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
If only you could see, when they are made to stand before the Fire; they will say, "If only we could be sent back, and not reject the revelations of our Lord, and be among the faithful."
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
If thou couldst see when they are set before the Fire and say: Oh, would that we might return! Then would we not deny the revelations of our Lord but we would be of the 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
But couldst thou see when they are set over the fire and say, 'Would that we were sent back! we would not call our Lord's signs lies, but we would be of the believers
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
If thou couldst see when they shall be set over the fire, and shall say, "Oh! would we might be sent back! we would not treat the signs of our Lord as lies! we would be of the believers
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And if thou couldst only see when they are made to stand before the Fire! They will say, 'Oh, would that we might be sent back! And then we would not treat the Signs of our Lord as lies and we would be of the 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
Sikur t'i shihje ata kur të vihen para Zjarrit e të thonë: "Ah, sikur të ktheheshim (në dynja) e të mos i përgënjeshtronim ajetet e Zotit tonë dhe të bëheshim 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
আর তুমি যদি দেখতে, যখন তাদেরকে জাহান্নামের কিনারে দাঁড় করানো হবে, তখন তারা বলবে: ‘হায় আফসোস! যদি আমাদেরকে ফেরত পাঠানো হতো, তাহলে আমরা আমাদের রবের আয়াতসমূহকে অস্বীকার করতাম না এবং আমরা মু’মিনদের অন্তর্ভুক্ত হয়ে যেতাম!’
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
A da ti je vidjeti kako će, kad pred Vatrom budu zadržani, reći: "Da nam je da vraćeni budemo, pa da ajete i znakove Gospodara našeg ne poričemo i da vjernici postanemo."
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
A da ti je vidjeti kako će, kad pred Vatrom budu zadržani, reći: "Da nam je da vraćeni budemo, pa da ajete i znakove Gospodara našeg ne poričemo i da vjernici postanemo."
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
Sinno a tinno tuma nde ɓe darnanoo ka hoore Yiite, ɓe mbi'a : "Ee haaniinande men nduttetee, hara men njeddataa Aayeeje Joomi amen ɗen, Men njeyee e gooŋɗinɓe ɓen".
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 რომ გეხილა (ო, მოციქულო), როგორ დააყენებენ მათ ცეცხლის [ჯოჯოხეთის] წინაშე და იტყვიან: «ო, ნეტავ დაგვაბრუნებდნენ (მიწიურ ცხოვრებაში), მაშინ აღარ ვუარყოფდით ჩვენი უფლის ნიშნებს და ვიქნებოდით მორწმუნეთაგან!»
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 wenn du sehen würdest, wenn sie vor das (Höllen)feuer gestellt werden! Da werden sie sagen: „O würden wir doch zurückgebracht werden! Wir würden (dann) nicht die Zeichen unseres Herrn für Lüge erklären, sondern würden zu den Gläubigen gehören.“
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
Και αν έβλεπες (ω, Προφήτη) όταν θα σταθούν ενώπιον του Πυρός της Κολάσεως και θα πουν: «Μακάρι να επιστρέφαμε πίσω (στην εγκόσμια ζωή) και να μη διαψεύδαμε τα Εδάφια του Κυρίου μας, και να είμασταν από τους πιστούς!»
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
तथा (ऐ नबी!) यदि आप उस समय देखें, जब वे आग पर खड़े किए जाएँगे, तो वे कहेंगे : ऐ काश! हम वापस भेजे जाएँ और अपने पालनहार की आयतों को न झुठलाएँ और हम ईमान वालों में से हो जाएँ।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E se li avessi visti quando sono stati messi davanti al Fuoco! Dissero: “Se potessimo essere fatti tornare in vita! E non smentiremo più i Segni del nostro Dio, e saremo tra i 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
27. Jei tik tu galėtum pamatyti, kai jie bus laikomi virš (Pragaro) Ugnies! Jie sakys: „Kad tik mes būtume nusiųsti atgal (į žemę)! Tada mes neneigtume mūsų Viešpaties Ajat (įrodymų, įkalčių, eilučių, pamokų, apreiškimų ir t. t.), ir būtume mes iš tikinčiųjų!”
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
Если бы ты увидел, как их поставят пред адским огнём, — они скажут: «О, если бы нас вернули, мы бы не считали ложью знамения нашего Господа и были бы из числа верующих».
