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
The likeness of those who take to themselves protectors other than God is that of the spider. It builds a house. But the most fragile of houses is the spider's house. If they only knew.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
The likeness of those who choose other patrons than Allah is as the likeness of the spider when she taketh unto herself a house, and lo! the frailest of all houses is the spider's house, if they but knew
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
The likeness of those who take, beside God, patrons is as the likeness of a spider, that takes to himself a house; and, verily, the weakest of houses is a spider's house, if they did but know
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
The likeness for those who take to themselves guardiansinstead of God is the likeness of the SPIDER who buildeth her a house: But verily, frailest of all houses surely is the house of the spider. Did they but know this
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
The likness of those who take other patrons besides God, is as the likeness of the spider, which maketh herself a house: But the weakest of all houses surely is the house of the spider; if they knew this
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 që marrin mbrojtës të tjerë në vend të Allahut i shëmbëllejnë merimangës, e cila thur një shtëpi për vete, por nuk ka dyshim se shtëpia më e brishtë është ajo e merimangës. Veç sikur ta dinin!
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
যারা ( উপকার ও সুপারিশের আশায়) আল্লাহ ছাড়া বহু অভিভাবক গ্রহণ করে, তাদের দৃষ্টান্ত মাকড়সার ন্যায়, যে (আক্রমণ থেকে বাঁচার জন্য) ঘর বানায়। অথচ মাকড়সার ঘরই সবচাইতে দুর্বল ঘর; যদি তারা জানতো।
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
Oni koji, mimo Allaha, zaštitnike uzimaju slični su pauku koji sebi isplete kuću – a najslabija je kuća, uistinu, paukova kuća, neka znaju!
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
Oni koji, mimo Allaha, zaštitnike uzimaju slični su pauku koji sebi isplete kuću – a najslabija je kuća, uistinu, paukova kuća, neka znaju!
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
Misal ɓen jogitiiɓe ga Alla deweteeɗi, ko wano marijaawowal(njomblo) saccungal suudu. Ko ɓuri lo'ode non e cuuɗi ɗin, ko suudu marijaawo. Sinno ɓe annduno!
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
იმათი [მრავალღმერთიანების] (საქმის) მაგალითი, რომლებმაც ალლაჰის გარდა მფარველები აირჩიეს (რომელთა დახმარების იმედიც აქვთ), ჰგავს ობობის მაგალითს, რომელმაც თავისთვის საცხოვრებელი გაიკეთა (რომელშიც დაცვას ეძებს). და, ჭეშმარიტად, ყველაზე სუსტი საცხოვრებელი [ისეთი, რომელიც არც სიცხისგან იცავს და არც სიცივისგან], უეჭველად, ობობის საცხოვრებელია, ნეტავ მათ სცოდნოდათ!
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
Das Gleichnis derjenigen, die sich anstatt Allahs Schutzherren genommen haben, ist das Gleichnis der Spinne, die sich ein Haus genommen hat; das schwächste Haus ist ja das Haus der Spinne, wenn sie (es) nur wüssten!
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
Το παράδειγμα εκείνων που παίρνουν (τα είδωλα και τους ψεύτικους θεούς ως) υποστηρικτές (και κηδεμόνες και τους λατρεύουν) εκτός από τον Αλλάχ, είναι σαν εκείνο μίας αράχνης που έχτισε ένα σπίτι (για να την προστατέψει). Πράγματι, το πιο αδύναμο σπίτι είναι το σπίτι της αράχνης, αν γνώριζαν.
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
उन लोगों का उदाहरण जिन्होंने अल्लाह के सिवा अन्य संरक्षक बना रखे हैं, मकड़ी के उदाहरण जैसा है, जिसने एक घर बनाया। हालाँकि, निःसंदेह सब घरों से कमज़ोर[21] तो मकड़ी का घर है, अगर वे जानते होते।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
L’esempio di quelli che hanno preso protettori all’infuori di Allāh è come l’esempio del nido che il ragno fa per sé: in verità quella del ragno è la dimora più fragile, se sapessero.
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
41. Panašumas tų, kurie prisiima (netikrus dievus kaip) Aulija (globėjais, padėjėjais) kitus nei Allahas yra kaip panašumas voro, kuris stato (sau) namą. Tačiau iš tiesų, trapiausias (silpniausias) iš namų yra voro namas – jei tik jie žinotų.
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 1.0.8
Afaan Oromoo · Oromo
Fakkeenyi warra Rabbii gaditti jaalalleewwan (gabbaran) godhatanii (gabbaranii) akka saaphaphuu mana ijaarratteeti. Dhugumatti irra laafaan manaa mana saaphaphuuti odoo kan beekan ta’anii.
