The Children of Israel
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[17:71]
[but] one Day We shall summon all human beings [and judge them] according to the conscious disposition which governed their deeds [in life]: whereupon they whose record shall be placed in their right hand – it is they who will read their record [with happiness]. Yet none shall be wronged by as much as a hair’s breadth:

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* v.71 : Thus Rāzī interprets the phrase nad‘ū kulla unāsin bi-imāmihim (lit., “We shall summon all human beings by [mentioning] their leaders” or “guides”). In his opinion, the expression imām (lit., “leader” or “guide”) has in this context an abstract connotation, signifying the conscious disposition, good or bad, which governs a person’s behaviour and provides the motives for his deeds. This interpretation is most convincing, and particularly so in view of the fundamental hadīth quoted in my note 32 on 53:39.
* A symbolic image, often used in the Qur’ān, denoting an acknowledgement of righteousness in the spiritual sense, just as the “left hand” indicates its opposite (cf. 69:19 and 25, as well as 84:7).
* This last clause obviously applies to both the righteous and the unrighteous. (For my above rendering of fatīl, see sūrah 4, note 67.)