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
And they say, "There is nothing but this our present life; we die and we live, and nothing destroys us except time." But they have no knowledge of that; they are only guessing.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
And they say: There is naught but our life of the world; we die and we live, and naught destroyeth us save time; when they have no knowledge whatsoever of (all) that; they do but guess
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
They say, 'It is only our life in this world, we die and we live, and naught destroys us but time!' But they have no knowledge of this; they do but suspect
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And they say, "There is only this our present life: we die and we live, and nought but time destroyeth us." But in this they have no knowledge: it is merely their own conceit
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
They say, there is no other life, except our present life: We die, and we live; and nothing but time destroyeth us. But they have no knowledge in this matter; they only follow a vainopinion
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
Ata thonë: "Nuk ka tjetër veç jetës së kësaj bote: vdesim e jetojmë dhe vetëm koha na shkatërron." Ata nuk kanë dijeni për këtë. Në të vërtetë, ata vetëm hamendësojnë.
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 তারা বলে: ‘দুনিয়ার জীবনই আমাদের একমাত্র জীবন। আমরা মরি ও বাঁচি এখানেই। আর মহাকালই আমাদেরকে ধ্বংস করে।’ বস্তুত এ বিষয়ে তাদের কোন জ্ঞান নেই। তারা শুধু ধারণাই করে।
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
I oni vele: “Postoji samo život naš zemaljski, živimo i umiremo, jedino nas vrijeme uništi.” A oni o tome baš ništa ne znaju, oni samo nagađaju.
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
I oni vele: “Postoji samo život naš zemaljski, živimo i umiremo, jedino nas vrijeme uništi.” A oni o tome baš ništa ne znaju, oni samo nagađaju.
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
He'eferɓe mbii ɗum wona si wona nguurndam aduna min maaya min nguura, halkataa min si wona jamaanu, ɓe ngalana ɗuum ganndal ɓe cikkita tan.
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 თქვეს: «ეს მხოლოდ ჩვენი ამქვეყნიური ცხოვრებაა. ვკვდებით და ვცოცხლობთ, და არაფერი გვღუპავს ჩვენ, გარდა დროისა». და მათ ამის შესახებ არანაირი ცოდნა არ გააჩნიათ, ისინი მხოლოდ ვარაუდობენ.
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 sie sagen: „Es gibt nur unser diesseitiges Leben; wir sterben und leben, und nur die Zeiten vernichten uns.“ Sie haben (aber) kein Wissen davon, sie stellen nur Mutmaßungen an.
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
Λένε (οι άπιστοι): «Δεν υπάρχει (άλλη ζωή) παρά μόνο η εγκόσμια ζωή μας: πεθαίνουμε και ζούμε (η μία γενιά μετά από την άλλη), και τίποτα δε μας κάνει να πεθάνουμε εκτός από το πέρασμα του χρόνου.» Δεν έχουν γνώση (και απόδειξη) γι' αυτό (που λένε ότι δε θα υπάρχει ανάσταση). Πράγματι, αυτοί μόνο κάνουν εικασίες.
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 उन्होंने कहा, हमारे इस सांसारिक जीवन के अलावा कोई (जीवन) नहीं। हम (यहीं) मरते और जीते हैं और काल के अलावा हमें कोई भी नष्ट नहीं करता। हालाँकि उन्हें इसका कोई ज्ञान नहीं। वे केवल अनुमान[8] लगा रहे हैं।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E dissero: «Noi non viviamo se non la vita terrena: viviamo e moriamo e ci logora il tempo», ma di ciò che dicono non hanno conoscenza, si limitano a fare supposizioni.
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
24. Ir jie sako: „Nėra nieko, tik mūsų gyvenimas šiame pasaulyje, mes mirštame ir mes gyvename ir niekas nesunaikina mūsų, tik Ad-Dahr (laikas). Ir neturi jie išmanymo apie tai: jie tik spėlioja.
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
Nijedhan “Jireenya keenya kan addunyaa malee isheen (jiruun biraa) hin jirtu. ni duuna; (gariin keenyas) ni jiraanna, zamana malee wanti nu balleessu hin jiru”. Waan kanatti beekumsi homaatuu isaaniif hintaane. Isaan se’oo malee hin taane.
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
Они сказали: «Нет ничего, кроме нашей мирской жизни. Мы умираем и живём, и ничто не губит нас, кроме времени». Но у них нет об этом никакого знания, они лишь предполагают.
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
И они кажу: „Постоји само наш земаљски живот, живимо и умиремо, једино нас време уништи.“ А они о томе баш ништа не знају, они само нагађају.
