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
O you who believe! Do not befriend those who take your religion in mockery and as a sport, be they from among those who were given the Scripture before you, or the disbelievers. And obey God, if you are believers.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
O Ye who believe! Choose not for guardians such of those who received the Scripture before you, and of the disbelievers, as make a jest and sport of your religion. But keep your duty to Allah if ye are true believers
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
O ye who believe! take not for patrons those who take your religion for a jest or a sport, from amongst those who have been given the Book before and the misbelievers; but fear God if ye be believers
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
O ye who believe! take not such of those who have received the Scriptures before you, as scoff and jest at your religion, or the Infidels, for your friends, but fear God if ye are believers
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
O true believers, take not such of those to whom the scriptures were delivered before you, or of the infidels, for your friends, who make a laughingstock, and a jest of your religion; but fear God, if ye be true believers
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
O besimtarë! Mos i zini për miq ata që fenë tuaj e marrin për tallje e lojë, qofshin prej atyre që u është dhënë Libri para jush, qofshin prej idhujtarëve! Frikësojuni Allahut, nëse jeni besimtarë!
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
হে মুমিনগণ! তোমাদের পূর্বে যাদেরকে কিতাব দেয়া হয়েছে তাদের মধ্যে যারা তোমাদের দীনকে হাসি-তামাশা ও খেলার বস্তুরূপে গ্রহণ করে তাদেরকে ও কাফিরদেরকে তোমরা বন্ধুরূপে গ্রহণ করো না। আর আল্লাহকে ভয় করো; যদি তোমরা প্রকৃত মু’মিন হয়ে থাকো।
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
O vi koji vjerujete, ne uzimajte za zaštitnike i prijatelje one koji vašu vjeru za podsmijeh i zabavu uzimaju, bili to oni kojima je data Knjiga prije vas, ili bili nevjernici – i Allaha se bojte ako ste vjernici.
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
O vi koji vjerujete, ne uzimajte za zaštitnike i prijatelje one koji vašu vjeru za podsmijeh i zabavu uzimaju, bili to oni kojima je data Knjiga prije vas, ili bili nevjernici – i Allaha se bojte ako ste vjernici.
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
Eehey monyo gooŋɗinɓe, wata on njogito ɓeen jogitoriiɓe diine mon o jalnorɗi e fijindaaru, immorde e ɓeen okkaaɓe defte adii mon, e heeferaaɓe ɓeen weldiiɓe. Kulee Alla si on laatike gooŋɗinɓe.
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
ჰეი, თქვენ, რომელთაც ირწმუნეთ! ნუ აირჩევთ მოკავშირეებად მათ, ვინც თქვენს სარწმუნოებას დაცინვად და გასართობად მიიჩნევს, იმათგან, ვისაც თქვენამდე მიეცათ წიგნი და ურწმუნოთაგან [მრავალღმერთიანთაგან]. და გეშინოდეთ ალლაჰის, თუ მართლაც მორწმუნეები ხართ.
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
O die ihr glaubt, nehmt nicht diejenigen, die sich über eure Religion lustig machen und sie zum Gegenstand des Spiels nehmen, von denjenigen, denen vor euch die Schrift gegeben wurde, und die Ungläubigen zu Schutzherren. Und fürchtet Allah, wenn ihr (wirklich) Gläubige seid!
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
Ω, εσείς που πιστεύετε! Μην παίρνετε ως κηδεμόνες (και υποστηρικτές) ούτε εκείνους που πήραν τη θρησκεία σας ως κάτι αστείο και παιχνίδι, απ' αυτούς (τους Εβραίους και τους Χριστιανούς) στους οποίους δόθηκε το Βιβλίο πριν απ' εσάς, ούτε τους άπιστους. Και φυλαχθείτε από την τιμωρία του Αλλάχ (τηρώντας τις εντολές Του) αν είστε πράγματι πιστοί.
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
ऐ ईमान वालो! उन लोगों को जिन्होंने तुम्हारे धर्म को उपहास और खेल बना लिया, उन लोगों में से जिन्हें तुमसे पहले पुस्तक दी गई है और काफ़िरों को मित्र न बनाओ और अल्लाह से डरो, यदि तुम ईमान वाले हो।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
O credenti, non prendete come sostenitori quelli che si prendono gioco della vostra religione e la disprezzano, tra quelli che hanno avuto il Libro prima di voi, e i miscredenti, e temete Allāh se siete veramente dei credenti!
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
57. O jūs, kurie tikite! Nelaikykite Aulyja (globėjais arba padėjėjais) tų, kurie laiko jūsų tikėjimą pajuokos objektu ir pokštu, iš tų tarpo, kurie gavo Raštą (judėjų ir krikščionių) iki jūsų, anei netikinčiųjų tarpo. Ir bijokite Allaho, jei jūs iš tiesų esate tikri tikintieji.
