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
Yet why should God not punish them, when they are turning others away from the Sacred Mosque, although they are not its custodians? Its rightfulcustodians are the pious; but most of them do not know.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
What (plea) have they that Allah should not punish them, when they debar (His servants) from the InviolablePlace of Worship, though they are not its fitting guardians. Its fitting guardians are those only who keep their duty to Allah. But most of them know not
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 what ails them that God should not torment them while they turn folk away from the Holy Mosque, though they are not the guardians thereof - its guardians are only the pious?- but most of them know not
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
But because they debarred the faithful from the holy temple, albeit they are not its guardians, nothing is there on their part why God should not chastise them. The Godfearing only are its guardians; but most of them know it not
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And what excuse have they now that God should not punish them, when they hindermen from the Sacred Mosque, and they are not its true guardians? Its true guardians are only those who are righteous, but most of them know not
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
E përse të mos i dënojë Allahu, kur ata pengojnë (njerëzit) nga Xhamia e Shenjtë, edhe pse nuk janë kujdestarët e saj?! Kujdestarët e saj të vërtetë janë vetëm ata që i frikësohen Allahut, por shumica e tyre nuk e dinë.
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 তাদের কী ওযর আছে যে, আল্লাহ তাদেরকে শাস্তি দেবেন না?(১২) যখন তারা আল-মসজিদুল হারাম থেকে বাধা দেয়। অথচ তারা আল্লাহর বন্ধু নয়, আল্লাহর বন্ধু তো কেবল মুত্তাকীগণই; কিন্তু তাদের অধিকাংশই জানে তা 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
A kako da ih Allah ne kazni kad brane drugima pristup Časnoj džamiji, a oni nisu njeni čuvari. Čuvari njeni treba da budu samo oni koji se Allaha boje, ali većina njih ne zna.
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 kako da ih Allah ne kazni kad brane drugima pristup Časnoj džamiji, a oni nisu njeni čuvari. Čuvari njeni trebaju biti samo oni koji se Allaha boje, ali većina njih ne zna.
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
Ko haɗata ɓe nde Alla leptataa ɓe, hara kamɓe heɓe faddade Juulirde hormante nden? Ɓe ngonaani weldiiɓe nde. Keeteeɓe mum wonaani si wonaa ɓeen gooŋɗinɓe, kono ɓurɓe ɗuuɗude e maɓɓe nganndaa.
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 რა აქვთ მათ ისეთი, რომ ალლაჰმა არ დასაჯოს ისინი, მაშინ როცა ისინი ხელს უშლიან (მორწმუნეებს) აკრძალულ მეჩეთში, მაშინ როცა თავად ისინი არ არიან მისი მცველები? მისი მცველები მხოლოდ ღვთისმოშიშნი არიან, თუმცა მათმა უმეტესობამ არ იცის.
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 soll mit ihnen sein, dass Allah sie nicht strafen sollte, wo sie (euch) von der geschützten (Haram-)Gebetsstätte abhalten? Und sie waren nicht seine Beschützer (also die Beschützer der Gebetsstätte). Ihre Beschützer sind ja nur die (Allah-)Fürchtenden! Aber die meisten von ihnen wissen nicht.
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
Γιατί να μην τους τιμωρήσει ο Αλλάχ (αυτούς τους άπιστους) αφού εμποδίζουν (τους ανθρώπους) από το Ιερό Τζαμί, παρόλο που δεν είναι οι κηδεμόνες του (Ιερού Τζαμιού για να πουν ποιος να μπει και ποιος όχι); Οι κηδεμόνες του (Ιερού Τζαμιού) είναι μόνο εκείνοι που φυλάσσονται από την τιμωρία του Αλλάχ (τηρώντας τις εντολές Του), αλλά οι περισσότεροι απ' αυτούς (τους ειδωλολάτρες) δεν το γνωρίζουν.
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
और उन्हें क्या है कि अल्लाह उन्हें यातना न दे, जबकि वे 'मस्जिदे ह़राम' (का'बा) से रोक रहे हैं, हालाँकि वे उसके संरक्षक नहीं। उसके संरक्षक तो केवल अल्लाह के डरने वाले बंदे हैं। परंतु उनके अधिकांश लोग नहीं जानते।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
E perché non dovrebbe punirli Allāh dato che sbarrano la strada all’inviolabile Moschea ﴿الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ﴾, senza esserne i custodi, e i custodi sono timorati? Ma gran parte di loro è inconsapevole.
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
34. Ir kodėl Allahas turėtų nebausti jų, kai jie neleido (žmonių) į Al-Masdžid Al-Haram, kai jie nėra jos saugotojai? Niekas negali būti jos saugotojais, išskyrus Al-Mutakūn (dievobaiminguosius – žr. ają 2:2), tačiau dauguma iš jų nežino.
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 1.0.8
Afaan Oromoo · Oromo
maaltu isaaniif tahe kan Rabbiin isaan hin adabneef, Haala isaan masjiida kabajamaa irraa (namoota) dhoorganiin. isaan jaalallee isaa hintaane. jaalalleewwan isaa Warra Rabbiin sodaatan malee kan biraa hin taane; garuu irra hedduun isaanii hin beekanu.
