[[from Yuksel’s notes to

17. Surah Al Isra

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَلاَ تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ...   

17: 36.  And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge;

C2222. Idle curiosity may lead us to nose into evil, through our ignorance that it is evil. We must guard against every such danger.

We must only hear the things that are known to us to be of good report, and see things that are good and instructive and entertain in our hearts feelings or in our minds ideas that we have reason to expect will be spiritually profitable to us. We shall be called to account for the exercise of every faculty that has been given to us.

This goes a little farther than a famous sculpture on a Japanese temple in which three monkeys are shown as putting their hands to their ears, eyes, and mouths, respectively, to show that they were not prepared to hear any evil, or see any evil, or speak any evil.

Here idle curiosity is condemned. Futility is to be avoided even if it does not reach the degree of positive evil.

...إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولـئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْؤُولاً ﴿٣٦﴾

for every act of hearing, or of seeing, or of (feeling in) the heart will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning).

Asad’s Version:

17:36:

The Quran repeatedly advises us to use our intellect, to reason, to be open-minded, to be the seekers of truth, to be philosophers, to be critical thinkers, and not to be the followers of our wishful thinking or a particular crowd. For instance, see 2:170, 171, 242, 269; 3:118, 190; 6:74-83; 7:169; 8:22; 10:42, 100; 11:51; 12:2, 111; 13:4, 19; 16:67; 21:10, 67; 23:80; 24:61; 29:63; 30:28; 38:29; 39:9, 18, 21; 40:54; 59:14. See also 6:110.]]