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 walisema: 'Hapana ila huu uhai wetu wa duniani - twafa na twaishi, na hapana kinachotuangamiza isipokuwa dahari.' Lakini wao hawana elimu ya hayo, ila wao wanadhani tu.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Och de säger: ”Det finns bara detta, vårt jordiska, liv. Vi dör och vi föds och inget får oss att gå under utom tiden själv.” Men det har de ingen kunskap om. Det är bara lösa antaganden.
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
"Dünya hayatımızdan başka hayat yoktur. Ölürüz ve yaşarız. Bizi zamandan başka bir şey yok etmez." derler. Onların bu konuda bir bilgileri yoktur. Onlar, yalnızca zannederler.
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
کیا اب بھی تم نصیحت نہیں پکڑتے[1] ۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ ہماری زندگی تو صرف دنیا کی زندگی ہی ہے۔ ہم مرتے ہیں اور جیتے ہیں اور ہمیں صرف زمانہ ہی مار ڈالتا ہے[2]، (دراصل) انہیں اس کا کچھ علم ہی نہیں۔ یہ تو صرف (قیاس اور) اٹکل سے ہی کام لے رہے ہیں.
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 God created the heavens and the earth with justice, so that every soul will be repaid for what it has earned. And they will not be wronged.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And Allah hath created the heavens and the earth with truth, and that every soul may be repaid what it hath earned. And they will not be wronged
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And God created the heavens and the earth in truth; and every soul shall be recompensed for that which it has earned, and they shall not be wronged
John Medows Rodwell1861 In all truth hath God created the Heavens and the Earth, that he may reward every one as he shall have wrought; and they shall not be wronged
George Sale1734 God hath created the heavens and the earth in truth; that He may recompense every soul according to that which it shall have wrought: And they shall not be treated unjustly
Talal Itani2012 Have you considered him who has taken his desire for his god? God has knowingly led him astray, and has sealed his hearing and his heart, and has placed a veil over his vision. Who will guide him after God? Will you not reflect?
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Hast thou seen him who maketh his desire his god, and Allah sendeth him astray purposely, and sealeth up his hearing and his heart, and setteth on his sight a covering? Then who will lead him after Allah (hath condemned him)? Will ye not then heed
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Hast thou considered him who takes his lusts for his god, and God leads him astray wittingly, and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart, and has placed upon his eyesight dimness? who then shall guide him after God? Will they not then mind
John Medows Rodwell1861 What thinkest thou? He who hath made a God of his passions, and whom God causeth wilfully to err, and whose ears and whose heart he hath sealed up, and over whose sight he hath placed a veil - who, after his rejection by God, shall guide such a one? Will ye not then be warned
George Sale1734 What thinkest thou? He who taketh his own lust for his God, and whom God causeth knowingly to err, and whose ears, and whose heart He hath sealed up, and over whose eyes He hath cast a veil; who shall direct him, after God shall have forsaken him? Will ye not therefore be admonished
Talal Itani2012 When Our clarifying Verses are recited to them, their only argument is to say, "Bring back our ancestors, if you are truthful."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And when Our clear revelations are recited unto them their only argument is that they say: Bring (back) our fathers. then, if ye are truthful
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And when our signs are rehearsed to them with evidences their only argument is to say, 'Bring our fathers, if ye speak the truth
John Medows Rodwell1861 And when our clear signs are recited to them, their only argument is to say, "Bring back our fathers, if ye speak the truth
George Sale1734 And when our evident signs are rehearsed unto them, their argument which they offer against the same, is no other than that they say, bring to life our fathers who have been dead; if ye speak truth
Talal Itani2012 Say, "God gives you life, then He makes you die; then He gathers you for the Day of Resurrection, about which there is no doubt. But most people do not know."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Say (unto them, O Muhammad): Allah giveth life to you, then causeth you to die, then gathereth you unto the Day of Resurrection whereof there is no doubt. But most of mankind know not
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Say, 'God quickens you, then He kills you, then He will gather you unto the resurrection day, there is no doubt therein; but most men do not know
John Medows Rodwell1861 Say: God giveth you life, then causeth you to die: then will He assemble you on the day of resurrection: there is no doubt of it: but most men have not this knowledge
George Sale1734 Say, God giveth you life; and afterwards causeth you to die: Hereafter will He assemble you together on the day of resurrection; there is no doubt thereof; but the greater part of men do not understand
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 —
0.47 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
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.57
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.55
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.51
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.50
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.49
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.46
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.44
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.42
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.40
Talal Itani · George Sale0.38
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.