This meaning is clear in the verse...

This meaning is clear in the verse, and there is no evidence, either in the words of the verse or intellectually, that “the people who believe and work righteous deeds” are exclusively the of the Prophet, or the Prophet himself with the Imams from his family, or the Community as a whole”.

He adds: “The meaning of their inheritance of the earth, like the inheritance of the Communities of the past, is that God will make of them a virtuous society who will inherit the earth as He did for the Communities of the past. This inheritance is dependent on their being a virtuous society and not on particular individuals. Also, the interpretation of this inheritance as the Divine Caliphate…