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
He said, "My Lord, give me a sign." He said, "Your sign is that you shall not speak to the people for three days, except by gestures. And remember your Lord much, and praise in the evening and the morning."
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
He said: My Lord! Appoint a token for me. (The angel) said: The token unto thee (shall be) that thou shalt not speak unto mankind three days except by signs. Remember thy Lord much, and praise (Him) in the earlyhours of night and morning
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 said, 'My Lord, make for me a sign.' He said, 'Thy sign is that thou shalt not speak to men for three days, save by gesture; but remember thy Lord much, and celebrate His praises in the evening and the morning
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
He said, "Lord! give me a token." He said, "Thy token shall be, that for three days thou shalt speak to no man but by signs: But remember thy Lord often, and praise him at even and at morn
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Zachariasanswered, Lord, give me a sign. The angel said, thy sign shall be, that thou shalt speak unto no man for three days, otherwise than by gesture: Remember thy Lord often, and praise him evening and morning
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
Ai tha: "O Zot! Më jep një shenjë!" Zoti tha: "Shenjë për ty është se tri ditë nuk mund t'u flasësh njerëzve, përveçse me gjeste, por përmende Zotin tënd shumë dhe madhëroje Atë në mbrëmje e në mëngjes."
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
তিনি (যাকারি্য়্যা) বলল: ‘হে আমার রব! (এ অস্বাভাবিক ঘটনার জন্যে) আমাকে একটি নিদর্শন দিন।’ তিনি বললেন: তোমার নিদর্শন এই যে, তিন দিন তুমি ইশারা-ইঙ্গিত ছাড়া মানুষের সাথে কথা বলবে না। আর তোমার রবের বেশি যিকির কর এবং সকাল-সন্ধ্যায় তাঁর তাসবীহ পাঠ কর।
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
"Gospodaru moj", zamoli Zekerijja, "daj mi neki znak!" "Znak će biti", reče On, "što tri dana s ljudima nećeš govoriti, osim znakovima! I mnogo spominji Gospodara svoga i hvali Ga krajem dana i rano ujutro."
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
"Gospodaru moj," zamoli Zaharija, "daj mi neki znak!" "Znak će biti", reče On, "što tri dana s ljudima nećeš govoriti, osim znakovima! I mnogo spominji Gospodara svoga i hvali Ga krajem dana i rano ujutro."
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
O wii: "Joomi, Waɗanam maande". O wii: "Maande maa nde, ko nde a haaldotaa e yimɓe ɓe ɓalɗe tati si wonaa e joopagol. Jaŋtoɗaa Joom maaɗa ko heewi: subbunhino-ɗaa kiiki e bimmbi".
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
მან (ზაქარიამ) თქვა: «უფალო ჩემო! მომეცი ნიშანი (იმის დასადასტურებლად, რაც ანგელოზებმა მაცნობეს)!» თქვა მან (ალლაჰმა): «შენი ნიშანი იქნება ის, რომ შენ (ო, ზაქარია) სამი დღე (სამი დღე-ღამე) ვერ ილაპარაკებ ადამიანებთან, გარდა ნიშნებით (მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ ჯანმრთელი იქნები). და (ამიტომ) ხშირად ახსენე შენი უფალი და განადიდე იგი საღამოობით და დილაობით».
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 (also Zakariyya) sagte: „Mein Herr, setze mir ein Zeichen.“ Er sagte: „Dein Zeichen ist, dass du drei Tage lang nicht zu den Menschen sprechen wirst, außer in Gebärden(sprache). Und gedenke deines Herrn häufig und preise (Ihn) am späten Nachmittag und am frühen Morgen!“
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
Είπε: «Κύριέ μου! Κάνε ένα σημάδι για μένα (για να ξέρω όταν συλλάβει η γυναίκα μου και να χαρώ).» Είπε: «Το σημάδι σου είναι ότι δεν θα μπορείς να μιλήσεις στους ανθρώπους για τρεις μέρες παρά μόνο με χειρονομίες. Και μνημόνευσε πολύ τον Κύριό σου και να (Τον) δοξάζεις στο τέλος της ημέρας και στην αρχή της.»
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
उन्होंने कहा : ऐ मेरे पालनहार! मेरे लिए कोई निशानी बना दे। (अल्लाह ने) फरमाया : तुम्हारी निशानी यह है कि तुम तीन दिन लोगों से बात नहीं करोगे परंतु इशारे से। तथा तुम अपने पालनहार को बहुत अधिक याद करो और शाम एवं सुबह उसकी पवित्रता का वर्णन करो।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
Disse: «Dio mio, dammi un Segno!» Disse: «Il tuo Segno è di non rivolgere la parola alla gente per tre giorni, se non con i gesti; e invoca spesso il tuo Dio e lodalo mattina e sera.»
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. Jis tarė: „Mano Viešpatie, duok man ženklą.“ (Allahas) tarė: „Tavo ženklas bus tai, kad tu nekalbėsi su žmonėmis tris dienas, išskyrus ženklais. Ir dažnai prisimink savo Viešpatį (šlovindamas Jį vėl ir vėl) ir garbink (Jį) popietę ir rytą.“
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 сказал: «Господь мой! Сделай мне знамение». Он сказал: «Твоё знамение — то, что ты не сможешь говорить с людьми три дня, кроме как знаками. Премного поминай своего Господа и прославляй [Его] вечером и утром».
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
„Moj Господару “, замолио је Захарија, „дај ми неки знак!“ „Знак ће да ти буде“, рече, „што три дана са људима нећеш да говориш, осим знаковима! И много спомињи Господара свога и хвали Га крајем дана и рано ујутру.“
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
Akasema: Mola wangu Mlezi! Niwekee alama. Akasema: Alama yako ni kuwa hutasema na watu kwa siku tatu, isipokuwa kwa kuashiria tu. Na mtaje Mola wako Mlezi kwa wingi, na mtakase jioni na asubuhi.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Han sa: ”Herre, ge mig ett tecken.” Han svarade: ”Ditt tecken ska vara att du under tre dagar inte kan tala med människorna, annat än med gester. Men minns din Herre mycket och upphöj honom både kväll och morgon.”
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
Zekeriyya: “Ey Rabbim! Bana bir işaret göster” diye niyaz etti. Allah da: "Senin delilin, üç gün insanlarla işaretle anlaşmak dışında hiç konuşmamandır. Rabbini çokça zikret ve akşam, sabah tesbih et!" buyurdu.
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
کہنے لگے پروردگار! میرے لئے اس کی کوئی نشانی مقرر کر دے، فرمایا، نشانی یہ ہے کہ تین دن تک تو لوگوں سے بات نہ کر سکے گا، صرف اشارے سے سمجھائے گا، تو اپنے رب کا ذکر کثرت سے کر اور صبح وشام اسی کی تسبیح بیان[1] کرتا ره!
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.
Easy-read (simplified)fanaadathu l-malaa'ikatu wahuwa qaa'imun yusallee fee l-mihraabi anna llaaha yubashshiruka biyahyaa musaddiqan bikalimatin mina llaahi wasayyidan wahasooran wanabiyyan mina s-saaliheen
DIN 31635fanādathu l-malāʾikatu wahuwa qāʾimun yuṣallī fī l-miḥrābi ʾanna llāha yubašširuka biyaḥyā muṣaddiqan bikalimatin mina llāhi wasayyidan waḥaṣūran wanabiyyan mina ṣ-ṣāliḥīna
Talal Itani2012 Then the angels called out to him, as he stood praying in the sanctuary: "God gives you good news of John; confirming a Word from God, and honorable, and moral, and a prophet; one of the upright."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And the angels called to him as he stood praying in the sanctuary: Allah giveth thee glad tidings of (a son whose name is) John, (who cometh) to confirm a word from Allah lordly, chaste, a prophet of the righteous
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And an angel cried out to him as he was standing praying in the chamber (and said) that 'God gives thee the glad tidings of John, to confirm the Word from God,- of a chief and a chaste one, and a prophet from amongst the righteous
John Medows Rodwell1861 Then did the angels call to him, as he stood praying in the sanctuary: "God announceth John (Yahia) to thee, who shall be a verifier of the word from God, and a great one, chaste, and a prophet of the number of the just
George Sale1734 And the angels called to him, while he stood praying in the chamber, saying, verily God promiseth thee a son named John, who shall bear witness to the word which cometh from God; an honourable person, chast, and one of the righteous prophets
Talal Itani2012 He said, "My Lord, how will I have a son, when old age has overtaken me, and my wife is barren?" He said, "Even so, God does whatever He wills."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 He said: My Lord! How can I have a son when age hath overtaken me already and my wife is barren? (The angel) answered: So (it will be). Allah doeth what He will
Edward Henry Palmer1880 He said, 'My Lord, how can there be to me a boy when old age has reached me, and my wife is barren?' Said he, 'Thus God does what He pleaseth
John Medows Rodwell1861 He said, "O my Lord! how shall I have a son, now that old age hath come upon me, and my wife is barren?" He said, "Thus will God do His pleasure
George Sale1734 He answered, Lord, how shall I have a son, when old age hath overtaken me, and my wife is barren? The angel said, so God doth that which he pleaseth
Talal Itani2012 The angels said, "O Mary, God has chosen you, and has purified you. He has chosen you over all the women of the world.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And when the angels said: O Mary! Lo! Allah hath chosen thee and made thee pure, and hath preferred thee above (all) the women of creation
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And when the angels said, 'O Mary! verily, God has chosen thee, and has purified thee, and has chosen thee above the women of the world
John Medows Rodwell1861 And remember when the angels said, "O Mary! verily hath God chosen thee, and purified thee, and chosen thee above the women of the worlds
George Sale1734 And when the angels said, O Mary, verily God hath chosen thee, and hath purified thee, and hath chosen thee above all the women of the world
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
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.63
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.62
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.60
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.60
Talal Itani · George Sale0.59
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.53
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.53
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.53
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.51
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.45
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.