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Az-Zumar الزمر

In plain wordsEditorial

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

Seventy-five verses arguing that religion belongs to God alone, against the claim that intermediaries bring people nearer. Near its end, two crowds are driven in groups — one to a gate that opens as they arrive, one to a gate opened only when they reach it — and the difference is left in the grammar.

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.

39:51
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.78. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.84.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

But the evils that they earned smote them; and such of these as do wrong, the evils that they earn will smite them; they cannot escape

John Medows Rodwell · 1861

And their own ill deeds recoiled upon them. And whoso among these (Meccans) shall do wrong, on them likewise their own misdeeds shall light, neither shall they invalidate God
39:59
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.77. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.86.

Talal Itani · 2012

Yes indeed! My Verses did come to you, but you called them lies, turned arrogant, and were of the faithless.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

(But now the answer will be): Nay, for My revelations came unto thee, but thou didst deny them and wast scornful and wast among the disbelievers
Show all verses the translators word differently
39:28
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.74. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.86.

Talal Itani · 2012

An Arabic Quran, without any defect, so they may become righteous.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

A Lecture in Arabic, containing no crookedness, that haply they may ward off (evil)
39:40
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.72. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.83.

Edward Henry Palmer · 1880

He to whom the torment comes it shall disgrace him, and there shall alight upon him lasting torment

George Sale · 1734

on which of us will be inflicted a punishment that shall cover him with shame, and on whom a lasting punishment shall fall
39:65
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.70. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.81.

Talal Itani · 2012

It was revealed to you, and to those before you, that if you idolize, your works will be in vain, and you will be of the losers.

George Sale · 1734

Since it hath been spoken by revelation unto thee, and also unto the prophets who have been before thee, saying, verily if thou join any partners with God, thy work will be altogether unprofitable, and thou shalt certainly be one of those who perish
More about this surahDerived
Verses
75
Words
1,172
Place
Meccan
Revelation position
59th of 114 in an ordering its source does not name
Opening letters
None
Bismillah
Carried by the surah, unnumbered
Word-by-word breakdown
58.2% of 1,172 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 75 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