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In plain wordsEditorial

An editorial summary of the translations. Not a translation or tafsir.

Twenty-two verses opening with God having heard a woman who argued with the Prophet about her husband and complained to God - the dispute this surah is named for. It sets out what is owed by a man who puts his wife away by calling her his mother, and it returns repeatedly to private talk: who is in it, what it is for, and who hears it.

AALAMIN Editor · signed 25 August 2026

not a scholar — what this signature means

I am not a scholar, and nothing here asks you to treat me as one. The plain words on this site are my restatement of what the five translations shown above say, together with counts derived from the text itself — nothing more. I sign them so that a named person is accountable for every sentence, not so you'll take my word for anything. The authority on this page is the text and its translators. If my words don't match theirs, mine are the ones that are wrong.

Read the surah Go to a verse

Every verse as a number; tap one to open it. Shaded numbers mark verses where the translations differ most.

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worded differently

Where the translators differDerived

The verses of this surah whose wording differs most, most differently worded first. Under each, the two renderings that share the fewest words are quoted in full under their translators' names; every rendering is on the verse's own page. This measures wording, not meaning.

58:10
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.67. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.77.

Edward Henry Palmer · 1880

Privy talk is only from the devil, and those who do believe may grieve: it cannot hurt them at all, except by the permission of God: and upon God let the believers rely

John Medows Rodwell · 1861

Only of Satan is this clandestine talk, that he may bring the faithful to grief: but, unless by God's permission, not aught shall he harm them! in God then let the faithful trust
58:13
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.67. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.77.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

Fear ye to offer alms before your conference? Then, when ye do it not and Allah hath forgiven you, establish worship and pay the poor-due and obey Allah and His messenger. And Allah is Aware of what ye do

George Sale · 1734

Do ye fear to give alms previously to your discoursing with the prophet, lest ye should impoverish yourselves? Therefore if ye do it not, and God is gracious unto you, by dispensing with the said precept for the future, be constant at prayer, and pay the legal alms; and obey God and his apostle in all other matters: For God well knoweth that which ye do
Show all verses the translators word differently
58:8
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.67. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.74.

Talal Itani · 2012

Have you noted those who were prohibited from conspiring secretly, but then reverted to what they were prohibited from? They conspire to commit sin, and aggression, and defiance of the Messenger. And when they come to you, they greet you with a greeting that God never greeted you with. And they say within themselves, "Why does God not punish us for what we say?" Hell is enough for them. They will roast in it. What a miserable destiny!

George Sale · 1734

Hast thou not observed those who have been forbidden to use clandestine discourse, but afterwards return to what they have been forbidden, and discourse privily among themselves of wickedness, and enmity, and disobedience towards the apostle? And when they come unto thee, they salute thee with that form of salutation wherewith God doth not salute thee: And they say among themselves, by way of derision, would not God punish us for what we say, if this man were a prophet? Hell shall be their sufficient punishment: They shall go down into the same to be burned; and an unhappy journey shall it be
58:1
Analysis details This verse's score: 0.66. Widest pair of the 5 renderings, at 0.79.

Edward Henry Palmer · 1880

GOD has heard the speech of her who wrangled with you about her husband, and complained to God; and God hears your gossip; verily, God both hears and sees

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · 1930

Allah hath heard the saying of her that disputeth with thee (Muhammad) concerning her husband, and complaineth unto Allah. And Allah heareth your colloquy. Lo! Allah is Hearer, Knower
More about this surahDerived
Verses
22
Words
472
Place
Medinan
Revelation position
105th of 114 in an ordering its source does not name
Opening letters
None
Bismillah
Carried by the surah, unnumbered
Word-by-word breakdown
54.9% of 472 words carry an analysis
  1. 96
  2. 68
  3. 73
  4. 74
  5. 1
  6. 111
  7. 81
  8. 87
  9. 92
  10. 89
  11. 93
  12. 94
  13. 103
  14. 100
  15. 108
  16. 102
  17. 107
  18. 109
  19. 105
  20. 113
  21. 114
  22. 112
  23. 53
  24. 80
  25. 97
  26. 91
  27. 85
  28. 95
  29. 106
  30. 101
  31. 75
  32. 104
  33. 77
  34. 50
  35. 90
  36. 86
  37. 54
  38. 38
  39. 7
  40. 72
  41. 36
  42. 25
  43. 35
  44. 19
  45. 20
  46. 56
  47. 26
  48. 27
  49. 28
  50. 17
  51. 10
  52. 11
  53. 12
  54. 15
  55. 6
  56. 37
  57. 31
  58. 34
  59. 39
  60. 40
  61. 41
  62. 42
  63. 43
  64. 44
  65. 45
  66. 46
  67. 51
  68. 88
  69. 18
  70. 16
  71. 71
  72. 14
  73. 21
  74. 23
  75. 32
  76. 52
  77. 67
  78. 69
  79. 70
  80. 78
  81. 79
  82. 82
  83. 84
  84. 30
  85. 29
  86. 83
  87. 2
  88. 8
  89. 3
  90. 33
  91. 60
  92. 4
  93. 99
  94. 57
  95. 47
  96. 13
  97. 55
  98. 76
  99. 65
  100. 98
  101. 59
  102. 24
  103. 22
  104. 63
  105. 58
  106. 49
  107. 66
  108. 64
  109. 61
  110. 62
  111. 48
  112. 5
  113. 9
  114. 110

Meccan Medinan

Counted from the text and the spine at build time, not written into the page. Opening letters are derived from the edition's orthography: an opening token of at most five letters carrying none of its vocalisation marks. The revelation position is reproduced from Revelation order as encoded by the Tanzil metadata, which does not name whose ordering it is.

Analysis detailsDerived

These figures count the words the translations share. They measure wording, not meaning, and they do not say which translation is right.

Mean score across this surah
0.59 across 22 scored verses

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
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.
Scored
6,236 verses
As at
13 September 2026, 10:56 UTC
Sources for this page

Surah metadataTanzil Qur'an metadata ·quran-data.xml v1.0·Tanzil Project ·Creative Commons Attribution — version not specified by the source·retrieved 24 Aug 2026

Surah metadata from Tanzil Qur'an metadata (quran-data.xml, version 1.0), Tanzil Project, tanzil.net. (C) 2008-2009 Tanzil.info. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution; the source does not state a version. Values are reproduced unchanged; this site selects and arranges them, and derives verse ranges from the division start points. https://tanzil.net/res/text/metadata/quran-data.xml