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
Were it not that humanity would become a single community, We would have provided those who disbelieve in the Most Gracious with roofs of silver to their houses, and stairways by which they ascend.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
And were it not that mankind would have become one community, We might well have appointed, for those who disbelieve in the Beneficent, roofs of silver for their houses and stairs (of silver) whereby to mount
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
And but that men would then have been one nation, we would have made for those who misbelieve in the Merciful One roofs of silver for their houses, and steps up thereto which they might mount
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
But for fear that all mankind would have become a single people of unbelievers, verily we would certainly have given to those who believe not in the God of Mercy roofs of silver to their houses, and silver stairs to ascend by
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
If it were not that mankind would have become one sect of infidels, verily We had given unto those who believe not in the Merciful, roofs of silver to their houses, and stairs of silver, by which they might ascend thereto
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
Po të mos ishte që njerëzit do të bëheshin një bashkësi (në mosbesim), Ne do t'u bënim atyre që mohojnë të Gjithëmëshirshmin prej argjendi çatitë e shtëpive të tyre, shkallët nëpër të cilat ngjiten,
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
যদি সব মানুষ একই জাতিতে পরিণত হয়ে যাওয়ার আশঙ্কা না থাকত, তবে যারা পরম করুণাময়ের প্রতি কুফরী করে আমি তাদের গৃহসমূহের জন্য রৌপ্যনির্মিত ছাদ ও ঊর্ধ্বে আরোহণের সিঁড়ি তৈরি করে দিতাম।
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
A da neće svi ljudi postati jedan ummet – nevjernici, Mi bismo krovove kuća onih koji ne vjeruju u Svemilosnog od srebra učinili, a i stepenice uz koje se penju,
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
A da neće svi ljudi postati jedan ummet – nevjernici, Mi bismo krovove kuća onih koji ne vjeruju u Svemilosnog od srebra učinili, a i stepenice uz koje se penju,
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
Si wonaano fii wata yimɓe ɓeen ngon mofte goote, Min mbaɗayno e cuuɗi kala jedduɗo Hinnaranke Oon: kiɓɓe kaalisi e ŋabbirɗe ka ɓe ƴawra;
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 რომ არა საშიშროება, რომ ადამიანები ერთ საზოგადოებად (ურწმუნოთა) იქცეოდნენ (იმ აზრით, რომ ადამიანის სიმდიდრე ალლაჰის სიყვარულის ნიშანია), ჩვენ ნამდვილად ვუზრუნველვყოფდით მოწყალის მიმართ ურწმუნოთათვის სახლებს ვერცხლის სახურავებითა და კიბეებით, რომლებითაც ისინი ზევით აივლიდნენ.
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
Und damit die Menschen nicht eine einzige Gemeinschaft werden (, sahen Wir davon ab, sonst), hätten Wir fürwahr denjenigen, die den Allerbarmer verleugnen, für ihre Häuser Decken aus Silber gemacht und (auch) Treppen, auf denen sie hätten hochsteigen können,
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
Αν δεν ήταν ότι οι άνθρωποι θα γινόντουσαν μία κοινότητα (στην απιστία, και στην αναζήτηση των απολαύσεων, όταν δουν τους άπιστους σε ευημερία), θα είχαμε κάνει στα σπίτια όσων αρνούνται την πίστη στον Αρ-Ραχμάν (Παντελεήμονα), στέγες από ασήμι, και σκάλες (από ασήμι) με τις οποίες θα ανέβαιναν, [επειδή όλες οι απολαύσεις της εγκόσμιας ζωής, δεν έχουν καμία αξία ενώπιον του Αλλάχ],
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
और यदि ऐसा न होता कि सब लोग एक ही समुदाय हो जाएँगे, तो निश्चय हम उन लोगों के लिए जो रहमान के साथ कुफ़्र करते हैं, उनके घरों की छतें चाँदी की बना देते और सीढ़ियाँ भी, जिनपर वे चढ़ते हैं।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E se gli uomini fossero stati un’unica comunità, avremmo concesso a quelli che negano il Compassionevole tetti d’argento per le loro case e scale per salirvi
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
33. Ir jei žmonija nebūtų tapus viena bendruomene (visi netikintieji, trokštantys tik žemiškojo gyvenimo), Mes būtume suteikę tiems, kurie netiki Maloningiausiąjį (Allahą) sidabrinius stogus jų namams ir liftus, kuriais jie pakyla
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
