In The Name of Allah, the Beneficent and the Most Merciful

Tafseer of Surah Bani Israel, Verse #71

" (Remember) the day when We will summon all (groups of) people with their Imam; then whoever is given his book in his right hand, these shall read their book; and they shall not be dealt with a whit unjustly."
 

Qur’an: “The day when We shall summon all (groups of) people with their Imam.”

The day here is Judgment day and the word “Imam” is that which is referred to as a guide. In the Qur’an, Allah has used the word Imam:

1) To refer to individuals, who guide people by His command as He says: “...Lo! I have appointed thee an Imam for mankind” (2:124), and, also, He says: “And We made them Imams who guide by Our command.” (21:73)

2) To call other individuals who are followed in leading astray as He says: “…then fight the Imams of disbelief.” (9:12)

3) To refer to the Torah as He says: “When before it there was the Scripture of Moses, an Imam and a mercy.” (11:17) What we can learn from this verse is that the heavenly Books that contains the shariah like the book of Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, Isa, and Mohamed (peace be upon all of them) are also regarded as Imams.

4) To refer to the Guarded Tablet as He says: “...and all things We have kept in a clear Imam” (36:12).

From the literal appearance of the verse 17:71 we can understand that each group of people will have an Imam different from other groups. Since the Guarded Tablet is one, and not specialized to one group or the other, the word Imam in this verse cannot refer to the Guarded Tablet.

The verse also indicates that the “summoning” is inclusive for all people from men of old to later generations. And it has been previously mentioned in the exegesis of the verse “Mankind were one community, and Allah sent (unto them) prophets as bearers of good tidings and as warners, and revealed therewith the Scripture.” (2:213), that the first Heavenly Book that included a shariah was the book of Nuh (a.s.) and there was no other book before it. Therefore, the word “Imam” in verse 17:71 cannot refer to the Heavenly Books because whoever came before Nuh (a.s.) will not be included in the inclusive call of the verse.

Thus, “the Imam of all men,” (in the sentence “summon all people with their Imam”) means the one who is followed for either guidance or misguidance. As previously mentioned, the Qur’an calls both of them “Imams”, or sometimes explicitly refers to the Rightful Imam. The Rightful Imam is chosen by Allah in every period to guide people by His command. He can either be a prophet, like Ibrahim (a.s.) and Mohammed (s.a.w.a.), or a non-prophet. A detailed explanation has been previously mentioned in the exegesis of verse 2:124.

We can also learn from Allah’s saying about the Pharaoh, who was an “Imam” who led people astray: “He will go before his people on the Day of Resurrection and will lead them to the Fire for watering-place” (11:98). Allah also says: “That Allah may separate the wicked from the good, The wicked will He place piece upon piece, and heap them all together, and consign them unto hell” (8:37), and other verses, which are numerous - that people who were led astray (misguided) will not be separate from their respective leaders (Imams) on the Judgment day and therefore, they will follow them during the Resurrection and summoning.

The word “imamihim” (their Imam) is general and it has not been specified to refer to the Imam of truth, whom Allah has chosen to guide by His command. We have seen that the one who leads people astray is also called an Imam (like the Pharaoh), so does the one (the Imam) who guides people to the right path. It can be inferred from the two verses quoted above, that the Imam, who people are summoned with, is also the one whom people take as a leader and follow in this life and not necessarily the one whom Allah has chosen to be an Imam to guide by His command, whether people follow him, or not.

It is now evident that the meaning of “Imam of all men” in the verse: “summon all men with their Imam” is the one who is followed, regardless whether he is the Imam of truth (guidance) or the Imam of error (misguidance). Also, the verse does not mean, as some people think and have said, that people will be called by the names of their Imams (leaders), like saying “O people of Ibrahim, and O people of Mohamed, and O people of Pharaoh, and O people of such and such Imam”. Such an interpretation is not suitable as a further branching from the clause “whoever is given his book in his right hand” and the verse “Whoever is blind here…” and therefore it is rejected. In other words, there is no relationship between the summoning by the name of the Imam and giving the book with the right hand, and blindness.

The meaning of “da’wa” is summoning (with someone). This meaning is qualified from the clause “whoever is given the book in the right hand”. In other words, the people will be summoned with their respective Imam whom they followed in this life and then the person who had been guided by the Rightful Imam will take the book in his right hand, and those who were blind in not knowing the Rightful Imam of their time will also be blind in the hereafter. This is what a scrupulous look at the verse would reveal.

The exegetes have expressed different opinions in explaining the meaning of the word ‘Imam’ in the verse:

First Interpretation: An Imam is the Heavenly Book that is followed, like the Torah, Injil, and Qur’an; and that on the Judgment Day, the people of the Torah will be summoned, the people of the Injil will be summoned and the people of the Qur’an will be summoned.

