Then he described them with the essence of deeds as a definition for them, saying: ﴿Those who believe in the unseen﴾, meaning the unseen matter for which there is no benefit in belief other than it. He expressed it with the source for emphasis.

﴿And establish prayer﴾, meaning that which is the presence of vigilance and the best of bodily deeds, by preserving it, and by safeguarding it in itself and all its states. And when he mentioned the connection of the creation with the Creator, and that spending is among the greatest pillars of the religion connecting the creatures, he followed it with it, saying, prefacing the neighbor, prohibiting extravagance, and warning (p-83) about the quality of spending because Allah is Good and does not accept except what is good, and commanding piety and forbidding what has a doubt in it [because sustenance includes what is lawful and unlawful and what is questionable]. ﴿And from what We have provided them﴾, meaning We have enabled them to benefit from it despite the greatness of Our treasures, and it is for Us and not for them.

﴿They spend﴾, meaning in seeking Our pleasure from what is obligatory upon them of zakat, pilgrimage, and striving, and other than that, and from what they volunteer with of charities and others. The intended meaning of these actions here is to establish their realities continuously.

Abu Hayyan and others said regarding His saying in Surah Al-Hajj: ﴿Indeed, those who disbelieve and hinder﴾ [Al-Hajj: 25], the present tense may not indicate a specific time of condition or future, thus it indicates continuity. This is something that cannot be avoided, otherwise it would not include in this Medinan Surah those who had this character before the migration. And His saying: ﴿So why do you kill the prophets of Allah before﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 91] is conclusive in that.

(p-84) And Al-Harali said: ﴿They believe﴾ is from belief, which is the source of 'amannah' (he believed) if he believes someone who alerts him to a matter he has no reason to deny or doubt. And 'the unseen' is what is absent from the senses and there is no knowledge upon which the mind can guide to obtain knowledge; and the form of 'they believe' and 'they establish' necessitates continuity until the end, and the continuity of the deed until the end necessitates its emergence from nature or disposition and that it is not from pretense or show. At that point, it would be a sign of reward; and prayer is the complete turning towards a matter, thus it is from the highest in a comprehensive manner, and from the lowest in fulfilling the aspects of humility and complete turning towards reception. Their belief in the unseen is their acceptance from the Prophet ﷺ of what he received by revelation regarding the unseen matters of this world, which is the Hereafter and what is in it, and the unseen matters of the kingdom and what is in it, up to the unseen of the divine realm, and what is in it, whereby their deeds are based on the unseen that their hearts received through their ears like their deeds based on what their souls received through their eyes and all their senses. And they continued in that deed according to the ruling of their faith until the end.

And when prayer is a commitment to the covenant of worship, based on the precedence of testimony, completed by the gathering of remembrance and types of greetings to Allah; from standing for Him, glorified and exalted is He, and bowing to Him, and prostration which is the highest of it, and the greeting by the saying which is the lowest of the greetings; for this reason, it is a commitment to faith and a repetition. Therefore, whoever does not maintain prayer, his faith weakens and disbelief overcomes him. There is no faith for one who has no prayer. Piety is the essence, and faith is the fruit of prayer. Spending is a vicegerency, and for this reason, stinginess is a separation from the vicegerency of Allah. 'And spend from what He has made you successors in it' [Quran 57:7]. This matter in its entirety is what the vicegerency of Adam was established upon, leading to what is beyond that of the perfection of Allah's command which He completed with Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. So, piety is an inner heart, and spending is an outward face, and faith is prayer, a connection between them. The way in which belief in the unseen is arranged upon piety is that the pious one, when he is in a state of hesitation and not firmly holding onto a matter, when he is guided to an unseen that he does not know; he does not push it away by virtue of what his knowledge has preceded him. The way in which spending is arranged upon belief in the unseen is that the provision is unseen, because when a person does not have insight into all his sustenance, his sustenance is unseen. So, when he is certain of the replacement, he generously gives the gift. Whenever he is provided with sustenance, his vicegerency is completed, and his authority in it becomes great, and a door opens for him to receive higher and more complete sustenance than the first. If he does well in the vicegerency by spending from it as well, a door opens for him to the highest until it reaches a place where there is no further sight beyond it, and that is the Muhammadan perfection. But if he is stingy and does not spend and is content with what he has, he does not attain piety, and he has lied. The matter of his vicegerency diminishes, and the support from above is cut off from him. Thus, spending is rightly called zakah. And at the beginning of the consultation, there is a valuable discussion on faith from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him. The end.