Leading the world

وَ لَقَدْ كَتَبْنَا فِي الزَّبُوْرِ مِنْۢ بَعْدِ الذِّكْرِ اَنَّ الْاَرْضَ يَرِثُهَا عِبَادِيَ الصّٰلِحُوْنَ۰۰۱۰۵اِنَّ فِيْ هٰذَا لَبَلٰغًا لِّقَوْمٍ عٰبِدِيْنَؕ۰۰۱۰۶

اور زبور میں ہم نصیحت کے بعد یہ لکھ چکے ہیں کہ زمین کے وارث ہمارے نیک بندے ہوں گے۔اس میں ایک بڑی خبر ہے عبادت گزار لوگوں کے لیے

Before this We wrote in the Psalms, after the Message (given to Moses): My servants the righteous, shall inherit the earth." Verily in this is a Message for people who would (truly) worship Allah. Al-Ambia 21:105-106

In the verse above Allah mentioned one of his rules by referring to Zabur. Then in Surah An-Noor (24:55) Allah reiterated it directly to Muslims:

وَعَدَ اللّٰهُ الَّذِيْنَ اٰمَنُوْا مِنْكُمْ وَ عَمِلُوا الصّٰلِحٰتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْاَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِيْنَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ١۪ وَ لَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِيْنَهُمُ الَّذِي ارْتَضٰى لَهُمْ وَ لَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُمْ مِّنْۢ

بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِمْ اَمْنًا١ؕ يَعْبُدُوْنَنِيْ۠ لَا يُشْرِكُوْنَ بِيْ شَيْـًٔا١ؕ وَ مَنْ كَفَرَ بَعْدَ ذٰلِكَ فَاُولٰٓىِٕكَ هُمُ الْفٰسِقُوْنَ۰۰۵۵

اللہ نے وعدہ فرمایا ہے تم میں سے ان لوگوں کے ساتھ جو ایمان لائیں اور نیک عمل کریں کہ وہ ان کو اُسی طرح زمین میں خلیفہ بنائے گا جس طرح ان سے پہلے گزرے ہوئے لوگوں کو بنا چکا ہے،

ان کے لیے اُن کے دین کو مضبوط بنیادوں پر قائم کر دے گا جسے اللہ تعالیٰ نے اُن کے حق میں پسند کیا ہے، اور ان کی (موجودہ) حالتِ خوف کو امن سے بدل دے گا ، بس وہ میری بندگی کریں

اور میرے ساتھ کسی کو شریک نہ کریں۔ اور جو اِس کے بعد کفر کرے تو ایسے ہی لوگ فاسق ہیں۔

Allah has promised to those among you who believe and do righteous deeds, that He will make them successors in the land just as He made those who passed away before them, and that He will establish their religion, which He has approved for them, on strong foundations and will change their (present) state of fear into peace and security. Let them worship Me and associate none with Me; and the one who disbelieves after this," shall be of those who are perverse transgressors.

So being "successors in the land" or "to inherit the land" is merely byproduct of "being a believer" and "being righteous". Conversely, not being in such a position for a significantly long period should suggest that there might be something wrong with either "being righteous" or "being a believer". Looking at ourselves (i.e. Muslims) I think there is something terribly wrong with the levels of righteousness. If we are offered same product with same price that is "Made in Japan", "Made in America" or "Made in any Muslim country". Most of us wouldn't choose the third option and rightly so. Because we know who will rightly provide what he claims. Most of software houses try to find business abroad because they know that piracy is a norm here. Preference is also a norm, people find nothing wrong preferring their family or the groups they belong to and unfortunately even religious groups commonly do it. Women are deprived of their property rights. Justice system is so rusty that 90% of the times no one thinks of resolving an issue in the court.

And unfortunately in all these departments of righteousness, the countries currently leading the world are in levels of magnitudes better than us. And our downfall as a nation is merely a byproduct of that. What we need to correct is being righteous in our circles of influence, If a significant number of people do that, everything else will take care of itself.