ʿIlm al-Kalām Archive · Quranic Verses · Q 21:105
And We have written in the Psalms — after the Reminder — that the earth shall be inherited by My righteous servants.
Tabatabai in al-Mizan identifies the verse's three-level structure: (1) katabnā (We wrote) — an act of divine inscription in a source prior to creation's unfolding; (2) fi al-Zabur min ba'd al-Dhikr — in the Psalms after the Reminder, meaning the divine decree exists in revealed scripture as well as in the primordial divine knowledge (Umm al-Kitab); (3) yariththuha 'ibadi al-salihun — the earth shall be inherited by My righteous servants. The future tense is not a prediction contingent on human effort — it is a divine decree (qada') that has been written. The question is not whether it will happen but through whom.
Imam al-Sadiq in Al-Kafi (Kitab al-Hujja) explicitly identifies the 'ibad al-salihun of Q 21:105 as the Imam of the Age and his companions at the time of the qa'im (rising): "They are the companions of the Qa'im at the end of time." The verse thus becomes the Quran's own statement of the eschatological scenario: the earth, which has been governed by unjust authority throughout the Ghayba period, will be inherited — restored to its proper governance — by the righteous servants at the time of the Return. Q 21:105 is not merely a promise of paradise in the afterlife; it is a promise about this earth, in this world, before the final hour.
Al-Kafi, Kitab al-Hujja — Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him)
Bihar al-Anwar contains further traditions connecting Q 21:105 directly to the Mahdi's governance: the inheritance (irth) means legal title and governing authority, not merely physical presence. The righteous servants inherit the governance structures of the earth — the legitimate authority over human affairs — which has been usurped by unjust rulers throughout the age of occultation. The Return (raja') is the restoration of the Mizan principle (Q 57:25) to its rightful position of governance. Q 21:105 and Q 57:25 are thus companion verses: the Mizan that God sent with every prophet will finally be upheld permanently when the earth's inheritance returns to the righteous.
Tabatabai's further point: the Zabur (Psalms) is cited alongside the Dhikr (Reminder — another name for the Quran or for primordial divine knowledge) to establish that the promise is not new or exclusive to Islam — it has been written in earlier revelation as well (cf. Psalm 37:11: "the meek shall inherit the earth"). The Quran here affirms the continuity of the divine promise across revelatory traditions: the same righteous inheritance promised in the Psalms is fulfilled in the age of the Qa'im.
Mulla Sadra's contribution is the proof that divine promise (wa'd) is not contingent on human effort in the ordinary sense — it is an ontological necessity grounded in divine knowledge ('ilm) and will (irada). God does not make promises that might fail to be fulfilled; divine promise is a mode of divine decree. "We have written" (katabnā) means: this is inscribed in the divine knowledge as a necessary future state. The actualization of Q 21:105 is therefore as certain as any structural truth — it is a matter of when and through whom, not whether.
The Convergence — Raja' as Ontological Restoration
Imami tradition: Q 21:105 promises the Qa'im's companions the inheritance of the earth; the Return is the restoration of the Mizan to its proper governance position. Akbarian tradition: the Khatm al-Awliya' and his realized companions are the 'ibad al-salihun whose ontological soundness qualifies them for this inheritance. Sadra's synthesis: the Return is not merely a political event — it is the completion of the ontological arc of creation, in which the divine governance principle (Mizan, wujud-calibration, walaya-axis) is finally reflected in the outward governance structure of the earth. Creation began with the appointment of a khalifa (Q 2:30) whose function is to carry divine governance; Q 21:105 promises its completion when that function is finally exercised without opposition.
Three Quranic guarantees that Sadra reads as ontological necessities grounding Q 21:105: (1) Q 4:165 — the earth cannot be without a hujja who removes all excuses; the hujja's existence is a structural necessity. (2) Q 35:43 — "the sunna of Allah" (sunnat Allah) does not change; the divine pattern for prophetic vindication is structural and invariant. (3) Q 21:105 itself — the divine writing is already complete; the inheritance is already inscribed. These three verses together constitute the Quranic proof that the return of the walaya-axis to governance is not a human aspiration but a divine decree already written in the primordial inscription.