A successor on the earth, meaning We have appointed you as a ruler on the earth, like one whom some sultans appoint over certain lands and give authority over them. From this comes their saying: the successors of Allah on His earth. And We have made you a successor of those who were before you from the prophets who uphold the truth. And this indicates that his state after repentance remained as it was and did not change. So judge between the people with the truth, meaning by the judgment of Allah, as you are His successor. And do not follow the desires of the soul in your judgments and in other matters in which you act regarding the causes of religion and the world, lest desires mislead you and become a reason for your misguidance from the path of Allah, from the signs He has set in the minds, and from the laws He has legislated and revealed.

And the Day of Judgment is related to their forgetting, meaning by their forgetting the Day of Judgment, or to His saying to them, meaning: they have a punishment on the Day of Resurrection because of their forgetting, which is their misguidance from the path of Allah. And it is reported from some of the successors of the Banu Marwan that he said to Umar ibn Abdul Aziz or to Al-Zuhri: Have you heard what has reached us? He said: And what is it? He said: It has reached us that the successor is not subject to the pen and no sin is written against him. He said: O Commander of the Faithful, are the successors better or the prophets? Then he recited this verse.