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Ar-Room الروم

In plain wordsEditorial

An editorial summary of the translations. Not a translation or tafsir.

Sixty verses that open with disconnected letters and then on a defeat — the Romans beaten at the edge of the known world, and a statement that within a few years they will win. What follows reads that pattern outward, through sleep, lightning, ships and the seed in the ground, as evidence that reversal is how the world is made.

AALAMIN Editor · signed 29 August 2026

not a scholar — what this signature means

I am not a scholar, and nothing here asks you to treat me as one. The plain words on this site are my restatement of what the five translations shown above say, together with counts derived from the text itself — nothing more. I sign them so that a named person is accountable for every sentence, not so you'll take my word for anything. The authority on this page is the text and its translators. If my words don't match theirs, mine are the ones that are wrong.

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Every verse as a number; tap one to open it. Shaded numbers mark verses where the translations differ most.

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worded differently

Where the translators differDerived

The verses of this surah whose wording differs most, most differently worded first. Under each, the two renderings that share the fewest words are quoted in full under their translators' names; every rendering is on the verse's own page. This measures wording, not meaning.

30:44
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.83. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.90.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

Whoso disbelieveth must (then) bear the consequences of his disbelief, while those who do right make provision for themselves

George Sale · 1734

Whoever shall have been an unbeliever, on Him shall his unbelief be charged; and whoever shall have done that which is right, shall spread themselves couches of repose in paradise
30:1
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.80. Widest pair of the 4 renderings, at 1.00.

Talal Itani · 2012

Alif, Lam, Meem.

George Sale · 1734

A. L. M.
Show all verses the translators word differently
30:34
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.76. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.89.

Talal Itani · 2012

To show ingratitude for what We have given them. Indulge yourselves-you will surely know.

John Medows Rodwell · 1861

Ungrateful for our favours! Enjoy yourselves then. But in the end ye shall know your folly
30:39
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.75. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.87.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

That which ye give in usury in order that it may increase on (other) people's property hath no increase with Allah; but that which ye give in charity, seeking Allah's Countenance, hath increase manifold

George Sale · 1734

Whatever ye shall give in usury, to be an increase of men's substance, shall not be increased by the blessing of God: But whatever ye shall give in alms, for God's sake, they shall receive a twofold reward
30:11
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.71. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.79.

Talal Itani · 2012

God originates creation, and then repeats it. Then to Him you will be returned.

Edward Henry Palmer · 1880

God produces a creation, then He makes it go back again, then unto Him shall ye return
More about this surahDerived
Verses
60
Words
817
Place
Meccan
Revelation position
84th of 114 in an ordering its source does not name
Opening letters
الٓمٓ one of 29 surahs that open this way
Bismillah
Carried by the surah, unnumbered
Word-by-word breakdown
56.7% of 817 words carry an analysis
  1. 96
  2. 68
  3. 73
  4. 74
  5. 1
  6. 111
  7. 81
  8. 87
  9. 92
  10. 89
  11. 93
  12. 94
  13. 103
  14. 100
  15. 108
  16. 102
  17. 107
  18. 109
  19. 105
  20. 113
  21. 114
  22. 112
  23. 53
  24. 80
  25. 97
  26. 91
  27. 85
  28. 95
  29. 106
  30. 101
  31. 75
  32. 104
  33. 77
  34. 50
  35. 90
  36. 86
  37. 54
  38. 38
  39. 7
  40. 72
  41. 36
  42. 25
  43. 35
  44. 19
  45. 20
  46. 56
  47. 26
  48. 27
  49. 28
  50. 17
  51. 10
  52. 11
  53. 12
  54. 15
  55. 6
  56. 37
  57. 31
  58. 34
  59. 39
  60. 40
  61. 41
  62. 42
  63. 43
  64. 44
  65. 45
  66. 46
  67. 51
  68. 88
  69. 18
  70. 16
  71. 71
  72. 14
  73. 21
  74. 23
  75. 32
  76. 52
  77. 67
  78. 69
  79. 70
  80. 78
  81. 79
  82. 82
  83. 84
  84. 30
  85. 29
  86. 83
  87. 2
  88. 8
  89. 3
  90. 33
  91. 60
  92. 4
  93. 99
  94. 57
  95. 47
  96. 13
  97. 55
  98. 76
  99. 65
  100. 98
  101. 59
  102. 24
  103. 22
  104. 63
  105. 58
  106. 49
  107. 66
  108. 64
  109. 61
  110. 62
  111. 48
  112. 5
  113. 9
  114. 110

Meccan Medinan

Counted from the text and the spine at build time, not written into the page. Opening letters are derived from the edition's orthography: an opening token of at most five letters carrying none of its vocalisation marks. The revelation position is reproduced from Revelation order as encoded by the Tanzil metadata, which does not name whose ordering it is.

Analysis detailsDerived

These figures count the words the translations share. They measure wording, not meaning, and they do not say which translation is right.

Mean score across this surah
0.61 across 60 scored verses

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
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.
Scored
6,236 verses
As at
13 September 2026, 10:56 UTC
Sources for this page

Surah metadataTanzil Qur'an metadata ·quran-data.xml v1.0·Tanzil Project ·Creative Commons Attribution — version not specified by the source·retrieved 24 Aug 2026

Surah metadata from Tanzil Qur'an metadata (quran-data.xml, version 1.0), Tanzil Project, tanzil.net. (C) 2008-2009 Tanzil.info. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution; the source does not state a version. Values are reproduced unchanged; this site selects and arranges them, and derives verse ranges from the division start points. https://tanzil.net/res/text/metadata/quran-data.xml