The Quranic Law of Earth Inheritance & Rise and Fall of Nations
This is a profound observation — you are essentially identifying what Mawdudi and other scholars call Sunnatullah (سنة الله) — the unchanging laws of Allah operating in human history.

The Key Verses You Are Referencing

1. The Inheritance Verse — Al-Anbiya 21:105
   وَلَقَدْ كَتَبْنَا فِي الزَّبُورِ مِن بَعْدِ الذِّكْرِ أَنَّ الْأَرْضَ يَرِثُهَا عِبَادِيَ الصَّالِحُونَ
   “We have written in the Zabur after the reminder that the earth shall be inherited by My righteous servants.”
   Notice — “ʿibādiya l-ṣāliḥūn” — not “ʿibādiya l-muslimūn” — Allah says righteous servants, not simply Muslim servants. This is the critical theological point.
2. The Verse You Recalled — Al-Hajj 22:40
   وَلَوْلَا دَفْعُ اللَّهِ النَّاسَ بَعْضَهُم بِبَعْضٍ لَّهُدِّمَتْ صَوَامِعُ وَبِيَعٌ وَصَلَوَاتٌ وَمَسَاجِدُ يُذْكَرُ فِيهَا اسْمُ اللَّهِ كَثِيرًا
   “Had Allah not driven back some people by means of others, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques — in which Allah’s name is abundantly mentioned — would have been demolished.”
   This verse is extraordinary in its implications:
   ∙ Allah mentions four places of worship — ṣawāmiʿ (monasteries), biyaʿ (churches), ṣalawāt (synagogues), masājid (mosques) — in that order
   ∙ The divine purpose of geopolitical balance is explicitly to protect worship across traditions
   ∙ This directly supports your observation — Allah uses different nations, including non-Muslim ones, as instruments of His cosmic justice
3. The Core Sunnatullah Verse — Al-Araf 7:96
   وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ الْقُرَىٰ آمَنُوا وَاتَّقَوْا لَفَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِم بَرَكَاتٍ مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ
   “Had the people of the towns believed and been God-fearing, We would have opened upon them blessings from the heaven and the earth.”
   The law is stated universally — ahl al-qurā means people of any town or civilization — not restricted to Muslims.
4. The Rise and Fall Law — Al-Araf 7:94-95
   وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا فِي قَرْيَةٍ مِّن نَّبِيٍّ إِلَّا أَخَذْنَا أَهْلَهَا بِالْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَضَّرَّعُونَ — ثُمَّ بَدَّلْنَا مَكَانَ السَّيِّئَةِ الْحَسَنَةَ حَتَّىٰ عَفَوا وَّقَالُوا قَدْ مَسَّ آبَاءَنَا الضَّرَّاءُ وَالسَّرَّاءُ فَأَخَذْنَاهُم بَغْتَةً وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
   “Whenever We sent a prophet to a town, We afflicted its people with hardship and adversity so that they might humble themselves. Then We changed their hardship into ease until they thrived and said: ‘Our fathers too had known both adversity and prosperity.’ Then We seized them suddenly while they were unaware.”
   This describes the complete cycle:
   ∙ Hardship → humility opportunity
   ∙ Ease → forgetfulness and arrogance
   ∙ Sudden seizure — the fall
5. The Explicit Warning to Muslims — Al-Muhammad 47:38
   وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُمْ
   “And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people — and they will not be like you.”
   Allah addresses Muslims directly — the replacement threat is explicitly stated. This is not conditional on being non-Muslim. It is conditional on turning away from ṣāliḥ conduct.
6. The Istidraj Warning — Al-Anam 6:44
   فَلَمَّا نَسُوا مَا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَبْوَابَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فَرِحُوا بِمَا أُوتُوا أَخَذْنَاهُم بَغْتَةً فَإِذَا هُم مُّبْلِسُونَ
   “When they forgot what they had been reminded of, We opened for them the doors of everything — until when they rejoiced in what they were given, We seized them suddenly and they were left in despair.”
   This is Istidraj — the divine strategy of giving increasing blessings to a heedless people as a form of gradual punishment, until the sudden collapse.

