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
The life of this world is nothing but play and pastime. But if you have faith and lead a righteous life, He will grant you your rewards, and He will not ask you for your possessions.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
The life of the world is but a sport and a pastime. And if ye believe and ward off (evil), He will give you your wages, and will not ask of you your worldlywealth
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
The life of this world is but a play and a sport; but if ye believe and fear God, He will give you your hire
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Surely this present life is only a play, and pastime! but if ye believe, fear God; He will give you your rewards: but He will not ask all your riches of you
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
Verily this present life is only a play and a vainamusement: But if ye believe, and fear God, He will give you your rewards. He doth not require of you your wholesubstance
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
Jeta e kësaj bote nuk është gjë tjetër veçse lojë e dëfrim. Nëse besoni dhe ruheni, Ai do t'jua japë shpërblimet tuaja dhe nuk jua kërkon tërë pasurinë tuaj.
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
দুনিয়ার জীবন তো কেবল খেল-তামাশা ও অর্থহীন কথাবার্তা। আর যদি তোমরা ঈমান আনো এবং তাকওয়া অবলম্বন করো, তবে তিনি তোমাদেরকে তোমাদের প্রতিদান দিবেন এবং তিনি তোমাদের কাছে ধন-সম্পদ চাইবেন না।
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
Život na ovom svijetu je samo igra i zabava! A ako budete vjerovali i grijehe izbjegavali, On će vas nagraditi i imanja vaša od vas neće tražiti.
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
Život na ovom svijetu je samo igra i zabava! A ako budete vjerovali i grijehe izbjegavali, On će vas nagraditi i imanja vaša od vas neće tražiti.
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
Ganndee nguurndam aduna ko fijindaaru e mbeleeɗe tan; hara le si on ngooŋɗiii, on kulii [Allah], O yeɗay on njoɓdi mon ndiin, o lamndotaako on jawle mon ɗeen.
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
ჭეშმარიტად, ამქვეყნიური ცხოვრება მხოლოდ თამაში და გართობაა. და თუ ირწმუნებთ და ღვთისმოშიშნი იქნებით, ის მოგცემთ თქვენს საზღაურს და არ მოგთხოვთ თქვენს ქონებას.
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
Das diesseitige Leben ist ja nur Spiel und Vergnügen. Wenn ihr glaubt und (Allah) fürchtet, wird Er euch euren Lohn geben und euch nicht nach eurem (gesamten) Besitz fragen.
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
Πράγματι, η εγκόσμια ζωή είναι μόνο παιχνίδι και διασκέδαση. Αλλά αν πιστεύετε και φυλαχθείτε από την τιμωρία του Αλλάχ (τηρώντας τις εντολές Του), θα σας δώσει τις ανταμοιβές σας. Και δε ζητάει από σας (όλο) τον πλούτο σας, (αλλά σας καλεί να δώσετε ένα μικρό ποσό στην ελεημοσύνη και στο δρόμο Του).
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
सांसारिक जीवन तो केवल एक खेल और तमाशा है और यदि तुम ईमान लाओ और (अल्लाह से) डरते रहो, तो वह तुम्हें तुम्हारा प्रतिफल प्रदान करेगा और तुमसे तुम्हारा (सारा) धन नहीं माँगेगा।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
In verità la vita terrena è gioco e divertimento; e se credete e siete devoti, vi darà le vostre ricompense e non vi chiederà le vostre ricchezze;
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
36. Šis gyvenimas tėra žaidimas ir pramoga. Bet jeigu jūs tikite (Allaho Vienumą), ir bijote Allaho, bei vengiate blogio, Jis atlygins jums, ir neprašys viso jūsų turto (labdarai).
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
Воистину, мирская жизнь — лишь игра и забава. Но если вы уверуете и будете богобоязненны, Он дарует вам ваши награды и не потребует от вас вашего имущества.
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
Овосветски живот је људима само игра и забава! А ако будете веровали и били богобојазни, Он ће вас наградити и неће од вас тражити ваш иметак.