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
Притча о тех, которые взяли себе помимо Аллаха покровителей, подобна притче о пауке, который свил себе дом, — тогда как, воистину, самый непрочный из домов — дом паука, если бы они только знали.
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
Они који, мимо Аллаха, узимају заштитнике слични су пауку који себи исплете кућу, а најслабија кућа, засигурно, је паукова кућа, кад би само знали.
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
Mfano wa wale waliowafanya walinzi badala ya Mwenyezi Mungu, ni mfano wa buibui alivyojitandia nyumba. Na hakika nyumba dhaifu mno kuliko zote ni jumba la buibui, laiti kuwa wanajua.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
De som tar sig beskyddare i stället för Gud liknar spindeln som byggde sig ett hus – men inget hus är bräckligare än spindelns. Om de bara kunde begripa det!
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
Allah’tan başka veliler edinenlerin durumu kendine yuva yapan örümceğin durumuna benzer. Evlerin en dayanıksızı ise şüphesiz örümcek evidir. Keşke bilselerdi!
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
جن لوگوں نے اللہ تعالیٰ کے سوا اور کارساز مقرر کر رکھے ہیں ان کی مثال مکڑی کی سی ہے کہ وه بھی ایک گھر بنا لیتی ہے، حاﻻنکہ تمام گھروں سے زیاده بودا گھر مکڑی کا گھر ہی ہے[1] ، کاش! وه جان لیتے.
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 Quaroon, and Pharaoh, and Hamaan-Moses went to them with clear arguments, but they acted arrogantly in the land. And they could not get ahead.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And Korah, Pharaoh and Haman! Moses came unto them with clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty), but they were boastful in the land. And they were not winners (in the race)
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And Korah and Pharaoh and Haman - Moses did come to them with manifest signs, but they were too big with pride in the earth, although they could not outstrip us
John Medows Rodwell1861 And Corah and Pharaoh and Haman. With proofs of his mission did Moses come to them, and they behaved proudly on the earth; but us they could not outstrip
George Sale1734 And We likewise destroyed Karun, and Pharaoh, and Haman. Moses came unto them with evident miracles; and they behaved themselves insolently in the earth: But they could not escape our vengeance
Easy-read (simplified)fakullan akhadhnaa bidhanbihi faminhum man arsalnaa 'alayhi haasiban waminhum man akhadhathu s-sayhatu waminhum man khasafnaa bihi l-'arda waminhum man aghraqnaa wamaa kaana llaahu liyazlimahum walaakin kaanoo anfusahum yazlimoon
DIN 31635fakullan ʾaḫaḏnā biḏanbihi faminhum man ʾarsalnā ʿalayhi ḥāṣiban waminhum man ʾaḫaḏathu ṣ-ṣayḥatu waminhum man ḫasafnā bihi l-ʾarḍa waminhum man ʾaġraqnā wamā kāna llāhu liyaẓlimahum walākin kānū ʾanfusahum yaẓlimūna
Talal Itani2012 Each We seized by his sin. Against some We sent a sandstorm. Some were struck by the Blast. Some We caused the ground to cave in beneath them. And some We drowned. It was not God who wronged them, but it was they who wronged their own selves.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 So We took each one in his sin; of them was he on whom We sent a hurricane, and of them was he who was overtaken by the (Awful) Cry, and of them was he whom We caused the earth to swallow, and of them was he whom We drowned. It was not for Allah to wrong them, but they wronged themselves
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And each of them we seized in his sin; and of them were some against whom we sent a sandstorm; and of them were some whom the noise seized; and of them were some with whom we cleaved the earth open; and of them were some we drowned: God would not have wronged them, but it was themselves they wronged
John Medows Rodwell1861 For, every one of them did we seize in his sin. Against some of them did we send a stone-charged wind: Some of them did the terrible cry of Gabriel surprise: for some of them we cleaved the earth; and some of them we drowned. And it was not God who would deal wrongly by them, but they wronged themselves
George Sale1734 Every of them did We destroy in his sin. Against some of them We sent a violent wind: Some of them did a terrible noise from heaven destroy: Some of them did We cause the earth to swallow up: And some of them We drowned. Neither was God disposed to treat them unjustly; but they dealt unjustly with their own souls
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 —
0.57 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
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.68
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.60
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.59
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.59
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.56
Talal Itani · George Sale0.56
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.53
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.53
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.53
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.51
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.