The Evil of Ignorance

This is an incident that happened before Independence. A villager once came to the city and stayed with one of his acquaintances. A melon was served to him. A knife with which to cut it was placed along with the melon on a plate. When he saw this, he was quite astonished. He said: “I do not understand the combination of knife and melon.” Without eating he returned the melon. When someone asked him why he had not eaten the melon, he replied: “The only way I know how to eat a melon is by breaking it into pieces by pressing it with my hands. Then why was that knife placed beside the melon? I thought there must be some sorcery in this and that is why I did not eat it.”

Once again the same kind of incident happened with this man at night. A pillow was placed on the bed which had been made ready for him. He could not sleep the whole night and kept looking at the pillow. Later he said, “I thought there was some treasure inside it. I could not understand whether I should guard this bundle or sleep.”

Often it happens that a person develops complaints about others to such an extent that he becomes very annoyed. For his part, he thinks that his feeling of annoyance and complaints are completely justified.

Whereas this is only because of his ignorance. Without taking into account the whole of the situation, he forms his own opinions and sticks to them, whereas in reality, his complaints are baseless.

The Quran tells us how to keep away from such evil. That is, by thoroughly investigating the matter. If one is sincere, his attitude will be one of two: either he will just try to forget what he has heard or he will remain silent. And if for any reason he wants to discuss the matter, he will do so with the concerned person. Thus he would accept the facts only after proper investigation. Holding firmly to his former opinion even when investigation has shown it to be wrong is equivalent to propagating something without prior investigation.