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ʾinnā naḥnu nuḥyi l-mawtā wa-naktubu mā qaddamū wa-ʾāthārahum wa-kulla shayʾin ʾaḥṣaynāhu fī ʾimāmin mubīnin
Indeed it is We who revive the dead and write what they have sent ahead and their effects [which they left behind], and We have figured everything in a manifest Imam.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Ya-Sin - Verse 12
12. “Verily We shall give life to the dead, and We write down that which they send before and (even) their footprints, and We have numbered everything in a clear Register.”
The man’s file of deeds is open even after his death until the Hereafter. Not only the man’s deeds, but also all his traces will be recorded and will be reckoned in the Hereafter, whether they are good effects, like: mortmain, remaining voluntary alms, teaching knowledge to people and so on; or they are evil effects like establishing centres of indecency. However, fitting with the explanation of the former holy verse about the compensation and the valuable rewards of the believers and those who accept the admonishments of the prophets, this verse refers to the subject of Resurrection and recording the man’s deeds for reckoning and compensation, and it says:
The emphasis on the Arabic word /naḥnu/ points to this fact that with the great powers that you all know about Allah, there is no room for the discussions and debates that how the rotten bones will revive again and continue to live in a new life. Allah not only gives life to the dead but also He writes down whatever people sent before them and He writes all their effects that they leave behind them. Therefore, there will surely remain nothing save that they will be protected in the record of deeds for the Reckoning Day.
The Qur’anic sentence /ma qaddamu/ (that which they send before) refers to the deeds they have done and there is no trace remained from them; but the application of the Qur’anic phrase /wa ’atharahum/ (and their footprints) refers to the deeds which remain from a person and their effects are seen in the environment, like: remaining voluntary alms: (buildings, mortmain properties, and the centres which remain after the death of a person and people take benefit from them)
There is also this probability in the commentary that the Qur’anic sentence /ma qaddamu/ (that which they send before) points to the deeds which have personal aspect while the Qur’anic phrase /’atharahum/ points to the affairs which become precedent custom and later, after the death of the person, will also be the source of public welfare and blessing, or the cause of vice, harm, and sin. The concept of it is vast, of course, and both of these commentaries may be involved in its concept.
For more emphasis, at the end of the verse the holy Qur’an adds:
The majority of the famous commentators have rendered the Qur’anic phrase: /’imam-in-mubin/ here into ‘Protected Table’. The same Book in which all the deeds of men and the whole beings and events of this world are recorded and protected. The application of the word /’imam/ here may be for the sake that in the Hereafter this book is the guide and a lead for all of the angels of reward and retribution, and it is a criterion for evaluation of the value of men’s deeds and their reward and retribution.
It is interesting that in some other verses of the Holy Qur’an this meaning (Imam) has been used in respect to ‘the Turah’, where the Qur’an says:
The usage of the word /’imam/ (guide) in this verse, about the Torah, is for the knowledge, ordinances, and instructions in it. It is also for the signs of the Prophet of Islam (S) which have been mentioned in it. In all these affairs it could be guide and leader of people. Thus, the above mentioned word has a concept in every one of them proportionate to it.
Footnotes