Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 36 of 111

Al-Isra 17:36

وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِۦ عِلْمٌ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْبَصَرَ وَٱلْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْـُٔولًا

“And do not pursue[745] that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Do not follow or repeat what you do not know: your hearing, your sight and your heart will each be asked about it.

A reflection

The worst mount a person can ride

By home time on a Tuesday, three parents at a school gate know something about the new Year 4 teacher. Apparently she left her last school under a cloud. Nobody can say who said it first. By Friday it has become 'she was asked to leave'. In fact she moved to be near her mother, who is ill.

The Prophet ﷺ had a phrase for the engine of that week. One Companion asked another what he had heard him say about zaʿamū, 'they claim'. He answered: I heard him say, What an evil mount for a man is 'they claim'. Sunan Abī Dāwūd records it, graded ṣaḥīḥ.

A mount carries you somewhere you could not reach on your own feet. 'Apparently' and 'people are saying' do exactly that. They carry a claim further than its evidence could ever walk.

The ayah forbids the journey. Wa-lā taqfu mā laysa laka bihi ʿilm: do not follow what you have no knowledge of. An early authority turned it into three plain sentences. Do not say, I saw, when you did not see. Do not say, I heard, when you did not hear. Do not say, I know, when you do not know.

A second early reading is sharper: do not accuse anyone of what you have no knowledge of. One commentator weighs the readings and finds they meet. Speaking without knowledge includes false testimony, accusing people falsely, and claiming to have seen and heard what you did not.

The parents at the gate never thought of themselves as accusers. They were only passing it on. The ayah does not accept 'only'. Every sentence that begins with 'apparently' is a mount, and you answer for where you ride it.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.