Tafsir of Surah Fatir - Verse 39

هُوَ الَّذِى جَعَلَكُمْ خَلَـئِفَ فِى الاٌّرْضِ

(He it is Who has made you successors generations after generations in the earth,) meaning, all people succeed one another, generation after generation. This is like the Ayah:

وَيَجْعَلُكُمْ حُلَفَآءَ الاٌّرْضِ

(and makes you inheritors of the earth, generations after generations) (27:62).

فَمَن كَفَرَ فَعَلَيْهِ كُفْرُهُ

(so whosoever disbelieves, on him will be his disbelief.) means, he and no one else will have to bear the consequences of that.

وَلاَ يَزِيدُ الْكَـفِرِينَ كُفْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ إِلاَّ مَقْتاً

(And the disbelief of the disbelievers adds nothing but hatred of their Lord.) means, the longer they persist in their disbelief, the more Allah hates them, and the longer they persist in it, the more they and their families will lose on the Day of Resurrection. This is in contrast to the believers, for the longer they live and do good deeds, the higher their status in Paradise will be, the greater their reward, and the more beloved they will be to their Creator.

Commentary

The word: خَلَائِفَ (khala'if) in verse 39: هُوَ الَّذِي جَعَلَكُمْ خَلَائِفَ فِي الْأَرْ‌ضِ (He is the One who has made you successors (of the past generations) in the earth.) is the plural of: خَلِیفَہ (khalifah) which means deputy or vice-regent. The general sense is that Allah Ta’ ala has let human beings have lands and houses that keep passing on from one to the other. In this phenomena, there is a great lesson - turn to Allah. Then, the statement could also be taken to have been addressed to the ummah of the Holy Prophet t saying, 'After past communities, We made you take their place with authority to make life better around you, so it is your duty that you learn your lesson from what happened to people earlier than you, and hence you, on your part, do not while away precious moments of your life in negligence.

In this verse, being given ‘the earth to inherit’ (khalifah) means that ‘after the decline of the previous nations, a new nation was settled on the earth in their place.’ It is the way by which God gives a nation the opportunity to settle and make progress on the earth. If the nation proves itself incapable, He replaces it by another nation. This process of the transfer of power shall continue right until Doomsday. The advancements in the present age have made it possible even to take photographs in the dark and make an apparently inaudible sound audible to the human ear. Such possibilities indicate that the Creator of this universe is a Being who knows the unknown and is aware of the secrets hidden in one’s heart. Man therefore, is accountable before the all-knowing and all-powerful God from whom no offence remains concealed.