Abuot

NOTICE. The English text presented here was free of copyright in the US until 1996, at which point it had a pro-forma copyrighted status created which will last until 2033. However in many countries, including its original country of publication, Pakistan, this text is currently in the public domain. Here’s how this happened. Yusuf Ali died in 1952, and Pakistan (his country of residence) has copyright rules of life+50. So the Pakistan copyright expired in 2002. The Ali Qur’an English text was first published in the US in 1946, but was never registered or renewed, so it was never copyrighted in the US. The GATT copyright law granted US copyrights to works not in the public domain in the country of publication as of 1/1/1996, for a full term of 95 years from the date of original publication. This includes works that were never copyrighted in the US or whose US copyrights had already expired, in which category this work falls. We are sure that Yusuf Ali labored on this work so that the world could benefit from it, not to lock it up as someone’s personal intellectual property. However, if anyone can establish that they are the copyright holder, we will promptly comply with their wishes.

فَضَرَبْنَا عَلَىٰٓ ءَاذَانِهِمْ فِى ٱلْكَهْفِ سِنِينَ عَدَدًۭا ١١ ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَـٰهُمْ لِنَعْلَمَ أَىُّ ٱلْحِزْبَيْنِ أَحْصَىٰ لِمَا لَبِثُوٓا۟ أَمَدًۭا ١٢ نَّحْنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ نَبَأَهُم بِٱلْحَقِّ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ فِتْيَةٌ ءَامَنُوا۟ بِرَبِّهِمْ وَزِدْنَـٰهُمْ هُدًۭى ١٣ وَرَبَطْنَا عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ إِذْ قَامُوا۟ فَقَالُوا۟ رَبُّنَا رَبُّ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ لَن نَّدْعُوَا۟ مِن دُونِهِۦٓ إِلَـٰهًۭا ۖ لَّقَدْ قُلْنَآ إِذًۭا شَطَطًا ١٤ هَـٰٓؤُلَآءِ قَوْمُنَا ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِهِۦٓ ءَالِهَةًۭ ۖ لَّوْلَا يَأْتُونَ عَلَيْهِم بِسُلْطَـٰنٍۭ بَيِّنٍۢ ۖ فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ ٱفْتَرَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ كَذِبًۭا ١٥