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.
And who is better in religion than he who submits himself wholly to God, and is a doer of good, and follows the faith of Abraham the Monotheist? God has chosen Abraham for a friend.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
Who is better in religion than he who surrendereth his purpose to Allah while doing good (to men) and followeth the tradition of Abraham, the upright? Allah (Himself) chose Abraham for friend
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
Who has a better religion than he who resigns his face to God, and does good, and follows the faith of Abraham, as a 'Hanif?- for God took Abraham as a friend
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And who hath a better religion than he who resigneth himself to God, who doth what is good, and followeth the faith of Abraham in all sincerity? And God took Abraham for his friend
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Who is better in point of religion, than he who resigneth himself unto God, and is a worker of righteousness, and followeth the law of Abraham the orhodox? Since God took Abraham for his friend
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
Kush ka fe më të mirë se ai që i është dorëzuar çiltërisht Allahut, duke qenë vepërmirë, dhe ndjek fenë e pastër të Ibrahimit?! Allahu e mori Ibrahimin për mik të dashur.
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
আর দীনের দিক থেকে তার চেয়ে কে উত্তম, যে সৎকর্মপরায়ণ হয়ে আল্লাহর নিকট আত্মসমর্পণ করে এবং একনিষ্ঠভাবে ইবরাহীমের মিল্লাতের অনুসরণ করে? আর আল্লাহ ইবরাহীমকে পরম বন্ধুরূপে গ্রহণ করেছেন।
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
Ko je bolje vjere od onoga ko je predao svoje lice Allahu, a dobročinitelj je i slijedi vjeru Ibrahimovu, koji je bio vjere čiste?! A Allah je uzeo Ibrahima za prijatelja.
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
Tko je bolje vjere od onoga tko je predao svoje lice Allahu, a dobročinitelj je i slijedi vjeru Abrahamovu, koji je bio vjere čiste?! A Allah je uzeo Abrahama za prijatelja.
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
Alaa ɓurɗo moƴƴude diine haa hewti on jebbilanɗo yeeso mum ngo Alla, hara ko o moƴƴinɗo, o rewi e diine Ibraahiima ooñiiiiɗo kala.diineeji ɗi peewa Alla Jogitima Ibraahiima sehil.
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
და ვინ შეიძლება იყოს რწმენით უკეთესი იმაზე, ვინც თავისი სახე ალლაჰს მიუძღვნა, გულწრფელად, და გაჰყვა იბრაჰიმის რწმენას, როგორც ჰანიფი (ერთღმერთიანი)? ჭეშმარიტად, ალლაჰმა იბრაჰიმი აირჩია თავის უახლოეს მეგობრად.
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
Wer hat denn eine bessere Religion als wer sein Gesicht Allah hingibt und dabei ein Gutes-Tuender ist (arab. „Muhsin“) und der Gemeinschaft Ibrahims folgt, (als) Anhänger des rechten Glaubens? Und Allah nahm sich Ibrahim zum nahestehenden Freund.
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
Και ποιος είναι σε καλύτερη θρησκεία απ' αυτόν που υποτάσσει το πρόσωπό του (δηλ. τον εαυτό του) στον Αλλάχ, κάνοντας τις καλές πράξεις, και ακολουθεί τη θρησκεία του Ιμπραήμ (Αβραάμ) αποκλίνοντας από όλα τα μάταια δόγματα, και τείνοντας προς την αληθινή πίστη; Και ο Αλλάχ πήρε τον Ιμπραήμ ως επιλεγμένο!
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
तथा उस व्यक्ति से अच्छा धर्म किसका हो सकता है, जिसने अपना शीश अल्लाह के सामने झुका दिया और वह अच्छे कार्य करने वाला (भी) हो तथा इबराहीम के तरीक़े का अनुसरण करे, जो बहुदेववाद से कटकर एकेश्वरवाद की ओर एकाग्र थे, और अल्लाह ने इबराहीम को अपना मित्र बनाया था।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E chi ha migliore fede di chi sottomette il suo viso ad Allāh ed è pio e segue la fede di Ibrāhīm da monoteista? E Allāh ha preso Ibrāhīm come prediletto.
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
125. Ir kas gali būti geresnis tikėjime nei tas, kuris nulenkia savo veidą (save) Allahui (t. y. seka Allaho tikėjimu – islamiškuoju monoteizmu), ir jis yra Muhsin (gera darantis – žr. ają 2:112). Ir seka Ibrahimo (Abraomo) tikėjimu Hanifa (islamiškuoju monoteizmu – negarbinti nieko kito tik Allahą Vienintelį). Ir Allahas laikė Ibrahimą (Abraomą) Khalil (artimu draugu)!
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
Кто лучше религией, чем тот, кто покорил свой лик Аллаху, будучи добродетельным, и последовал вероучению Ибрахима, приверженца единобожия? И Аллах избрал Ибрахима близким другом.
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
А ко је боље вере од онога ко преда себе Аллаху, а притом је доброчинитељ и следи веру Аврама монотеисте?! А Аллах је узео Аврама за пријатеља.
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
Na ni nani aliye bora zaidi kwa dini kuliko yule aliyeusilimisha uso wake kwa Mwenyezi Mungu hali ya kuwa ni mwema, na akafuata mila ya Ibrahim mnyoofu? Na Mwenyezi Mungu alimfanya Ibrahim kuwa ni rafiki mwandani.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Vem har en bättre livsväg än den som underkastar sig Gud helt och fullt, gör gott och följer Abrahams rena, monoteistiska lära? Gud utvalde Abraham för sin särskilda kärlek.
