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 those who misbelieve say of those who believe, 'If it had been good, they would not have been beforehand with us therein;' and when they are not guided thereby, then will they say, 'This is an old-fashioned lie
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Compare translations (4)Talal Itani· published 2012
Those who disbelieve say to those who believe, "If it were anything good, they would not have preceded us to it." And since they were not guided by it, they will say, "This is an ancient lie."
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
And those who disbelieve say of those who believe: If it had been (any) good, they would not have been before us in attaining it. And since they will not be guided by it, they say: This is an ancient lie
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
John Medows Rodwell1808–1900 · published 1861
But the infidels say of the believers, "If it were a good Book they would not have been before us in believing it:" And not having submitted to guidance, they proceed to say, "It is an old lyinglegend
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
But those who believe not, say of the true believers, if the doctrine of the Koran had been good, they had not embraced the same before us. And when they are not guided thereby, they say, this is an antiquated lie
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
Jobesimtarët thonë për ata që besojnë: "Po të ishte diçka e mirë, ata nuk do të na kishin paraprirë në të." Meqë nuk u udhëzuan prej tij, ata thonë: "Ky është një trillim i vjetër."
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 যারা কুফরী করেছে তারা ঈমানদারদের সম্পর্কে বলে: ‘যদি এটা (এ দ্বীন) ভালো হত তবে তারা (৩) আমাদের থেকে অগ্রণী হতে পারত না।’(৪) আর যখন তারা এর দ্বারা হিদায়াত প্রাপ্ত হয়নি, তখন তারা অচিরেই বলবে, ‘এটা তো এক পুরোনো মিথ্যা।’
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 govore nevjernici o vjernicima: “Da je kakvo dobro, nas oni u tome ne bi pretekli.” A kako pomoću njega Pravi put nisu našli, sigurno će reći: “Ovo je još davna izmišljotina.”
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 govore nevjernici o vjernicima: “Da je kakvo dobro, nas oni u tome ne bi pretekli.” A kako pomoću njega Pravi put nisu našli, sigurno će reći: “Ovo je još davna izmišljotina.”
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
Yedduɓe ɓen wi'ani gooŋɗinɓe ɓen: "Si tawno ɗuum ko moƴƴere, ɓeen (waasuɓe) adototaako men e mum". Nde wonunoo ɓe fewnoraani nde, ma ɓe mbi'u: "Ndee ko fenaande neeɓunde!".
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 უთხრეს ურწმუნოებმა მათ, რომელთაც ირწმუნეს: «ეს რომ სიკეთე ყოფილიყო, ისინი ჩვენ არ დაგვასწრებდნენ მასში». და როდესაც ვერ პოულობენ ჭეშმარიტ გზას მისი მეშვეობით, იტყვიან: «ეს ძველი სიცრუეა».
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 diejenigen, die ungläubig sind, sagen zu denjenigen, die glauben: „Wenn er etwas Gutes wäre, wären sie uns damit nicht zuvorgekommen.“ Und da sie sich nicht durch ihn rechtleiten lassen, werden sie sagen: „Das ist eine alte ungeheuerliche Lüge.“
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
Εκείνοι που αρνήθηκαν την πίστη είπαν σ' αυτούς που πίστεψαν: «Αν αυτή (η θρησκεία -το Ισλάμ-) ήταν καλή, τότε δε θα έσπευδαν πριν από μας (οι αδύναμοι και οι φτωχοί) στο να πιστέψουν σ' αυτή.» Τώρα αφού δεν καθοδηγήθηκαν μέσω αυτού (του Κορ’άν), θα πουν: «Αυτό είναι παλιές ψεύτικες ιστορίες (που επινόησαν οι αρχαίοι).»
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 काफ़िरों ने ईमान लाने वालों के बारे में कहा : यदि यह (धर्म) कुछ भी उत्तम होता, तो ये लोग हमसे पहले उसकी ओर न आते। और जब उन्होंने उससे मार्गदर्शन नहीं पाया, तो अवश्य कहेंगे कि यह पुराना झूठ है।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E dissero i miscredenti ai credenti: «Se Esso fosse una cosa vantaggiosa, non ci avrebbero preceduti». E se non gli sarà utile come guida, diranno: «Questa è una vecchia impostura!»
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
11. Ir tie, kurie netiki (būdami stiprūs ir turtingi), sako tiems, kurie tiki (ir yra silpni ir vargšai): „Jeigu tai (į ką Muchammedas ﷺ kviečia) būtų gerai, tai jie (silpni ir vargšai) nebūtų mūsų tame aplenkę!“. Kadangi jie atsisakė vedimo, jie sakys: „Tai tėra senas prasimanymas!“
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
Isaan kafaran isaan amananiin ni jedhu: “Odoo inni (Qur’aanni) waan gaarii ta’ee silaa gara isaatti nu hin dursanu ture.” Isaan eega hin qajeelinii “kun dhara (kijiba) duriiti” jechuuf jiru.
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
И те, которые отвергли веру, сказали тем, которые уверовали: «Если бы это было благом, они не опередили бы нас в этом». А раз они не нашли в нём руководства, то непременно скажут: «Это — давняя ложь».
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 говоре неверници о верницима: „Да је у томе добро, они нас не би претекли у томе.“ А како помоћу њега нису нашли Прави пут, сигурно ће да кажу: „Ово је још давна измишљотина.“
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 wale waliokufuru waliwaambia wale walioamini: 'Lau kuwa hii ni heri, wasingelitutangulia kuifikia.' Na walipokosa kuongoka, wakasema: 'Huu ni uzushi mkubwa wa zamani.'