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
Почему бы Аллаху не наказать их, когда они не допускают [людей] к Заповедной Мечети? И они не являются её хранителями; воистину, её хранители — только богобоязненные, но большинство из них не знают.
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 заслужују да их Аллах казни када бране другима приступ Часном храму, а они нису његови чувари. Чувари његови треба да буду само они који се боје Аллаха, али већина њих не зна.
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
Lakini wana nini hata Mwenyezi Mungu asiwaadhibu, na hali ya kuwa wanawazuilia watu Msikiti Mtakatifu, wala wao hawakuwa ndio walinzi wake? Bali walinzi wake si isipokuwa wacha Mungu tu, lakini wengi wao hawajui.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
Men varför skulle Gud inte straffa dem, när de hindrar andra från den heliga moskén, trots att de inte har mest rätt till den? De med mest rätt till den är de gudfruktiga, men de flesta av dem vet inte det.
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
Onlar Mescid-i Haram’dan (Müminleri) men ederken, Allah onlara ne diye azap etmesin ki! Üstelik onlar Allah'ın evliyaları da değiller. Allah'ın evliyaları yalnızca muttakilerdir. Fakat onların çokları bunu bilmez.
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 ان میں کیا بات ہے کہ ان کو اللہ تعالیٰ سزا نہ دے حاﻻنکہ وه لوگ مسجد حرام سے روکتے ہیں، جب کہ وه لوگ اس مسجد کے متولی نہیں۔ اس کے متولی تو سوا متقیوں کے اور اشخاص نہیں، لیکن ان میں اکثر لوگ علم نہیں رکھتے۔[1]
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)wa'idh qaaloo llaahumma in kaana haadhaa huwa l-haqqa min 'indika fa'amtir 'alaynaa hijaaratan mina s-samaa'i awi tinaa bi'adhaabin aleem
DIN 31635waʾiḏ qālū llāhumma ʾin kāna hāḏā huwa l-ḥaqqa min ʿindika faʾamṭir ʿalaynā ḥiǧāratan mina s-samāʾi ʾawi ʾtinā biʿaḏābin ʾalīmin
Talal Itani2012 And they said, "Our God, if this is the truth from You, then rain down on us stones from the sky, or visit us with a painful affliction."
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And when they said: O Allah! If this be indeed the truth from Thee, then rain down stones on us or bring on us some painful doom
Edward Henry Palmer1880 When they said, 'O God! if this be truth, and from Thee, then rain upon us stones from heaven or bring us grievous woe
John Medows Rodwell1861 And when they said, "God! if this be the very truth from before thee, rain down stones upon us from Heaven, or lay on us some grievous chastisement
George Sale1734 And remember the time when they said, 'O God, if this be indeed the truth from Thee, then rain down upon us stones from heaven or bring down upon us a grievous punishment
Talal Itani2012 But God would not punish them while you are amongst them. And God would not punish them as long as they seek forgiveness.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 But Allah would not punish them while thou wast with them, nor will He punish them while they seek forgiveness
Edward Henry Palmer1880 But God would not torment them while thou art amongst them; nor was God going to torment them while they asked Him to forgive
John Medows Rodwell1861 But God chose not to chastise them while thou wast with them, nor would God chastise them when they sued for pardon
George Sale1734 But God would not punish them while thou wast among them, and God would not punish them while they sought forgiveness
Talal Itani2012 Their prayer at the House was nothing but whistling and clapping-so taste the punishment for your blasphemy.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And their worship at the (holy) House is naught but whistling and hand-clapping. Therefore (it is said unto them): Taste of the doom because ye disbelieve
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Their prayer at the House was naught but whistling and clapping hands!- taste then the torment for that ye misbelieved
John Medows Rodwell1861 And their prayer at the house of God is no other than whistling through the fingers and clapping of the hands - "Taste then the torment, for that ye have been unbelievers
George Sale1734 And their prayer at the Sacred House is nothing but whistling and clapping of hands. 'Taste then the punishment because you disbelieved
Talal Itani2012 Those who disbelieve spend their wealth to repel from God's path. They will spend it, then it will become a source of sorrow for them, and then they will be defeated. Those who disbelieve will be herded into Hell.
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 Lo! those who disbelieve spend their wealth in order that they may debar (men) from the way of Allah. They will spend it, then it will become an anguish for them, then they will be conquered. And those who disbelieve will be gathered unto hell
Edward Henry Palmer1880 Verily, those who misbelieve expend their wealth to turn folk from the path of God; but they shall spend it, and then it shall be for them sighing, and then they shall be overcome! Those who misbelieve, into hell shall they be gathered
John Medows Rodwell1861 The infidels spend their riches with intent to turn men aside from the way of God: spend it they shall; then shall sighing be upon them, and then shall they be overcome. And the infidels shall be gathered together into Hell
George Sale1734 Surely, those who disbelieve, spend their wealth to turn people away from the way of God. They will surely continue to spend it; but then shall it become a source of regret for them, and then shall they be overcome. And the disbelievers shall be gathered unto Hell
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 —
0.63 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 · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.71
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.71
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.68
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.68
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.63
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.63
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.59
Talal Itani · George Sale0.59
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.56
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.53
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.