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
Kimin dini, iyilik yaparak kendini Allah’a teslim eden ve hakka yönelen İbrahim’in dinine tabi olan kimsenin dininden daha güzeldir? Allah, İbrahim’i dost/halil edindi.
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
باعتبار دین کے اس سے اچھا کون ہے؟ جو اپنے کو اللہ کے تابع کر دے اور ہو بھی نیکو کار، ساتھ ہی یکسوئی والے ابراہیم کے دین کی پیروی کر رہا ہو اور ابراہیم (علیہ السلام) کو اللہ تعالیٰ نے اپنا دوست بنا لیا ہے۔[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.
Easy-read (simplified)laysa bi'amaaniyyikum walaa amaaniyyi ahli l-kitaabi man ya'mal soo'an yujza bihi walaa yajid lahu min dooni llaahi waliyyan walaa naseeraa
DIN 31635laysa biʾamāniyyikum walā ʾamāniyyi ʾahli l-kitābi man yaʿmal sūʾan yuǧza bihi walā yaǧid lahu min dūni llāhi waliyyan walā naṣīran
Talal Itani2012 It is not in accordance with your wishes, nor in accordance with the wishes of the People of the Scripture. Whoever works evil will pay for it, and will not find for himself, besides God, any protector or savior.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 It will not be in accordance with your desires, nor the desires of the People of the Scripture. He who doeth wrong will have the recompense thereof, and will not find against Allah any protecting friend or helper
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Not for your vain desires, nor the vain desires of the people of the Book. He who doeth evil shall be recompensed therewith, and shall not find for him beside God a patron, or a help
John Medows Rodwell1861 Not according to your wishes, or the wishes of the people of the Book, shall these things be. He who doth evil shall be recompensed for it. Patron or helper, beside God, shall he find none
George Sale1734 It shall not be according to your desires, nor according to the desires of those who have received the scriptures. Whoso doth evil, shall be rewarded for it; and shall not find any patron or helper, beside God
Easy-read (simplified)waman ya'mal mina s-saalihaati min dhakarin aw unthaa wahuwa mu'minun fa'oolaa'ika yadkhuloona l-jannata walaa yuzlamoona naqeeraa
DIN 31635waman yaʿmal mina ṣ-ṣāliḥāti min ḏakarin ʾaw ʾunṯā wahuwa muʾminun faʾūlāʾika yadḫulūna l-ǧannata walā yuẓlamūna naqīran
Talal Itani2012 But whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, and is a believer-those will enter Paradise, and will not be wronged a whit.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And whoso doeth good works, whether of male or female, and he (or she) is a believer, such will enter paradise and they will not be wronged the dint in a date-stone
Edward Henry Palmer1880 But he who doeth good works,- be it male or female,- and believes, they shall enter into Paradise, and they shall not be wronged a jot
John Medows Rodwell1861 But whoso doth the things that are right, whether male or female, and he or she a believer, - these shall enter Paradise, nor shall they be wronged the skin of a date stone
George Sale1734 but whoso doth good works, whether he be male or female, and is a true believer; they shall be admitted into paradise, and shall not in the least be unjustly dealt with
Talal Itani2012 To God belongs what is in the heavens and what is on earth, and God encompasses everything.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Unto Allah belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Allah ever surroundeth all things
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And God's is what is in the heavens and in the earth, and God encompasses all things
John Medows Rodwell1861 All that is in the Heavens and all that is on the Earth is God's: and God encompasseth all things
George Sale1734 And to God belongeth whatsoever is in heaven and on earth; God comprehendeth all things
Talal Itani2012 They ask you for a ruling about women. Say, "God gives you a ruling about them, and so does what is stated to you in the Book about widowed women from whom you withhold what is decreed for them, yet you desire to marry them, and about helpless children: that you should treat the orphans fairly." Whatever good you do, God knows it.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 They consult thee concerning women. Say: Allah giveth you decree concerning them, and the Scripture which hath been recited unto you (giveth decree), concerning female orphans and those unto whom ye give not that which is ordained for them though ye desire to marry them, and (concerning) the weak among children, and that ye should deal justly with orphans. Whatever good ye do, lo! Allah is ever Aware of it
Edward Henry Palmer1880 They will ask thee a decision about women; say, 'God decides for you about them, and that which is rehearsed to you in the Book; about orphan women to whom ye do not give what is prescribed for them, and whom ye are averse from marrying; and about weak children; and that ye stand fairly by orphans;- and what ye do of good, verily, that God knows
John Medows Rodwell1861 Moreover, they will consult thee in regard to women: SAY: God hath instructed you about them; and His will is rehearsed to you, in the Book, concerning female orphans to whom ye give not their legal due, and whom ye refuse to marry; also with regard to weak children; and that ye deal with fairness towards orphans. Ye cannot do a good action, but verily God knoweth it
George Sale1734 They will consult thee concerning women; answer, God instructeth you concerning them, and that which is read unto you in the book of the Koran concerning female orphans, to whom ye give not that which is ordained them, neither will ye marry them, and concerning weak infants, and that ye observe justice towards orphans: Whatever good ye do, God knoweth it
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 —
0.53 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 · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.63
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.59
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.58
Talal Itani · George Sale0.57
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.57
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.51
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.49
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.46
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.45
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.43
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.
Sources, editions and licences for everything above
ReceiptsSource fact
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.