[2:3] Who believe in the Unseen, and maintain the prayer
The true meaning of belief (imān) is affirmation (taṣdīq) and then actualization (taḥqiq), both of which are brought about by God's granting of success (tawfīq). The affirmation is in the contract (ʿaqd) and actualization is through the exertion of effort (jahd) in preserving the covenant (ʿahd) and observing the limit (ḥadd). The believers are those who affirm (ṣaddaqū) their commitment (iʿtiqād) and then are sincere (ṣadaqū) in their effort (ijtihād).
As for the Unseen, what the servant knows of it is limited to what is necessary. The servant understands each religious matter by a kind of reasoning (istidlāl), a mode of reflective consideration (fikr), and testimonial witness (istishhād), so the belief is invisible (ghaybī) within it. The Lord (swt) is unseen (ghayb) and what the Real speaks about with regards to the gathering and the resurrection, the reward and the place of return, and the reckoning and punishment, is unseen.
It is said that only someone who has the lamp of the Unseen with him believes. Those who are supported by the demonstrative proof of intellects believe through the evidence of knowledge and the sign of certitude. The veracity of reasoning brings them to the courtyards of insight, and what is correct in testimonial witness carries them to the elevated observation points of stillness. Their faith in the Unseen comes through the types of knowledge (ʿulūm) they possess, crowding out the causes of doubt. [Others] receive instruction (taʿrīf) through curtains of lights He has lowered down over them. Through the glimmers of perspicuity (bayān), He has freed them from the need for any thought and reflection, any seeking of pure intuitions (khawā?ir dhakiyya) or rejection of ignoble urgings (dawāʿin radiyya). The suns of their innermost selves rise and they no longer have any need for the lamps of their reasoning. Regarding this they have recited:
From your face my night has become
the sun of the bright morning.
The darkness is elsewhere,
in the air.
People are in
the twilight of darkness.
While we, from your face,
are in the bright morning light.
They also recite:
The sun of the one who loves you
has appeared at night.
It has become illuminated
since she does not set.
The sun of day
sets at night,
while the sun of hearts
never disappears.
Anyone who believes in the Unseen through witnessing the Unseen (ghayb) becomes absent (ghābā) in witnessing it. He became an absent one who is himself unseen (fa-ṣāra ghayban yaghīb).
As for maintaining prayer, it is maintaining its pillars and practices, and then absenting oneself (ghayba) from witnessing them, looking instead to the One to Whom prayer is offered. Thus one will preserve the precepts of the command for Him in what is performed for Him from Him, effaced from regarding [the act of prayer]. Souls such as this face the qibla with their hearts immersed in the realities of communion:
I see myself, when praying,
turning my face toward her
even though the direction of prayer
is the other way.
I pray but don't know whether
I have completed
the two [rakats] of the morning prayer
or eight.
Ordinary people strive, when beginning to pray, to direct their hearts back to the awareness of what they are performing obligatorily, yet they do not turn back from the torrents of forgetfulness. The elect, on the other hand, direct their hearts back to the awareness of what they are performing, yet they do not turn back from the realities of communion. What a difference between one who attends to the precepts of the law but is absent in the familiar territories of his forgetfulness, and the one who turns back to the precepts of the law but is absent in the realities of communion.
[2:3 cont'd] and of what We have provided them expend
'Provision' (rizq) is that from which mankind derives benefit. In the tafsīr tradition it says that they expend their wealth either through supererogatory acts or obligatory acts, according to the details of [juridical] knowledge. However, the allusion [in the verse] explains that they do not hold back anything from God (swt) of that which has been made easy for them. They expend their lower selves in the good manners of servanthood (ʿubūdiyya) and they expend their hearts in the perpetual witnessing of lordship (rubūbiyya). The expending of the followers of Sharīʿa is with respect to wealth (amwāl) and the expending of the masters of reality is with respect to states (aḥwāl). [The followers of the Sharīʿa] are those for whom the 2.5% [alms] is sufficient, with one's entire wealth taken into account [in determining] the minimum amount, according to the customary practice. As for the people of realities, if they grant even a moment of the entirety of their states to themselves and their own worldly fortunes, the Resurrection looms before them.
[Section] The ascetics (zāhidūn) expend the pursuit of their own whim (hawā) on the path, for they prefer the good pleasure of God over their own desires. The worshippers (ʿābidūn) expend their ability and power in the way of God, constantly holding to their consciousness of God (taqwā), privately and publicly. The seekers (murīdūn) expend in His way what distracts them from remembering their Protector (mawlā), so they do not pay any attention to anything in their present world or their world to come. The knowers (ʿārifūn) expend in the way of God everything other than their Protector (mawlā), so the Real (s) draws them near and gives them refuge and by virtue of being alone with Him, He suffices for them.
[Section] The rich expend from their blessings for the sake of what is to come while the poor (fuqarāÌ) expend from their aspirations for the sake of turning [to God]. It is said that [the instruments of] the servant are his heart, his body and his possessions. Thus by their faith in the Unseen, they [serve] through their hearts, by their praying they [serve] through their lower selves, and by their expending they [serve] through their possessions, so that they become worthy of the special favors (khaṣāÌiṣ) of drawing near to that which they serve and worship. When they exist entirely through His Truth, they become deserving of the perfection of intimate friendship (khuṣūṣiyya).