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Verse 3
Who believe in the Unseen, are steadfast in prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them. (Alladhîna yu'minûna bi'l-ghayb wa yuqîmûna al-salât wa mimma razaqnâhum yun-fiqûn.)
"Who believe in the Unseen (alladhîna yu'minûna bi'l-ghayb)"
Consider this: the positioning of this verse and the previous one in respect of their essential meanings is this, that the praise of the Qur'an in the previous verse has a bearing on the praise of believers in this one, and the one flows into the other. For the praise of believers is a result of the former; it is a proof from effect to cause (al-burhân al-innî); a fruit of the Qur'an's guidance and a witness to it; and by [the praise in this verse] being encouragement it shows that it has a share of that guidance and is an example of it.
As for the positioning of "who (alladhîna)" and "those who fear Allâh (,al-muttaqin)" [and the relationship between them], it [denotes] emptying or clearing (takliliyya), and adorning (tahliyya), which is the eternal companion of the former. That is, adornment after purification (tanzîh). Do you not see that taqwâ is the renunciation of evils and that the Qur'an mentions it as having three stages: the giving up of associating partners with Allâh (shirk), the giving up of sin, and the giving up of all things other than Allâh? While adornment is to perform good acts, either inwardly with the heart, or physically, or with property. Now, the sun of interior acts is belief (îmân), and the index of physical acts is the salât or ritual prayers, which are "the pillar of religion,"1 and the pivot of acts related to property is the purification tax (zakât), which is "the bridge of Islam."2
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1 Tirmidhî, îmân, 8; Ibn Mâja, Fitan, 12; Musnad, v, 231; al-Hâkim, al-Mustadrak, ii, 76.
2 al-Mundhiri, al-Targhib wa'l-Tarhib, i, 517.
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