diff --git a/django/db/models/sql/query.py b/django/db/models/sql/query.py
index 8fa3419059..ea89771ed1 100644
--- a/django/db/models/sql/query.py
+++ b/django/db/models/sql/query.py
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ class RawQuery(object):
     """
 
     def __init__(self, sql, using, params=None):
-        self.validate_sql(sql)
         self.params = params or ()
         self.sql = sql
         self.using = using
@@ -62,11 +61,6 @@ class RawQuery(object):
         return [converter(column_meta[0])
                 for column_meta in self.cursor.description]
 
-    def validate_sql(self, sql):
-        if not sql.lower().strip().startswith('select'):
-            raise InvalidQuery('Raw queries are limited to SELECT queries. Use '
-                               'connection.cursor directly for other types of queries.')
-
     def __iter__(self):
         # Always execute a new query for a new iterator.
         # This could be optimized with a cache at the expense of RAM.
diff --git a/docs/topics/db/sql.txt b/docs/topics/db/sql.txt
index 6be59c5d5a..e5f6c21a53 100644
--- a/docs/topics/db/sql.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/db/sql.txt
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@ You could then execute custom SQL like so::
     John Smith
     Jane Jones
 
+Of course, this example isn't very exciting -- it's exactly the same as
+running ``Person.objects.all()``. However, ``raw()`` has a bunch of other
+options that make it very powerful.
+
 .. admonition:: Model table names
 
     Where'd the name of the ``Person`` table come from in that example?
@@ -56,9 +60,12 @@ You could then execute custom SQL like so::
     :attr:`~Options.db_table` option, which also lets you manually set the
     database table name.
 
-Of course, this example isn't very exciting -- it's exactly the same as
-running ``Person.objects.all()``. However, ``raw()`` has a bunch of other
-options that make it very powerful.
+.. warning::
+
+    No checking is done on the SQL statement that is passed in to ``.raw()``.
+    Django expects that the statement will return a set of rows from the
+    database, but does nothing to enforce that. If the query does not
+    return rows, a (possibly cryptic) error will result.
 
 Mapping query fields to model fields
 ------------------------------------
diff --git a/tests/modeltests/raw_query/tests.py b/tests/modeltests/raw_query/tests.py
index 5334412680..aa6aec10b1 100644
--- a/tests/modeltests/raw_query/tests.py
+++ b/tests/modeltests/raw_query/tests.py
@@ -169,10 +169,6 @@ class RawQueryTests(TestCase):
         authors = Author.objects.all()
         self.assertSuccessfulRawQuery(Author, query, authors, expected_annotations)
 
-    def testInvalidQuery(self):
-        query = "UPDATE raw_query_author SET first_name='thing' WHERE first_name='Joe'"
-        self.assertRaises(InvalidQuery, Author.objects.raw, query)
-
     def testWhiteSpaceQuery(self):
         query = "    SELECT * FROM raw_query_author"
         authors = Author.objects.all()