“And surely We wrote in the Psalms, after the exhortation, ‘that the earth shall be inherited by My righteous servants’. Herein, surely, is a message for those devoted to worship.” (Al-Qur’ān – 21:105-6)
This ayat has been misinterpreted by some people. At the heart of this miscomprehension is the belief that it guarantees inheritance of the earth only to the righteous. Such people look around at those nations which have been ‘inheritors of the earth’, and they note that unbelievers, polytheists, transgressors and sinners have all at one time or another enjoyed ‘inheritance of the earth’. They contend that since the principle – that only the righteous will inherit the earth – cannot be wrong, the meaning so far associated with ‘righteousness’ is fallacious. They adapt the Qur’ānic concept of salāh (righteousness) to the Darwinian concept of ‘fitness’ (survival of the fittest).
Those who interpret this ayat in such a way must face the question: if righteousness and worship are so signified, what, then, is meant by faith? Faith in God, in the Last Day, in the Messengers and in the Books – a faith without which no good deed is acceptable to God. Additionally, what is meant by the Qur’ānic call that one must follow the moral system and the way of life communicated to mankind on God’s behalf by His Messengers? Such interpreters also fail to answer as to why the Qur’ān repeatedly states that those who do not believe in the Messenger or do not obey God’s command, are unbelievers, transgressors worthy of God’s punishment and wrath.