14 Preface ثُمَّ جَعَلناكُم خَلائِفَ فِي الأَرضِ مِن بَعدِهِم لِنَنظُرَ كَيفَ تَعمَلونَYusuf AliThen We made you heirs in the land after them, to see how ye would behave!1This is addressed to Quraish in the first instance, for they have succeeded to the heritage of ‘Ād and Thamūd. But the application is universal, and was true to the Abbasi Empire in the time of Harun al Rashid, or the Muslim Empire in Spain or the Turkish Empire in its palmiest days, and indeed, apart from political power, to the Muslims and non-Muslims of our own days.