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.
Then Allah sent a raven scratching up the ground, to show him how to hide his brother's naked corpse. He said: Woe unto me! Am I not able to be as this raven and so hide my brother's naked corpse? And he became repentant
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
Compare translations (4)Talal Itani· published 2012
Then God sent a raven digging the ground, to show him how to cover his brother's corpse. He said, "Woe to me! I was unable to be like this raven, and bury my brother's corpse." So he became full of regrets.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
And God sent a crow to scratch in the earth and show him how he might hide his brother's shame, he said, 'Alas, for me! Am I too helpless to become like this crow and hide my brother's shame?' and in the morning he was of those who did repent
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And God sent a raven which scratched upon the ground, to shew him how he might hide his brother's wrong. He said: "O woe is me! am I too weak to become like this raven, and to hide away my brother's wrong?" And he became one of the repentant
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And God sent a raven, which scratched the earth, to shew him how he should hide the shame of his brother, and he said, wo is me! Am I unable to be like this raven, that I may hide my brother's shame? And he became one of those who repent
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
Allahu dërgoi një korb që të gërmonte tokën, për t'i treguar si ta mbulonte xhenazen e të vëllait. Ai tha: "Ah, i mjeri unë! A nuk qenkam në gjendje të bëhem as si ky korb e të mbuloj trupin e vëllait tim!" Pra, u bë nga të penduarit.
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
অতঃপর আল্লাহ একটি কাক পাঠালেন, যে তার ভাইয়ের মৃতদেহ কীভাবে গোপন করা যায়, তা দেখানোর জন্য মাটি খুঁড়তে লাগল। সে বলল: ‘হায় আফসোস! আমি তো এই কাকটির মতোও হতে পারলাম না, যাতে আমার ভাইয়ের লাশ গোপন করতে পারি? অতঃপর সে লজ্জিত হলো।
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
Allah onda posla jednog gavrana da kopa po zemlji da bi mu pokazao kako da zakopa mrtvo tijelo brata svoga. "Teško meni", povika on, "zar i ja ne mogu, kao ovaj gavran, zakopati mrtvo tijelo brata svoga!" I pokajnik postade.
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
Allah onda posla jednog gavrana da kopa po zemlji da bi mu pokazao kako da zakopa mrtvo tijelo brata svoga. "Teško meni," povika on, "zar i ja ne mogu, kao ovaj gavran, zakopati mrtvo tijelo brata svoga!" I pokajnik postade.
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
Alla Nuli kaakaaru(Jeyyal) hino wiɗoo ka leydi fii yo ndu hollu mo honno o wirnirta ɓanndu musiɗɗo makko neene-gooto on. O wi'i : "E bone am ! E mi ronkay wa'ade na nduu kaakaaru mi wirna ɓanndu musiɗɗam neene-gooto am on ?". O Waɗtini jeyaaɗo e ninsuɓe ɓeen.
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 ალლაჰმა გაგზავნა ყვავი, რომელიც მიწას ქექავდა, რათა ეჩვენებინა მისთვის [მკვლელისთვის], თუ როგორ დაემარხა თავისი ძმის სხეული. მან [მკვლელმა] თქვა: «ვაი მე! ნუთუ მე ვერ შევძლებ ვიყო ამ ყვავივით და დავმარხო ჩემი ძმის სხეული?» და შემდეგ იგი გახდა მომნანიებელთა შორის [დაიწყო სინანული თავისი ქმედების გამო].
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
Da schickte Allah einen Raben, der auf der Erde scharrte, um ihm zu zeigen, wie er den Körper seines Bruders verbergen könne. Er sagte: „O wehe mir! War ich nicht fähig, wie dieser Rabe zu sein und den Körper meines Bruders zu verbergen?“ So wurde er einer der Bereuenden.
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
Έπειτα, ο Αλλάχ έστειλε ένα κοράκι να σκάψει το έδαφος (για να θάψει άλλο νεκρό κοράκι) για να του δείξει (στον Καμπήλ) πώς να θάψει το πτώμα του αδελφού του. Είπε (ο Καμπήλ): «Αλίμονό μου! Δεν κατάφερα ούτε να γίνω σαν αυτό το κοράκι για να θάψω το πτώμα του αδελφού μου;» Και έτσι έγινε ένας απ' αυτούς που έπεσαν σε τύψεις.
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
फिर अल्लाह ने एक कौआ भेजा, जो भूमि कुरेदता था, ताकि उसे दिखाए कि वह अपने भाई के शव को कैसे छिपाए। कहने लगा : हाय मेरा विनाश! क्या मैं इस कौए जैसा भी न हो सका कि अपने भाई का शव छिपा सकूँ। फिर वह लज्जित होने वालों में से हो गया।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E Allāh inviò un corvo a scavare la terra per mostrargli come fare a seppellire il corpo del fratello. Disse: «Povero me! Non sono forse capace come questo corvo di nascondere il corpo di mio fratello?» Così fu tra i pentiti.
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
31. Tada Allahas siuntė varną, kuri pakrapštė žemę, kad parodytų jam kaip paslėpti savo mirusio brolio kūną. Jis (žudikas) tarė: „Vargas man! Aš net nesugebu būti kaip ši varna ir paslėpti savo mirusio brolio kūną?“ Tada jis tapo vienu iš tų, kurie gailėjosi.
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
И Аллах послал ворона, который копался в земле, чтобы показать ему, как скрыть тело своего брата. Он сказал: «О горе мне! Неужели я не способен сделать подобно этому ворону и скрыть наготу своего брата?» — и оказался в числе сожалеющих.