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
Hakika uhai wa duniani ni mchezo na pumbao. Na mkiamini na mkamcha Mungu, Mwenyezi Mungu atakupeni ujira wenu, wala hatakutakeni mali zenu.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Det jordiska livet är inget annat än lek och tidsfördriv. Men om ni håller fast vid tron och visar gudsfruktan ska han belöna er till fullo, och han begär inte [att ni skänker alla] era tillgångar.
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 hayatı ancak bir oyun ve eğlencedir. Eğer iman eder ve takvalı olursanız size mükâfatınızı verir ve sizden mallarınızı istemez.
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
واقعی زندگانیٴ دنیا تو صرف کھیل کود ہے[1] اور اگر تم ایمان لے آؤ گے اور تقویٰ اختیار کرو گے تو اللہ تمہیں تمہارے اجر دے گا اور وه تم سے تمہارے مال نہیں مانگتا.[2]
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 Those who disbelieve, and hinder from God's path, and then die as disbelievers-God will not forgive them.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Lo! those who disbelieve and turn from the way of Allah and then die disbelievers, Allah surely will not pardon them
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Verily, those who misbelieve and turn folks off God's path, and then die misbelievers, God will not pardon them
John Medows Rodwell1861 Verily those who believe not, and who pervert others from the way of God, and then die in unbelief, God will not forgive
George Sale1734 Verily those who believe not, and who turn away men from the way of God, and then die, being unbelievers, God will by no means forgive
Talal Itani2012 So do not waver and call for peace while you have the upper hand. God is with you, and He will not waste your efforts.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 So do not falter and cry out for peace when ye (will be) the uppermost, and Allah is with you, and He will not grudge (the reward of) your actions
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Then faint not, nor cry for peace while ye have the upper hand; for God is with you and will not cheat you of your works
John Medows Rodwell1861 Be not fainthearted then; and invite not the infidels to peace when ye have the upper hand: for God is with you, and will not defraud you of the recompense of your works
George Sale1734 Faint not therefore, neither invite your enemies to peace, while ye are the superior: For God is with you, and will not defraud you of the merit of your works
DIN 31635ʾin yasʾalkumūhā fayuḥfikum tabḫalū wayuḫriǧ ʾaḍġānakum
The translators word this verse differently
Talal Itani2012 Were He to ask you for it, and press you, you would become tightfisted, and He would expose your unwillingness.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 If He should ask it of you and importune you, ye would hoard it, and He would bring to light your (secret) hates
Edward Henry Palmer1880 He does not ask you for (all) your property; if He were to ask you for it and to press you, ye would be niggardly, and he would bring your malice out
John Medows Rodwell1861 Should He ask them of you, and urge you, ye would shew yourself niggards: and He would bring your grudges to light
George Sale1734 If He should require the whole of you, and earnestly press you, ye would become niggardly, and it would raise your hatred against his apostle
Talal Itani2012 Here you are, being called to spend in the cause of God. Among you are those who withhold; but whoever withholds is withholding against his own soul. God is the Rich, while you are the needy. And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Lo! ye are those who are called to spend in the way of Allah, yet among you there are some who hoard. And as for him who hoardeth, he hoardeth only from his soul. And Allah is the Rich, and ye are the poor. And if ye turn away He will exchange you for some other folk, and they will not be the likes of you
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Here are ye called upon to expend in God's cause, and among you are some who are niggardly; and he who is niggardly is but niggardly against his own soul: but God is rich and ye are poor, and if ye turn your backs He will substitute another people in your stead, then they will not be like you
John Medows Rodwell1861 Lo! ye are they, who are called to expend for the cause of God: and some of you are niggards: but whoso is niggardly shall be niggard only to his own loss; for God is the Rich, and ye are the poor: and if ye turn back, He will change you for another people, and they shall not be your like
George Sale1734 Behold, ye are those who are invited to expend part of your substance for the support of God's true religion; and there are some of you who are niggardly. But whoever shall be niggardly, shall be niggardly towards his own soul: For God wanteth nothing, but ye are needy: And if ye turn back, He will substitute another people in your stead, who shall not be like unto you
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 —
0.51 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
Talal Itani · George Sale0.63
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.62
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.57
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.56
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.54
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.53
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.45
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.45
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.42
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.35
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.