يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تَسْـَٔلُوا۟ عَنْ أَشْيَآءَ إِن تُبْدَ لَكُمْ تَسُؤْكُمْ
"O you who believe! Do not ask about things which, if they were made plain to you, would trouble you."
| Qualification | Expression |
|---|---|
| Which questions | In tubda lakum tasuʾkum — those that would cause distress if made plain |
| When | Wa in tasʾalū ʿanhā ḥīna yunazzalu'l-Qurʾān tubda lakum — if asked while the revelation is coming down, they are made plain |
| For the past | ʿAfa'llāhu ʿanhā |
| The warning | 102: Qad saʾalahā qawmun min qablikum thumma aṣbaḥū bihā kāfirīn |
Per the method (Method) it is recorded: this verse is not read as a verse forbidding learning and understanding. The ground for this is the text itself: the same Book says fa'sʾalū ahla'dh-dhikri in kuntum lā taʿlamūn (al-Naḥl 16/43), and at al-Tawba 9/122 setting out to travel for knowledge is commanded.
I record this as my own reading: the subject of the prohibition is the picking over of details whose answer would generate an obligation or whose disclosure would cause distress, while the ruling has not yet come down. And verse 102 shows the consequence of this: the people who asked the question were crushed under the answer that came.
وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمٌ — and ḥalīm: one who does not hurry. The sūra uses this name here — in a context where, no question having been asked, the answer too is not hurried.
Four terms belonging to the techniques of vows made over animals and the customs of setting them free in pre-Islamic Arab society. The classical sources describe them in differing ways, and the descriptions do not agree; no single description is preferred in this commentary.
The verse's ruling, however, is plain and independent of the descriptions: mā jaʿala'llāhu — God did not lay these down. And it continues: wa lākinna'lladhīna kafarū yaftarūna ʿala'llāhi'l-kadhib.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the preceding section: three verses earlier the sūra had forbidden making the lawful forbidden (5/87). Here an instance of prohibitions laid down of one's own accord is given. The two places explain one another.
Ḥasbunā — "it is enough for us". And the answer comes as a question: a-wa law kāna ābāʾuhum lā yaʿlamūna shayʾan wa lā yahtadūn.
The same pattern was treated at al-Baqara 2/170 and at Luqmān 31/21; I rely on that treatment. The Qurʾān meets this objection each time with the same question: was the source itself in possession of knowledge?