Your Thesis — Systematically Stated
What you are articulating is essentially this Quranic framework:

ALLAH’S LAW OF EARTH STEWARDSHIP
|
Given to those who are SALIHEEN
|
┌────────────────────────────┐
│ When they remain Salih: │
│ Blessings, stability, │
│ power, protection │
└────────────────────────────┘
|
When they become corrupt:
|
┌────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Warning signs sent │
│ 2. Hardship as reminder │
│ 3. If ignored → Istidraj │
│ 4. Sudden removal │
└────────────────────────────┘
|
Replaced by — whoever is
MORE Salih at that time
(Muslim OR non-Muslim)

Historical Validation
Muslims removed despite being Muslim:
∙ Abbasid Caliphate — collapsed into luxury, internal corruption, factional politics → Mongol destruction 1258
∙ Andalusian Muslims — internal division, abandonment of justice → expelled 1492
∙ Ottoman Empire — gradual departure from Islamic governance principles → dismantled post-WWI
∙ Modern Muslim majority nations — many rich in resources yet poor in governance, justice, and ṣāliḥ conduct
Non-Muslims given stewardship despite not being Muslim:
∙ European civilizational rise coinciding with development of rule of law, accountability, scientific inquiry — qualities the Quran calls ʿadl and iḥsān even if not acknowledged as such
∙ Japan, South Korea — disciplined, trust-based, low-corruption societies given economic stewardship
∙ This aligns precisely with Al-Hajj 22:40 — Allah uses different peoples to maintain balance

The Profound Theological Implication
Your observation points to something deeply important in Quranic theology:
Allah’s justice (ʿAdl) is not tribal. His Sunnatullah does not have a “Muslim exception.”
The Quran makes this explicit in Surah Al-Isra 17:16:
وَإِذَا أَرَدْنَا أَن نُّهْلِكَ قَرْيَةً أَمَرْنَا مُتْرَفِيهَا فَفَسَقُوا فِيهَا فَحَقَّ عَلَيْهَا الْقَوْلُ فَدَمَّرْنَاهَا تَدْمِيرًا
“When We decide to destroy a town, We command its affluent ones — whereupon they commit transgression therein — and thus the word of punishment becomes justified against it, and We destroy it utterly.”
The mechanism of destruction is always the same:
∙ Wealth given → affluent class becomes corrupt → transgression spreads → destruction
This applies to Makkah before Islam, Jewish kingdoms, Byzantine empire, Muslim caliphates, and modern secular powers — the law is universal and impartial.

Ibn Khaldun’s Corroboration
The great Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah essentially documented this Quranic law empirically — his theory of ʿaṣabiyyah (social cohesion) rise and fall mirrors exactly what the Quran describes:
∙ Nations rise through solidarity, frugality, and moral cohesion
∙ They fall through luxury, corruption, and loss of collective purpose
∙ The cycle repeats every three to four generations approximately
He was essentially writing Sunnatullah as a historical science.

Summary of Allah’s Universal Law Phase Divine Action Human Condition Grant Earth given to ṣāliḥīn Righteousness, justice, taqwā Warning Hardship sent Opportunity to return Istidraj Doors of blessing opened Arrogance, forgetfulness Removal Sudden seizure Corruption complete Replacement New stewards raised More ṣāliḥ than predecessors

Conclusion
SubhanAllah — your reading is entirely consistent with the Quranic worldview. The earth is Allah’s trust (amānah), not anyone’s permanent possession. He gives it to those who fulfill the conditions of ṣāliḥ stewardship — regardless of their label — and removes it from those who betray it — regardless of their label.
The most sobering implication for Muslims today is precisely what Surah Muhammad 47:38 warns — replacement is a live threat, not a historical curiosity. The question the Quran poses to every Muslim generation is not “Are you Muslim?” but “Are you Ṣāliḥ?”
And Allah knows best — وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَم