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
These are accounts from the Unseen, which We reveal to you. You were not with them when they cast their lots as to which of them would take charge of Mary; nor were you with them as they quarreled.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
This is of the tidings of things hidden. We reveal it unto thee (Muhammad). Thou wast not present with them when they threw their pens (to know) which of them should be the guardian of Mary, nor wast thou present with them when they quarrelled (thereupon)
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
That is (one) of the declarations of the unseen world which we reveal to thee, though thou wert not by them when they threw their lots which of them should take care of Mary, nor were ye by them when they did dispute
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
This is one of the announcements of things unseen by thee: To thee, O Muhammad! do we reveal it; for thou wast not with them when they cast lots with reeds which of them should rear Mary; nor wast thou with them when they disputed about it
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
This is a secrethistory: We reveal it unto thee, although thou wast not present with them when they threw in their rods to cast lots which of them should have the education of Mary; neither wast thou with them, when they strove among themselves
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
Këto janë lajme të panjohura që po t'i shpallim ty (o Muhamed). Ti nuk ishe në mesin e tyre kur ata hidhnin short se cili do të kujdeset për Merjemen e as kur grindeshin.
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
(হে রাসূল!) এটি (২২) গায়েবের সংবাদসমূহের অন্তর্ভুক্ত, যা আমি তোমাকে অহীর মাধ্যমে জানাচ্ছি। আর তুমি তাদের নিকট ছিলে না, যখন তারা তাদের কলমগুলো (পানিতে) নিক্ষেপ করছিল (বিশেষ লটারির ব্যবস্থার জন্যে), তাদের মধ্যে কে মারয়ামের তত্ত্বাবধানের দায়িত্ব নিবে? আর তুমি তাদের নিকট ছিলে না, যখন তারা বিতর্ক করছিল।
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
To su neke od vijesti o onome što čulima nije dokučivo, a koje ti objavljujemo. Ti nisi bio među njima kada su pera svoja pobacali da bi vidjeli koji će se o Merjemi brinuti, a nisi bio među njima ni kada su se prepirali.
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
To su neke od vijesti o onome što čulima nije dokučivo, a koje ti objavljujemo. Ti nisi bio među njima kada su pera svoja pobacali da bi vidjeli koji će se o Mariji brinuti, a nisi bio među njima ni kada su se prepirali.
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
Ɗum ɗoo, ko jeyaaɗum e kumpite birniiɗe, Meɗen Wahayina ɗe e maaɗa. A tawanooka e maɓɓe nde ɓe weddotonoo kuɗi maɓɓe ɗin: ko hommbo e maɓɓe ne'ata Maryama; a tawanooka e maɓɓe kadi nde ɓe wennjaynoo.
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
ეს არის ამბებიდან უხილავის შესახებ, რომელსაც ჩვენ გიცხადებთ შენ (ო, მოციქულო) გამოცხადებით. და შენ არ იყავი მათთან, როცა ისინი წერდნენ თავიანთ კალმებს და აგდებდნენ წილს (იმის დასადგენად), რომელი მათგანი იქნებოდა მარიამის მეურვე (რათა ამით მიეღოთ მაღალი ჯილდო ალლაჰისგან). და შენ (ო, მოციქულო) არ იყავი მათთან მაშინაც, როცა ისინი კამათობდნენ.
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
Dies gehört zu den Nachrichten über das Verborgene, die Wir dir (als Offenbarung) eingeben. Und du warst nicht bei ihnen, als sie ihre Losstäbe warfen, wer von ihnen Maryam betreuen sollte. Und du warst nicht bei ihnen, als sie miteinander stritten.
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
Αυτό είναι ένα μέρος από τις ειδήσεις των αοράτων, που αποκαλύπτουμε σ’ εσένα (ω, Μωχάμμαντ). Δεν ήσουν μαζί τους, όταν έριχναν κλήρο με τις ξύλινες πένες τους για το ποιος θα αναλάβει τη φροντίδα της Μαρίας• ούτε ήσουν μαζί τους όταν διαφωνούσαν (για το ποιος δικαιούται περισσότερο να φροντίσει τη Μαρία, επειδή ο πατέρας της πέθανε πριν γεννηθεί).
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
(ऐ नबी!) ये ग़ैब (परोक्ष) की कुछ सूचनाएँ हैं, जो हम आपकी ओर वह़्य कर रहे हैं और आप उस समय उनके पास मौजूद न थे, जब वे अपनी क़लमों[20] को फेंक रहे थे कि उनमें से कौन मरयम की किफ़ालत करे और न आप उस समय उनके पास थे, जब वे झगड़ रहे थे।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
Quelle che ti riveliamo sono informazioni dell’Ignoto, e non eri tra coloro che “gettarono le loro calami»[29] per sapere chi avrebbe preso in cura Maryem, e non eri tra di loro quando si misero a litigare.
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
44. Tai yra dalis žinių apie Ghaib (nematomą, t. y. žinios apie buvusias tautas, apie kurias jūs neturite jokių žinių), kurias Mes atskleidėme tau (Muchammedai ﷺ ). Tu nebuvai su jais, kai jie metė burtus su savo rašikliais dėl to, kuris iš jų turėtų imti rūpintis Marjama (Marija), nei tu buvai su jais, kai jie ginčijosi.
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
Kun (oduun zakariyyaafii maryam kun) oduuwwan fagoo irraa kan Nuti gara keetti isa beeksifnuudha. Yeroo ‘isaanirraa eenyu Maryamiin akka guddisu (irratti walqabanii) hixaalee isaanii darban ati isaan biratti hintaane. Yeroo isaan wal falmanis ati isaan bira hin turre.
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
Это — из вестей сокровенного, которое Мы внушаем тебе. Ты не был при них, когда они бросали свои писчие перья, чтобы решить, кто из них будет опекать Марьям, и ты не был при них, когда они спорили.
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
То су неке од вести о ономе што није докучиво чулима, а које ти објављујемо. Ти ниси био међу њима када су пера своја побацали да би видели који ће о Марији да се брине, а ниси био међу њима ни када су се препирали.
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
Hizi ni katika habari za ghaibu tunazokufunulia. Nawe hukuwa nao walipokuwa wakitupa kalamu zao ni nani wao atakayemlea Maryam? Na hukuwa nao walipokuwa wakizozana.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Detta hör till berättelserna om det som var dolt för dig, som vi nu uppenbarar för dig. Du var inte hos dem när de kastade lott om vem som skulle anförtros Marias omsorg, och du var inte hos dem när de tvistade om detta.
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
(Ey Peygamber!) Bunlar, sana vahyettiğimiz gayb haberlerindendir. Meryem’e hangisi kefil olacak diye kalemlerini atarlarken (kura çekerlerken) sen yanlarında değildin, konuyu tartışırlarken de yanlarında değildin.
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
یہ غیب کی خبروں میں سے ہے جسے ہم تیری طرف وحی سے پہنچاتے ہیں، تو ان کے پاس نہ تھا جب کہ وه اپنے قلم ڈال رہے تھے کہ مریم کو ان میں سے کون پالے گا؟ اور نہ تو ان کے جھگڑنے کے وقت ان کے پاس تھا۔[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 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
Talal Itani2012 The Angels said, "O Mary, God gives you good news of a Word from Him. His name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, well-esteemed in this world and the next, and one of the nearest.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 (And remember) when the angels said: O Mary! Lo! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a word from him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, illustrious in the world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near (unto Allah)
Edward Henry Palmer1880 When the angel said, 'O Mary! verily, God gives thee the glad tidings of a Word from Him; his name shall be the Messiah Jesus the son of Mary, regarded in this world and the next and of those whose place is nigh to God
John Medows Rodwell1861 Remember when the angel said, "O Mary! Verily God announceth to thee the Word from Him: His name shall be, Messiah Jesus the son of Mary, illustrious in this world, and in the next, and one of those who have near access to God
George Sale1734 When the angels said; O Mary, verily God sendeth thee good tidings, that thou shalt bear the word, proceeding from himself; his name shall be Christ Jesus the son of Mary, honourable in this world and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of God
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.
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 Pickthall0.71
Talal Itani · George Sale0.70
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.66
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.65
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.63
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.61
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.59
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.58
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.53
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.52
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.