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
А да ти је да видиш како ће, кад пред Ватром буду задржани, да кажу: „Да нам је да се поново вратимо (у прошли живот), па да не поричемо речи нашег Господара и да постанемо 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
Na lau ungeona waliposimamishwa kwenye Moto, wakawa wanasema: Laiti tungelirudishwa, wala tusizikadhibishe tena Ishara za Mola wetu Mlezi, na tuwe miongoni mwa Waumini.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Om du bara kunde se när de ställs inför elden och säger: ”Om vi ändå fick återvända. Då skulle vi inte längre avfärda vår Herres tecken som lögn, utan verkligen tro!”
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
Ateşin karşısında durdurulup da, “Ah! Keşke dünyaya geri döndürülsek de Rabbimizin ayetlerini yalanlamasak ve Müminlerden olsak.” dedikleri vakit (hâllerini) bir görsen!
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 اگر آپ اس وقت دیکھیں جب کہ یہ دوزخ کے پاس کھڑے کئے جائیں[1] تو کہیں گے ہائے کیا اچھی بات ہو کہ ہم پھر واپس بھیج دیئے جائیں اور اگر ایسا ہو جائے تو ہم اپنے رب کی آیات کو جھوٹا نہ بتلائیں اور ہم ایمان والوں میں سے ہو جائیں۔[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 Among them are those who listen to you; but We place covers over their hearts, to prevent them from understanding it, and heaviness in their ears. Even if they see every sign, they will not believe in it. Until, when they come to you, to argue with you, those who disbelieve will say, "These are nothing but myths of the ancients."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Of them are some who listen unto thee, but We have placed upon their hearts veils, lest they should understand, and in their ears a deafness. If they saw every token they would not believe therein; to the point that, when they come unto thee to argue with thee, the disbelievers say: This is naught else than fables of the men of old
Edward Henry Palmer1880 And they are some who listen unto thee, but we have placed a veil upon their hearts lest they should understand it, and in their ears is dullness of hearing; and though they saw each sign they would not believe therein; until when they come to thee to wrangle with thee, the unbelievers say, 'These are but old folks' tales
John Medows Rodwell1861 Some among them hearken unto thee: but we have cast veils over their hearts that they should not understand the Koran, and a weight into their ears: and though they should see all kinds of signs, they will refuse all faith in them, until when they come to thee, to dispute with thee, the infidels say, "Verily, this is nothing but fables of the ancients
George Sale1734 And among them are some who give ear to thee; but We have put veils on their hearts, that they should not understand, and deafness in their ears. And even if they see every Sign, they would not believe therein, so much so that when they come to thee, disputing with thee, those who disbelieve say, 'This is nothing but fables of the ancients
Talal Itani2012 They keep others from it, and avoid it themselves; but they ruin only their own souls, and they do not realize.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And they forbid (men) from it and avoid it, and they ruin none save themselves, though they perceive not
Edward Henry Palmer1880 They forbid it and they avoid it;- but they destroy none but themselves; yet they do not perceive
John Medows Rodwell1861 And they will forbid it, and depart from it: - but they are only the authors of their own perdition, and know it not
George Sale1734 And they forbid others to believe in it and themselves too they keep away from it. And they ruin none but their ownselves; only they perceive not
Easy-read (simplified)bal badaa lahum maa kaanoo yukhfoona min qablu walaw ruddoo la'aadoo limaa nuhoo 'anhu wa'innahum lakaadhiboon
DIN 31635bal badā lahum mā kānū yuḫfūna min qablu walaw ruddū laʿādū limā nuhū ʿanhu waʾinnahum lakāḏibūna
Talal Itani2012 What they used to conceal before will become clear to them. And even if they were sent back, they would revert to what they were forbidden. They are liars.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Nay, but that hath become clear unto them which before they used to hide. And if they were sent back they would return unto that which they are forbidden. Lo! they are liars
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Nay! now is shown to them what they did hide before; and could they be sent back, they would return to that they were forbidden, for they are very liars
John Medows Rodwell1861 Aye! that hath become clear to them which they before concealed; but though they should return, they would surely go back to that which was forbidden them; for they are surely liars
George Sale1734 Nay, that which they used to hide before has now become clear to them. And if they were sent back, they would surely return to that which they are forbidden. And they are certainly liars
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 —
0.49 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 · Edward Henry Palmer0.65
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.62
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.59
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.48
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.47
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.44
Talal Itani · George Sale0.44
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.43
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.39
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.36
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.