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
О вы, которые уверовали! Не берите в покровители тех, которые обратили вашу религию в предмет насмешек и игру — из числа тех, кому было даровано Писание до вас, и из числа отвергших веру. И бойтесь Аллаха, если вы являетесь верующими.
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
О ви који верујете, не узимајте за заштитнике и пријатеље оне који узимају вашу веру за подсмех и забаву, били то они којима је пре вас дата Књига, или били неверници - и Аллаха се бојте ако сте верници.
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
Enyi mlioamini! Msiwafanye marafiki wandani wale walioifanyia kejeli na mchezo Dini yenu miongoni mwa wale waliopewa Kitabu kabla yenu, na makafiri wengine. Na mcheni Mwenyezi Mungu ikiwa nyinyi ni Waumini.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Troende! Alliera er inte med de som gör er tro till föremål för hån och skämt, vare sig bland de som mottog skriften före er tid eller bland de otrogna. Frukta i stället Gud, om ni är sanna troende.
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
Ey iman edenler! Kendilerine sizden önce kitap verilenlerden dininizi alay ve eğlenceye alanları ve kâfirleri veli edinmeyin. Mümin iseniz ancak Allah'tan sakının/takvalı olun.
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
مسلمانو! ان لوگوں کو دوست نہ بناؤ جو تمہارے دین کو ہنسی کھیل بنائے ہوئے ہیں (خواه) وه ان میں سے ہوں جو تم سے پہلے کتاب دیئے گئے یا کفار ہوں[1] اگر تم مومن ہو تو اللہ تعالیٰ سے ڈرتے رہو۔
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 Your allies are God, and His Messenger, and those who believe-those who pray regularly, and give charity, and bow down.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Your guardian can be only Allah; and His messenger and those who believe, who establish worship and pay the poordue, and bow down (in prayer)
Edward Henry Palmer1880 God only is your patron, and His Apostle and those who believe, who are steadfast in prayer and give alms, bowing down
John Medows Rodwell1861 Verily, your protector is God and His Apostle, and those who believe, who observe prayer, and pay the alms of obligation, and who bow in worship
George Sale1734 Verily your protector is God, and his apostle, and those who believe, who observe the stated times of prayer, and give alms, and who bow down to worship
Talal Itani2012 Whoever allies himself with God, and His Messenger, and those who believe-surely the Party of God is the victorious.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And whoso taketh Allah and His messenger and those who believe for guardian (will know that), lo! the party of Allah, they are the victorious
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Whoso taketh as patrons God and His apostles and those who believe; - verily, God's crew, they are victorious
John Medows Rodwell1861 And whoso take God and His Apostle, and those who believe for friends, they truly are the people of God; they shall have the upper hand
George Sale1734 And whoso taketh God, and his apostle, and the believers for his friends, they are the party of God, and they shall be victorious
Talal Itani2012 When you call to the prayer, they take it as a joke and a trifle. That is because they are people who do not reason.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And when ye call to prayer they take it for a jest and sport. That is because they are a folk who understand not
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Nor those who, when ye call to prayer, take it for a jest and a sport; that is because they are a people who do not understand
John Medows Rodwell1861 Nor those who when ye call to prayer, make it an object of raillery and derision. This they do because they are a people who understand not
George Sale1734 nor those who, when ye call to prayer, make a laughing-stock and a jest of it, this they do, because they are people who do not understand
Easy-read (simplified)qul yaa ahla l-kitaabi hal tanqimoona minnaa illaa an aamannaa billaahi wamaa unzila ilaynaa wamaa unzila min qablu wa'anna aktharakum faasiqoon
DIN 31635qul yā ʾahla l-kitābi hal tanqimūna minnā ʾillā ʾan ʾāmannā billāhi wamā ʾunzila ʾilaynā wamā ʾunzila min qablu waʾanna ʾakṯarakum fāsiqūna
Talal Itani2012 Say, "O People of the Scripture! Do you resent us only because we believe in God, and in what was revealed to us, and in what was revealed previously; and most of you are sinners?"
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Say: O People of the Scripture! Do ye blame us for aught else than that we believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed aforetime, and because most of you are evil-livers
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Say, 'O people of the Book! do ye disavow us, for aught but that we believe in God, and what was revealed to us before, and for that most of you are evildoers
John Medows Rodwell1861 SAY: O people of the Book! do ye not disavow us only because we believe in God, and in what He hath sent down to us, and in what He hath sent down aforetime, and because most of you are doers of ill
George Sale1734 Say, O ye who have received the scriptures, do ye reject us for any other reason than because we believe in God, and that revelation which hath been sent down unto us, and that which was formerly sent down, and for that the greater part of you are transgressors
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 —
0.55 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
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.62
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.62
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.60
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.55
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.52
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.52
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.50
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.50
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.39
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.