Quran 8 : 31

And when are recited to them Our Verses they say, "Verily we have heard. if we wish surely, we could say like this. Not is this but tales (of) the former (people)."
وَإِذَا
Waiidhā
تُتْلَىٰ
Tutlaāā
عَلَيْهِمْ
ʿAlayhim
ءَايَٰتُنَا
ʾĀyaātunā
قَالُوا۟
Qālūa
قَدْ
Qad
سَمِعْنَا
Samiʿnā
لَوْ
Law
نَشَآءُ
Nashaaʾu
لَقُلْنَا
Laqulnā
مِثْلَ
Mithla
هَٰذَآ
Haādhaa
إِنْ
Iin
هَٰذَآ
Haādhaa
إِلَّآ
Iillaa
أَسَٰطِيرُ
Aasaāṭīru
ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ
Alaawwalīna

[The Monotheist Group] (2013 Edition)

And if Our revelations are recited to them, they say: "We have listened, and if we wish, we could have said the same thing. This is nothing except fictional tales of old!"

Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)

When Our Signs are rehearsed to them, they say: "We have heard this (before): if we wished, we could say (words) like these: these are nothing but tales of the ancients."

Wahiduddin Khan

Whenever Our revelations are recited to them, they say, We have heard them. If we wished, we could produce the like. They are nothing but the fables of the ancients

Umm Muhammad (Sahih International)

And when Our verses are recited to them, they say, "We have heard. If we willed, we could say [something] like this. This is not but legends of the former peoples."

The Wise Quran

And when Our verses were recited to them they said, 'Verily, we have heard. If we willed, surely we could say the like of this; this is nothing but legends of the former people.'

The Study Quran

And when Our signs are recited unto them they say, “We have heard already. Had we willed, we could have said the like of this. This is naught but fables of those of old.

Talal Itani (2012)

And when Our revelations are recited to them, they say, 'We have heard. Had we wanted, we could have said the like of this; these are nothing but myths of the ancients.'

Talal Itani & AI (2024)

When Our revelations are recited to them, they say, “We’ve heard. If we wanted, we could say the same; these are nothing but myths of the ancients.”

T.B.Irving

Whenever Our verses are recited to them. they say: "We have heard (it) already; if we wished to, we´d say the same as this. These are only legends by primitive people!"

Syed Vickar Ahamed

When Our verses are read to them, they say: "We have heard this (before): If we wanted, we could say (words) like these: These are nothing but old stories."

Sher Ali

And when OUR verses are recited to them, they say, `We have heard. If we wished we could certainly say the like of it. This is nothing but mere tales of the ancients

Shakir

And when Our communications are recited to them, they say: We have heard indeed; if we pleased we could say the like of it; this is nothing but the stories of the ancients

Shabbir Ahmed

When Our Messages are conveyed to them, they say, "We have heard. If we wish, we can speak like it. This is nothing but fables of the ancient."

Samy Mahdy

And when our verses are recited upon them, they said, “We already have heard. And if we willed; we could have said the like of this; surely this is nothing except the former’s legends.”

Safi Kaskas

Whenever Our messages were conveyed to them, they would say, "We have heard this before and if we want, we can say things like this- these are nothing but ancient tales."

Rashad Khalifa

When our revelations are recited to them, they say, "We have heard. If we wanted to, we could have said the same things. These are no more than tales from the past!"

N J Dawood 2014

Whenever Our revelations are recited to them, they say: ‘We have heard them. If we wished, we could say the like. They are but fables of the ancients.‘

Mustaqim

And when Our signs are recited to them, they say we have heard; if we wanted we could say something similar for these are only stories of old.

Mustafa Khattab 2018

Whenever Our revelations are recited to them, they challenge ˹you˺, “We have already heard ˹the recitation˺. If we wanted, we could have easily produced something similar. This ˹Quran˺ is nothing but ancient fables!”

Musharraf Hussain

When Our verses are recited to them, they say, “We’ve heard it all before. If we wanted, we could have said something similar. These are just legends of old.”

MunirMezyed2023

And when the Qur’ānic Verses are recited to them, they say: "Well, we have heard this (Qur’ān). If we wished, we could definitely say the like of it. This is nothing but mere legends of the ancients."

Munir Mezyed

When Our (Holy) ‘Verses’ (of this Glorious ‘Qur’ān’) are recited to them, they say: "Well, we have heard this ( ‘Qur’ān’). If we wished, we could definitely say the like of it. This is nothing but mere legends of the ancients."

Muhammad Taqi Usmani

When Our verses are recited to them, they say, .We have heard; if we wish, we can compose a discourse like this. It is nothing but the tales of the ancient people

Muhammad Sarwar

When Our revelations are recited to them (the unbelievers), they say, "We have heard them. Had we wanted, we could also have composed such statements; they are no more than ancient legends."

Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall

And when Our revelations are recited unto them they say: We have heard. If we wish we can speak the like of this. Lo! this is naught but fables of the men of old

Muhammad Mahmoud Ghali

And when Our signs are recited to them, they said, "We have already heard; if we decided, we would indeed say the like of this; decidedly this is nothing except the myths of the earliest (people)."

Muhammad Asad

And whenever Our messages were conveyed to them, they would say, "We have heard [all this] before; if we wanted, we could certainly compose sayings like these [ourselves]: they are nothing but fables of ancient times!"

Muhammad Ahmed - Samira

And when Our evidences/verses are read/recited on them, they said: "We had heard/listened, and if we want/will we would have said similar/equal (to) that, that that (is) except the firsts'/beginners' myths/baseless stories ."

