Allaah has
promised those among you who believe and do righteous good deeds, that He will certainly grant them succession to (the present rulers) in the earth, as He granted it to those before them, and that He will grant them the authority to practice their religion, that which He has choosen for them (i.e., Islaam). And He will surely give them in exchange a safe security after their fear (provided) they (the believers) worship Me and do not associate anything (in worship) with Me. But whoever disbelieved after this, they are the Faasiqoon. [An-Noor 24:55]
"This is one of His true promises whoses meaning and accomplishment has been witnessed. He promised those who came with eemaan and righteous and correct actions from this ummah that He would cause them to be successors upon the earth, so that they are the ones in authority and in charge of the affairs. Further that He would establish their deen, that which He was pleased with for them, which is the deen of Islaam which gained ascendancy over all of the religions. He was pleased with it for this ummah, due to its excellency, nobility and His favours upon it in that He enabled them to establish it and to establish its laws and prescriptions, relating both to manifest and non-manifest matters, upon themselves and others, so that the people of the other religions and the rest of the Unbelievers are conquered and humbled.
And that He would change their condition of fear to one of security, since it was previously the case that one of them would not be able to manifest his deen, and they suffered harm and injury from the Unbelievers. The united body of the Muslims was very small in number in comparison to the rest and the people of the earth combined to attack them and to hope for their downfall.
But Allaah promised them these things when the aayah was sent down at a time when they did not witness ascendancy and establishment upon the earth, nor the ability to fully establish the deen of Islaam and full security such as would enable them to worship Allaah, not associating anything with Him, in a state of not having fear of anyone except Allaah.
So for the first and foremost ones of this ummah combined eemaan and righteous and correct action to a degree surpassing everyone else, so He established them in the land and gave them authority over the people, and granted them the conquest of the East and the West. They attained full security and complete authority and establishment, so this is one of the astounding signs of Allaah.
This applies until the Hour is established, whenever they combine eemaan and righteous and correct action, then that which Allaah promised will certainly occur.
Indeed Allaah only grants that they become overcome by the Unbelievers and Hypocrites, and that they suffer humiliation when the Muslims neglect eemaan and righteous and correct action:
"So whoever disbelieves after this …" state of establishment and complete authority, O Muslims, "Faa Oolaa'ika humul-Khaasiroon… (They are the Losers)" Those who have abandoned obedience to Allaah , cause corruption and do not rectify affairs. Such ones do not have the aptitude for doing any good, since one who abandons eemaan when he is in a state of strength and authority and there is nothing present which would prevent him from it, then this shows the corruptness of his intention and conviction since there is nothing to call him to abandon the deen except that …"