يَوْمَ نَدْعُوا۟ كُلَّ أُنَاسٍۭ بِإِمَٰمِهِمْ
Yawma nadʿū kulla unāsin bi-imāmihim, fa-man ūtiya kitābahu bi-yamīnihi fa-ulāʾika yaqraʾūna kitābahum wa lā yuẓlamūna fatīlā · Wa man kāna fī hādhihi aʿmā fa-huwa fi'l-ākhirati aʿmā wa aḍallu sabīlā
"On the day We call every group of people with their leader — whoever is given his record in his right hand, those will read their record and will not be wronged by so much as a thread. And whoever is blind in this world is blind in the hereafter too, and further astray from the way."
| Reading | What imām is |
|---|---|
| 1 | A leader — the one they followed |
| 2 | A book — the record of deeds (the rest of the verse speaks of a record) |
| 3 | Their prophet — the messenger sent to them |
The in-text support for the second reading can be recorded, and I give it as a support, not as a preference: the rest of the sentence moves directly to the record (fa-man ūtiya kitābahu).
The word إمام was treated at 28/5 and 28/41 in al-Qaṣaṣ, and it was tabulated there that the same word is used in two opposite directions: the weak being made leaders / leaders who call to the Fire. And it occurred inside a prayer at 25/74 in al-Furqān. I rely on those treatments.
I record this as an observation: read together, the three sūras show that the word conveys no value of itself — this had been tabulated plainly in al-Qaṣaṣ. In al-Isrāʾ the word is used as a measure of classification: who stood behind whom.
The root ف-ت-ل: to twist, to twine. Fatīl is explained by the lexicographers as the fine thread in the groove of a date stone.
I record this as an observation about the language: the word is one of the measures Arabic uses for the smallest and least valuable thing. The verse measures the absence of wrong by this smallest of units.
The Qurʾān uses other words from the same family too, and the lexicographers name the three together: fatīl (the thread in the groove of the stone), naqīr (the little pit on the stone), qiṭmīr (the membrane of the stone). All three are taken from the date stone, and all three are used for "so little as to be nothing". I transmit this as a family the lexicographers have constructed.
I record this as my own reading, and its support is the last sentence of the verse: the verse does not equate the two blindnesses. It adds a third expression: wa aḍallu sabīlā — "and further astray from the way."
The second blindness, that is, is not the same as the first but a degree beyond it. And the comparison is made not by way of the blindness itself but by way of the road.
And the same expression (bal hum aḍallu sabīlā) occurred at 25/44 in al-Furqān — there the comparison was with animals, and it was recorded there: an animal has no road to stray from; the comparison looks at the non-use of what has been given. I rely on that treatment.
A record required by the method: the aʿmā here is not physical blindness; the verse itself states this — the contrast between fī hādhihi (in this world) and fi'l-ākhira (in the hereafter) describes a state that has to do with understanding. No ruling about any condition of disability is drawn from this verse.