Если бы не то, что люди могут стать одной [неверующей] общиной, Мы непременно сделали бы для тех, кто отвергает Всемилостивого, кровли из серебра для их домов и лестницы, по которым они восходят,
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 да неће сви људи да постану једна заједница (у неверству), Ми бисмо кровове кућа, оних који не верују у Свемилосног, од сребра учинили, а и степеништа уз која се пењу,
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 lau isingekuwa watu watakuwa kundi moja, tungeliwajaalia wanaomkufuru Rahmani nyumba zao kuwa na dari ya fedha, na ngazi zao pia wanazopandia
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Om det inte vore för att människorna då skulle bli ett enda [otroget] släkte, skulle vi ha skänkt hus till var och en av de som förnekar den Nåderike, med tak av silver och trappor de kunnat gå upp för,
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
Eğer insanlar (küfürde birleşen) tek bir ümmet olacak olmasaydı, Rahman'a küfredenlerin evlerinin tavanlarını ve çıkacakları merdivenleri gümüşten yapardık.
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
اور اگر یہ بات نہ ہوتی کہ تمام لوگ ایک ہی طریقہ پر ہو جائیں[1] گے تو رحمٰن کے ساتھ کفر کرنے والوں کے گھروں کی چھتوں کو ہم چاندی کی بنادیتے۔ اور زینوں کو (بھی) جن پر چڑھا کرتے.
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 Is it they who allocate the mercy of your Lord? It is We who have allocated their livelihood in this life, and We elevated some of them in rank above others, that some of them would take others in service. But your Lord's mercy is better than what they amass.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Is it they who apportion thy Lord's mercy? We have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of the world, and raised some of them above others in rank that some of them may take labour from others; and the mercy of thy Lord is better than (the wealth) that they amass
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Is it they who distribute the mercy of thy Lord? We distribute amongst them their livelihood in the life of this world, and we exalt some of them above others in degrees, that some may take others into subjection; but the mercy of thy Lord is better than that which they amass
John Medows Rodwell1861 Are they then the distributors of thy Lord's Mercy? It is we who distribute their subsistence among them in this world's life; and we raise some of them by grades above others, that the one may take the other to serve him: but better is the mercy of thy Lord than all their hoards
George Sale1734 Do they distribute the mercy of thy Lord? We distribute their nesessary provision among them, in this present life, and We raise some of them several degrees above the others, that the one of them may take the other to serve him: And the mercy of thy Lord is more valuable than the riches which they gather together
Talal Itani2012 And decorations. Yet all that is nothing but the stuff of this life. Yet the Hereafter, with your Lord, is for the righteous.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And ornaments of gold. Yet all that would have been but a provision of the life of the world. And the Hereafter with your Lord would have been for those who keep from evil
Edward Henry Palmer1880 and gilding,- for, verily, all that is a provision of the life of this world, but the hereafter is better with thy Lord for those who fear
John Medows Rodwell1861 And ORNAMENTS OF GOLD: for all these are merely the good things of the present life; but the next life doth thy Lord reserve for those who fear Him
George Sale1734 and ornaments of gold: For all this is the provision of the present life; but the next life with thy Lord shall be for those who fear Him
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 —
0.57 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 Rodwell0.68
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.67
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.59
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.58
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.57
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.55
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.51
Talal Itani · George Sale0.51
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.50
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.49
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.