Thumma jaAAalnakum khala-ifa fee al-ardi min baAAdihim linanthura kayfa taAAmaloon (surah Yunus: 14)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(10:14) Now We have appointed you as their successors in the earth to see how you act. *18

Summa ja`alnaakum khalaaa`ifa fil ardi mim ba`dihim linanzura kaifa ta`maloon

*18). One should not lose sight of the fact that the immediate addressees of the present discourse were the people of Arabia. Here they are told that all previous nations were granted the opportunity to show their potential to do good. Instead, they took to wrong-doing and rebellion and rejected the message of the Prophets who had been raised solely to guide them. Thus they failed in the test to which they were put by God and were accordingly removed from the scene of history. Now the turn of the Arabs has come and they have also been granted the opportunity to prove their worth. They have also been put to the same test to which the previous nations had been put and in which they had failed. If the people of Arabia want to avoid meeting a similarly tragic fate, they would be well advised to avail themselves of the opportunity granted them, to learn the lessons from the history of the previous nations, and to avoid the mistakes which led to the undoing of many in the past.