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
De otrogna säger till de troende: ”Om det här verkligen hade varit något gott, skulle dessa [arma människor] inte ha hunnit före oss att anamma det.” Och eftersom de själva vägrar att vägledas av den kommer de snart att hävda: ”Det där är bara ett gammalt påhitt.”
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
Kâfirler, iman edenler hakkında; "Bu iş bir hayır olsaydı, (bu hayra uymakta) onlar bizi geçemezlerdi. Oysa onlar, onunla hidayete eremediklerinden dolayı bu, eski bir yalandır." derler.
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 کافروں نے ایمان داروں کی نسبت کہا کہ اگر یہ (دین) بہتر ہوتا تو یہ لوگ اس کی طرف ہم سے سبقت کرنے نہ پاتے، اور چونکہ انہوں نے قرآن سے ہدایت نہیں پائی پس یہ کہہ دیں گے کہ قدیمی جھوٹ 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)qul maa kuntu bid'an mina r-rusuli wamaa adree maa yuf'alu bee walaa bikum in attabi'u illaa maa yoohaa ilayya wamaa anaa illaa nadheerun mubeen
Talal Itani2012 Say, "I am not different from the other messengers; and I do not know what will be done with me, or with you. I only follow what is inspired in me, and I am only a clear warner."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Say: I am no new thing among the messengers (of Allah), nor know I what will be done with me or with you. I do but follow that which is inspired in me, and I am but a plain warner
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Say, 'I am not an innovator among the apostles; nor do I know what will be done with me or with you if I follow aught but what I am inspired with; nor am I aught but a plain warner
John Medows Rodwell1861 SAY: I am no apostle of new doctrines: neither know I what will be done with me or you. Only what is revealed to me do I follow, and I am only charged to warn openly
George Sale1734 Say, I am not singular among the apostles; neither do I know what will be done with me or with you hereafter: I follow no other than what is revealed unto me; neither am I any more than a public warner
Easy-read (simplified)qul ara'aytum in kaana min 'indi llaahi wakafartum bihi washahida shaahidun min banee israa'eela 'alaa mithlihi fa'aamana wastakbartum inna llaaha laa yahdee l-qawma z-zaalimeen
DIN 31635qul ʾaraʾaytum ʾin kāna min ʿindi llāhi wakafartum bihi wašahida šāhidun min banī ʾisrāʾīla ʿalā miṯlihi faʾāmana wastakbartum ʾinna llāha lā yahdī l-qawma ẓ-ẓālimīna
Talal Itani2012 Say, "Have you considered? What if it is from God and you disbelieve in it? A witness from the Children of Israel testified to its like, and has believed, while you turned arrogant. God does not guide the unjust people."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Bethink you: If it is from Allah and ye disbelieve therein, and a witness of the Children of Israel hath already testified to the like thereof and hath believed, and ye are too proud (what plight is yours)? Lo! Allah guideth not wrong-doing folk
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Say, 'Have ye considered, if it is from God and ye have disbelieved therein, and a witness from the children of Israel testifies to the conformity of it, and he believes while ye are too big with pride? Verily, God guides not the unjust people
John Medows Rodwell1861 SAY: What think ye? If this Book be from God, and ye believe it not, and a witness of the children of Israel witness to its conformity with the Law, and believe, while ye proudly disdain it . . . ? Ah! God guideth not the people guilty of such a wrong
George Sale1734 Say, what is your opinion? If this book be from God, and ye believe not therein; and a witness of the children of Israel bear witness to its consonancy with the law, and believeth therein; and ye proudly reject the same: Are ye not unjust doers? Verily God directeth not unjust people
Talal Itani2012 And before it was the Book of Moses, a model and a mercy. And this is a confirming Book, in the Arabic language, to warn those who do wrong-and good news for the doers of good.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 When before it there was the Scripture of Moses, an example and a mercy; and this is a confirming Scripture in the Arabic language, that it may warn those who do wrong and bring good tidings for the righteous
Edward Henry Palmer1880 But before it was the Book of Moses, a model and a mercy; and this is a book confirming it in Arabic language, to warn those who do wrong and as glad tidings to those who do well
John Medows Rodwell1861 But before the Koran was the Book of Moses, a rule and a mercy; and this Book confirmeth it (the Pentateuch) - in the Arabic tongue - that those who are guilty of that wrong may be warned, and as glad tidings to the doers of good
George Sale1734 Whereas the book of Moses was revealed before the Koran, to be a guide and a mercy: And this is a book confirming the same, delivered, in the Arabic tongue; to denounce threats unto those who act unjustly, and to bear good tidings unto the righteous doers
Talal Itani2012 Those who say, "Our Lord is God," then lead a righteous life-they have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Lo! those who say: Our Lord is Allah, and thereafter walk aright, there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Verily, those who say, 'Our Lord is God,' and then keep straight, there is no fear for them, and they shall not be grieved
John Medows Rodwell1861 Assuredly they who say, "Our Lord is God," and take the straight way to Him - no fear shall come on them, neither shall they be put to grief
George Sale1734 As to those who say, our Lord is God; and who behave uprightly: On them shall no fear come, neither shall they be grieved
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 —
0.60 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 Rodwell0.73
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.69
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.69
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.66
Talal Itani · George Sale0.65
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.60
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.58
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.56
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.55
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.34
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.