Sura 17, Al Isra [The Night Journey], Mecca 50

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Translation:

وَلاَ تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ...   

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

...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).

Transliteration Wa la_ taqfu ma_ laisa laka bihi 'ilm(un), innas sam'a wal basara wal fu'a_da kullu ula_'ika ka_na 'anhu mas'u_la_(n).

Other Translations:

17:36

Asad

And never concern thyself with anything of which thou hast no knowledge: 45 verily, [thy] hearing and sight and heart - all of them - will be called to account for it [on Judgment Day]!

Pickthall

(O man), follow not that whereof thou hast no knowledge. Lo! the hearing and the sight and the heart--of each of these it will be asked.

Yuksel

Do not uphold what you have no knowledge of. For

the hearing, eyesight, and mind, all these are held

responsible for that.*

************************

Ali’s Comments:

2222. 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. [17:36]

Asad’s comments:

45 Or: "do not follow [or "pursue"] anything...", etc. This would seem to relate to groundless assertions about events or people (and hence to slander or false testimony), to statements based on guesswork unsupported by evidence, or to interfering in social situations which one is unable to evaluate correctly.

YUKSEL’S Comments

017:036 This verse instructs us to use both our reason and senses to examine all the information we receive. It warns us against blindly following a religious teaching or political ideology and asks as to be iconoclasts. It warns us not to be hypnotized by the charisma of leaders nor by the social conventions. A society comprised of individuals that value rational and empirical inquiry will never become the victim of religious fanaticism, tragedies brought by charismatic politicians. A religion or sect that glorifies ignorance and gullibility can be very dangerous for its followers and others. As the Physicist Steven Weinberg once put profoundly, "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things, and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." See 6:74-83.

The following advice is attributed to Buddha. We are not quoting this because we consider his name to be an authority, nor because we are sure that it is uttered or written by a man called Buddha; but because it articulates a profound fact: "Do not put faith in traditions, even though they have been accepted for long generations and in many countries. Do not believe a thing because many repeat it. Do not accept a thing on the authority of one or another of the sages of old, nor on the ground of statements as found in the books. Never believe anything because probability is in its favor. Do not believe in that which you yourselves have imagined, thinking that a god has inspired it. Believe nothing merely on the authority of the teachers or the priests.

After examination, believe that which you have tested for yourself and found reasonable, which is in conformity with your well being and that of others'."

Interestingly, this is the summary of many verses in the Quran!

If the above wise statements were indeed made by Buddha, then he would be the first one who would reject the allegiance of the so-called Buddhists.

The Biblical, "Know the truth, and the truth will set you free!" (John 3:24), is a powerful statement against idolatry and ignorance. St. Paul and his followers, such as Tertullian and many other church leaders turned the wisdom preached by Jesus into bigotry and dogmatism that considered philosophy and philosophers the enemy. Most faithful of religions nod positively at Voltaire's depiction of their understanding: "The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning."

If I really want to name myself with suffixes such as an –ist, –ite, or –an, then I should call myself Truthist, Truthite, or Truthian! Or, maybe just, Godist, Godite, Godian!

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. ]]