Comment: We have already mentioned the reply to this claim above.

Second Interpretation: For those on the path of truth, their Imam is a prophet, and for those on the path of misguidance, their Imam is shaytan. And it would be said on that Day: “bring forth the followers of Ibrahim, bring forth the followers of Musa, bring forth the followers of Mohamed, and, the truthful people who followed them would rise and would be given their book of deeds in their right hand. Then, it would be said: “bring forth the followers of shaytan, bring forth the followers of the leaders of disbelief.”

Comment: This interpretation was derived based on the commonly used meaning of the word “Imam” i.e. one amongst the wise and sane who is being followed. Such a meaning is not applicable because the Qur’an has used the word “Imam” specifically to mean one who guides by Allah’s command or one who leads people astray (inviting people to fire).

Third interpretation: The Imam is the Book of Deeds, and it would be said on that Day: O people of the book of good deeds, O people of the book of bad deeds. The reason they are called Imams is because people will follow the books’ judgment, either to heaven or hell.

Comment: There is no reason to call the Book of Deeds an Imam (guide), when actually the Book follows (records) the deeds of people, good or bad. In that case, it would be more appropriate to call it a “follower” rather than a “guide”. In addition, what was said that people will follow “the books’ judgment” is incorrect, because the book only shows the deeds (good or bad) of people and not the judgment. Allah will decide the judgment after bringing forth the recordings, questioning, weighting and witnessing.

Therefore, it is apparent that neither the Guarded tablet nor the Book of Deeds, which Allah has also referred to in His words: “each nation (will be) summoned to its record” (45:28) can mean the Imam because this meaning is not qualified from the phrase “whoever is given his book in his right hand” which implies individuals and not a group.

Fourth interpretation: The Imam means “mothers” and this meaning is derived by making the word Imam as plural of the word um (= mother), and every man will be called as the son of his mother’s name. A tradition has been narrated in this respect.

Comment: This explanation does not go with the wording of the verse because it says “We shall summon ALL men (in groups) with their Imam” and the verse does not say ‘We shall summon men with their Imams (mothers)’, or call ‘each man by his mother’s name’. If this interpretation were correct, then one of the two expressions would have been used. Moreover, this interpretation of the verse comes from an independent narration that was not mentioned in the exegesis.

Further, the use of Imam (mothers) as the plural of um (mother) is rare in Arabic language and therefore it cannot be assumed to be Allah’s word. Al-Kashaf has included this interpretation as one of the innovations in tafseer (exegesis).

Fifth Interpretation: The Imam means the one who guides and the person who is being followed whether he is sane or insane, a person who is truthful or untruthful, a person like a prophet, a waliyy (guardian) who is in charge of the affairs of the people, shaytan, leaders of misguidance, truthful and false religions, heavenly books and corrupted books. And may be the summoning of people in this respect is an allegorical expression to mean that on Judgment Day each person will not be separate from the one whom the person followed for guidance.

Comment: Going with the literal meaning is acceptable if the Qur’an had no explanation and understanding for the word “Imam”. However, an “Imam” in the Qur’anic language (and usage) is the one who guides by Allah’s command, or the one who is followed in leading astray. The connotation is probably in the prefix letter “be” in “beimamihim”

The guidance of the Heavenly Book, traditions, religion, etc, actually falls on the shoulder of the Imam. So is the case with the Prophet – he guides because he is an Imam who guides by Allah’s command. And when he prophesies the unseen, or conveys the message and promulgates it, he acts as a prophet or a messenger, but not an Imam. The same is the misguidance of the false sects and scriptures, innovated traditions, etc which is really due to their founders and innovators.

Qur’an: “Whoever is given his book in his right hand, these will read their book and they shall not be dealt with a whit unjustly”

“al-fatil” (= shred) is what you find in a torn seed. It is also said that “al-fatil” is what is in a seed (like a date seed) and “al-naqir” is what is in its back and “al-qatmir” is what is in its crack.

The division into two groups is as a result of the kind of Imam they followed. The two groups are: “whoever is given his book in his right hand” and “whoever is blind and farther from the (right) way” Therefore, there are two kinds of Imams: an Imam of guidance and an Imam of misguidance. This understanding (branching from the two sentences) shows that the word “Imam” is not only limited to an Imam of guidance, but is more general. This is also proved by substituting the clause “giving the book in the left hand” or “giving it from behind the back” as mentioned in other places, with the clause “whoever is blind in this will be blind in the Hereafter, and yet farther from the way” in the verse 17:72. Therefore, the (correct) meaning is that the people will be divided into two groups. As for those who will be given the book of deeds in their right hand, they would read it expecting to receive God’s Mercy and such would not be wronged or dealt a whit unjustly and they will be given their reward in full (as promised by Allah).