Ciò aumentò la loro lontananza dalla fede. ۩
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
60. Ir kai sakoma jiems: „Sukniubkite prieš Maloningiausiąjį (Allahą)!” Jie sako: „O kas yra Maloningiausiasis? Argi mes sukniubsime prieš tą, kurį tu (Muchammedai ﷺ) mums įsakai?“ Ir tai padidina juose tik neapykantą.
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
Когда им говорят: «Преклонитесь ниц перед Всемилостивым», они говорят: «А что такое “Всемилостивый”? Неужели мы преклонимся перед тем, что ты нам велишь?» — и это увеличивает их отвращение.
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 кад им се каже: „Ничице падните Свемилосном!“ Они питају: „А ко је Свемилосни? Зар да ничице падамо само зато што нам ти наређујеш?“ И то им повећа још већу одбојност.
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: Msujudieni Arrahman (Mwingi wa rehema!) Wao husema: Ni nani Arrahman (Mwingi wa rehema)? Je, tumsujudie unayetuamrisha wewe tu? Na huwazidishia kujitenga mbali.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Men när de uppmanas att falla ned inför den Nåderike, säger de: ”Vem är då denna Nåderike? Ska vi sätta pannorna mot marken bara för att du befaller oss?” Och med detta stiger bara deras motvilja ytterligare.
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: "Rahman'a secde edin!" denildiği zaman, “Rahman da neymiş? Biz senin bize emrettiğine mi secde edecekmişiz?" derler ve (bu) onların (haktan) kaçıp uzaklaşmalarını arttırıverir.
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
ان سے جب بھی کہا جاتا ہے کہ رحمٰن کو سجده کرو تو جواب دیتے ہیں رحمٰن ہے کیا؟ کیا ہم اسے سجده کریں جس کا تو ہمیں حکم دے رہا ہے اور اس (تبلیﻎ) نےان کی نفرت میں مزید اضافہ کردیا.[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 And put your trust in the Living, the One who never dies; and celebrate His praise. He suffices as the All-Informed Knower of the faults of His creatures.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And trust thou in the Living One Who dieth not, and hymn His praise. He sufficeth as the Knower of His bondmen's sins
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And rely thou upon the Living One who dies not; and celebrate His praise, for He knows well enough about the thoughts of His servants
John Medows Rodwell1861 And put thou thy trust in Him that liveth and dieth not, and celebrate his praise; (He fully knoweth the faults of his servants)
George Sale1734 And do thou trust in Him who liveth, and dieth not; and celebrate his praise: -- He is sufficiently acquainted with the faults of his servants
Talal Itani2012 He who created the heavens and the earth and everything between them in six days, then settled on the Throne. The Most Merciful. Ask about Him a well-informed.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Who created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six Days, then He mounted the Throne. The Beneficent! Ask anyone informed concerning Him
Edward Henry Palmer1880 He who created the heavens and the earth, and what is between them, in six days, and then made for the throne; the Merciful One, ask concerning Him of One who is aware
John Medows Rodwell1861 who in six days created the Heavens and the Earth, and whatever is between them, then mounted his Throne: the God of Mercy! Ask now of the Wise concerning Him
George Sale1734 Who hath created the heavens and the earth, and whatever is between them, in six days; and then ascended his throne; the Merciful. Ask now the knowing concerning Him
Talal Itani2012 Blessed is He who placed constellations in the sky, and placed in it a lamp, and an illuminating moon.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Blessed be He Who hath placed in the heaven mansions of the stars, and hath placed therein a great lamp and a moon giving light
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Blessed be He who placed in the heavens zodiacal signs, and placed therein the lamp and an illuminating moon
John Medows Rodwell1861 Blessed be He who hath placed in the Heaven the sign of the Zodiac! who hath placed in it the Lamp of the Sun, and the light-giving Moon
George Sale1734 Blessed be He who hath placed the twelve signs in the heavens; and hath placed therein a lamp by day, and the moon which shineth by night
Easy-read (simplified)wahuwa lladhee ja'ala llayla wan-nahaara khilfatan liman araada an yadhdhakkara aw araada shukooraa
DIN 31635wahuwa llaḏī ǧaʿala llayla wan-nahāra ḫilfatan liman ʾarāda ʾan yaḏḏakkara ʾaw ʾarāda šukūran
Talal Itani2012 And it is He who made the night and the day alternate-for whoever desires to reflect, or desires to show gratitude.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And He it is Who hath appointed night and day in succession, for him who desireth to remember, or desireth thankfulness
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And He it is who made the night and the day alternating for him who desires to remember or who wishes to be thankful
John Medows Rodwell1861 And it is He who hath ordained the night and the day to succeed one another for those who desire to think on God or desire to be thankful
George Sale1734 It is He who hath ordained the night and the day to succeed each other, for the observation of him who will consider, or desireth to shew his gratitude
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 —
0.63 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 Sale0.70
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.69
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.68
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.68
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.63
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.63
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.62
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.61
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.53
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.48
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.