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
Аллах је онда послао једног гаврана да копа по земљи да би му показао како да закопа мртво тело свога брата. Рече: „Тешко мени, зар и ја не могу, као овај гавран, да закопам мртво тело свог брата!“ И поче да се каје.
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
Hapo Mwenyezi Mungu akamtuma kunguru anayefukua katika ardhi ili amwonyeshe jinsi ya kuuzika mwili wa kaka yake. Akasema: 'Ole wangu! Nimeshindwa kuwa kama kunguru huyu nikauzika mwili wa kaka yangu?' Basi akawa miongoni mwa wenye kujuta.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Då sände Gud en korp som krafsade i jorden för att visa honom hur han kunde dölja sin brors lik. Han sa: ”Vilken skam! Kunde jag inte ens göra som denna korp och dölja min brors lik?” Och han greps av djup ånger.
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
Allah, kardeşinin cesedini nasıl gömeceğini göstermek için ona yeri eşeleyen bir karga gönderdi. "Yazıklar olsun bana! Şu karga kadar olup da kardeşimin cesedini örtmekten âciz miyim ben?” dedi ve pişman olanlardan oldu.
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
پھر اللہ تعالیٰ نے ایک کوے کو بھیجا جو زمین کھود رہا تھا تاکہ اسے دکھائے کہ وه کس طرح اپنے بھائی کی نعش کو چھپا دے، وه کہنے لگا، ہائے افسوس! کیا میں ایسا کرنے سے بھی گیا گزرا ہوگیا کہ اس کوے کی طرح اپنے بھائی کی ﻻش کو دفنا دیتا؟ پھر تو (بڑا ہی) پشیمان اور شرمنده ہوگیا۔
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)innee ureedu an taboo'a bi'ithmee wa'ithmika fatakoona min ashaabi n-naari wadhaalika jazaa'u z-zaalimeen
DIN 31635ʾinnī ʾurīdu ʾan tabūʾa biʾiṯmī waʾiṯmika fatakūna min ʾaṣḥābi n-nāri waḏālika ǧazāʾu ẓ-ẓālimīna
Talal Itani2012 "I would rather you bear my sin and your sin, and you become among the inmates of the Fire. Such is the reward for the evildoers."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Lo! I would rather thou shouldst bear the punishment of the sin against me and thine own sin and become one of the owners of the fire. That is the reward of evil-doers
Edward Henry Palmer1880 verily, I wish that thou mayest draw upon thee my sin and thy sin, and be of the fellows of the Fire, for that is the reward of the unjust
John Medows Rodwell1861 Yea, rather would I that thou shouldest bear my sin and thine own sin, and that thou become an inmate of the Fire: for that is the recompense of the unjust doers
George Sale1734 I choose that thou shouldest bear my iniquity and thine own iniquity; and that thou become a companion of hell fire; for that is the reward of the unjust
Talal Itani2012 Because of that We ordained for the Children of Israel: that whoever kills a person-unless it is for murder or corruption on earth-it is as if he killed the whole of mankind; and whoever saves it, it is as if he saved the whole of mankind. Our messengers came to them with clarifications, but even after that, many of them continue to commit excesses in the land.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty), but afterwards lo! many of them became prodigals in the earth
Edward Henry Palmer1880 For this cause have we prescribed to the children of Israel that whoso kills a soul, unless it be for another soul or for violence in the land, it is as though he had killed men altogether; but whoso saves one, it is as though he saved men altogether. Our apostles came to them with manifest signs; then, verily, many of them did after that commit excesses in the earth
John Medows Rodwell1861 For this cause have we ordained to the children of Israel that he who slayeth any one, unless it be a person guilty of manslaughter, or of spreading disorders in the land, shall be as though he had slain all mankind; but that he who saveth a life, shall be as though he had saved all mankind alive. Of old our Apostles came to them with the proofs of their mission; then verily after this most of them committed excesses in the land
George Sale1734 Wherefore we commanded the children of Israel, that he who slayeth a soul, without adding thereto the murder of another soul, or without committing wickedness in the earth, shall be as if he had slain all mankind: But he who saveth a soul alive, shall be as if he had saved the lives of all mankind. Our apostles formerly came unto them, with evident miracles; then were many of them, after this, transgressors on the earth
Talal Itani2012 The punishment for those who fight God and His Messenger, and strive to spread corruption on earth, is that they be killed, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, or be banished from the land. That is to disgrace them in this life; and in the Hereafter they will have a terrible punishment.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom
Edward Henry Palmer1880 The reward of those who make war against God and His Apostle, and strive after violence in the earth, is only that they shall be slaughtered or crucified, or their hands cut off and their feet on alternate sides, or that they shall be banished from the land; - that is a disgrace for them in this world, and for them in the next is mighty woe
John Medows Rodwell1861 Only, the recompense of those who war against God and his Apostle, and go about to commit disorders on the earth, shall be that they shall be slain or crucified, or have their alternate hands and feet cut off, or be banished the land: This their disgrace in this world, and in the next a great torment shall be theirs
George Sale1734 But the recompense of those who fight against God and his apostle, and study to act corruptly in the earth, shall be, that they shall be slain, or crucified, or have their hands and their feet cut off on the opposite sides, or be banished the land. This shall be their disgrace in this world, and in the next world they shall suffer a grievous punishment
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 · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.68
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.63
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.62
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.57
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.57
Talal Itani · George Sale0.57
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.56
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.53
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.47
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.46
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.