Mohammad Shafi

And when Our Verses/signs are recited to them, they say, "We have heard. We certainly could, if we pleased, say things like that. These are nothing but fables of the ancients."

Mir Aneesuddin

And when Our signs are read to them they say, "We have heard, if we will, we (too) can speak (on topic) like this, these are nothing but stories of the ancient."

Maulana Muhammad Ali

And when our messages are recited to them, they say: We have heard. If we wished, we could say the like of it; this is nothing but the stories of the ancients

Maududi

And when Our verses are recited to them, they say: ´We have heard. We could, if we willed, compose the like of it. They, are nothing but fables of the ancient times.´

Linda "iLham" Barto

Whenever Our signs are recited to them, they say, “We’ve already heard this! If we wanted, we could say things like this. They are nothing but old tales.”

John Medows Rodwell

And oft as our signs were rehearsed to them, they said, "Now have we heard: if we pleased we could certainly utter its like! Yes, it is mere tales of the ancients."

Irving/Hegab

Whenever Our verses are recited to them. they say: "We have heard (it) already; if we wished to, we'd say the same as this. These are only legends by primitive people!"

Hilali - Khan

And when Our Verses (of the Quran) are recited to them, they say: "We have heard this (the Quran); if we wish we can say the like of this. This is nothing but the tales of the ancients."

Hasan Al-Fatih Qaribullah

Whenever Our verses are recited to them, they say: 'We have heard them, if we wished, we could speak its like. They are but tales of the ancients.

Hamid S. Aziz

But when Our verses were recited to them they said, "We have already heard. If We pleased We could speak like this; verily, this is nothing but tales of ancient folk."

George Sale

And when Our verses are recited to them, they say, 'We have heard. If we wished we could certainly say the like of it. This is nothing but mere tales of the ancients

Fode Drame

And whenever Our signs are rehearsed unto them, they say, “We have indeed heard and had we pleased, we could say the like of this. This is nothing but the fables on the ancients.”

Faridul Haque

And when Our verses are recited to them they say, "Yes, we have heard - if we wanted we could also say something like this - these are nothing but stories of former people!"

Edward Henry Palmer

But when our verses were rehearsed to them they said, 'We have already heard.- If we pleased we could speak like this; verily, this is nothing but tales of those of yore.

Dr. Munir Munshey

When Our verses are read to them, they say, "Yes, we have heard that! We too can say things like that, if we want. These are nothing more than tales of people gone by."

Dr. Mohammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

And when Our Revelations are recited to them, they say: ‘Of course, we have heard. If we desire, we can also compose Verses analogous to that (Word). These are (nothing) but the (imaginary) tales of the ancients.

Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar

And when Our signs are recounted to them, they said: We heard this. If we will, we would say the like of this. Truly, this is only fables of ancient ones.

Dr. Kamal Omar

And when Our Ayaat are reproduced before them, they said: “Surely, we have heard: if we wish, surely, we (would have) said similar to this. This is nothing except writings in straight lines belonging to those who went before.”

Corpus.Quran

And when are recited to them Our Verses they say Verily we have heard if we wish surely, we could say like this Not is this but tales (of) the former (people)

Bilal Muhammad 2018

When Our signs are rehearsed to them they say, “We have heard this before. If we wished, we could say words like these. These are nothing but tales of the ancient.

Bijan Moeinian

When you were reciting My Revelations to them, they responded: “We have heard these [nonsense] before. We can fabricate such things too; after all, they are nothing but the ancient myths.”

Bakhtiari Nejad

And when Our signs are read to them, they say: “We have certainly heard, if we want, we will say similar to this, this is nothing but stories of the earlier ones.”

Arthur John Arberry

And When Our signs were being recited to them, they said, 'We have already heard; if we wished, we could say the like of this; this is naught but the fairy-tales of the ancients.

Amatul Rahman Omar

And when Our verses are recited to them they say, `We have already heard (them before). If we so wish, we could certainly compose the like of this. These are nothing but fables of the former peoples.

Ali Ünal

When Our Revelations are recited to them, they say: "We have heard (the like of this before many times); if we wish, we can speak the like of this; this is nothing but fables of the ancients."

Ali Quli Qara'i

When Our signs are recited to them, they say, ‘We have heard already. If we want, we [too] can say like this. These are nothing but myths of the ancients.’

Aisha Bewley

When Our Signs are recited to them, they say, ´We have already heard all this. If we wanted, we could say the same thing. This is nothing but the myths of previous peoples.´

Ahmed Raza Khan (Barelvi)

And when Our verses are recited to them, then they say, 'yes, we have heard', if we wished, we could certainly utter the like of this. It is not, but the stories of the ancients.

Ahmed Hulusi

When Our signs are recited to them, they say, “Indeed we have heard... If we willed we could have said something like this... This is none other than legends from the past!”

Ahmed Ali

When Our messages were read out to them, they said: "We have heard. We could certainly compose (writings) like them if we choose. They are but only tales of long ago."

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

And when Our revelations are rehearsed unto them, they say: we have heard; we could if we willed, surely say something the like thereof; naught is this but fables of the ancients

Abdul Hye

And when Our Verses (of the Qur’an) are recited to them, they say: “We have heard. If we wished we could say like this. These are nothing but the tales of the ancient people.”

Abdel Haleem

Whenever Our Revelation is recited to them they say, ‘We have heard all this before- we could say something like this if we wanted- this is nothing but ancient fables.’