ٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَٰهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ
“Who believe in the Unseen, and establish worship, and spend of that We have bestowed upon them;” — M. M. Pickthall
Taberî9-10. c.✓ Citation verified
Taberî states that the spent wealth is expended in places obligatory upon a person, such as alms-tax, family maintenance, and spending in the way of Allah. He also mentions that the expression 'tatajaffâ' refers to staying away from bed to perform night prayer, and that there are narrations indicating this prayer is performed between evening and night prayers. Finally, he transmits that the expression 'belief in the unseen' in the verse means believing in unseen matters such as paradise, hellfire, resurrection, and the Day of Judgment.
وإنما وصفهم تعالى ذكره بتجافي جنوبهم عن المضاجع لتركهم الاضطجاع للنوم شغلا بالصلاة
Zemahşerî12. c.✓ Citation verified
According to Zemahşerî, the term 'rizq' (provision) mentioned in this text refers to sustenance given from that which is lawful; because what is unlawful is not considered sustenance and cannot be attributed to Allah.
من الحلال ؛ لأن الحرام لا يكون رزقا ولا يسند إلى الله
Fahreddin er-Râzî12-13. c.✓ Citation verified
According to Râzî, 'fear with the unseen' in the expression 'bi'l-ğayb' means that a person fears Allah sincerely in every circumstance hidden or manifest from Allah, whether seen or unseen by anyone; this is the opposite of the hypocrites who believe when they see and say to their devils 'we are with you' when alone. He also notes linguistically that the preposition 'bâ'' functions in the place of nominative as accusative, that is, it expresses a situation where the agent is unseen/hidden. The text also conveys the views of four sects among the people of the qibla regarding the definition of faith, as well as various discussions concerning spending, alms-tax, and righteous deeds.
من يخاف بالغيب أي يخافه بإخلاص وتحقيق ولا يختلف الحال بسبب حضور أحد أو غيبته كما في حق المنافقين الذين إذا لقوا الذين آمنوا قالوا آمنا وإذا خلوا إلى شياطينهم قالوا إنا معكم
Kurtubî13. c.✓ Citation verified
According to Kurtubî, the word 'rizq' encompasses everything from which a person benefits according to the People of the Sunnah; whether it is lawful or unlawful makes no difference. The view of the Mu'tazilites that the unlawful would not be considered sustenance because something whose ownership is not sound cannot be said to have been given as rizq by Allah is rejected. In refuting this view, it is presented as evidence that it is established by consensus that children and animals are provided with sustenance even though they do not own property.
وهذا فاسد والدليل عليه أن الرزق لو كان بمعنى التمليك لوجب ألا يكون الطفل مرزوقا ولا البهائم التي ترتع في الصحراء
İbn Kesîr14. c.✓ Citation verified
According to this exegete, the verse includes a person's spending from the rizq given by Allah both the obligatory alms-tax and maintenance for family and relatives; it is stated that as the view preferred by Ibn Jarîr, the verse carries a general expression encompassing both the alms-tax and all maintenance obligatory upon a person. This spending is done with the awareness that the slave's wealth is in fact entrusted to him temporarily, and the benevolence shown in the way of Allah reaches the needy beginning from the nearest ones.
واختار ابن جرير أن الآية عامة في الزكاة والنفقات فإنه قال وأولى التأويلات وأحقها بصفة القوم أن يكونوا لجميع اللازم لهم في أموالهم مؤدين زكاة كانت ذلك أو نفقة من لزمته نفقته من أهل أو عيال وغيرهم ممن يجب عليهم نفقته بالقرابة والملك وغير ذلك
Beydâvî13. c.✓ Citation verified
According to Beydâwî, the expression 'yu'minûn bi'l-ğayb' can be connected to 'al-muttaqîn' (as an adjective or clarification) or be read separately from it as a subject. The word 'ghayb' refers to things that cannot be perceived by the senses or by self-evident reason; such as Allah, His attributes, and the afterlife—things for which evidence has been established—and this is what is intended in this verse. Faith, in linguistic terms, means confirmation; in religious law, it is confirmation of what is necessarily known from the religion; according to the majority of hadith scholars, the Mu'tazilites, and the Khawârij, it consists of three elements: conviction, acknowledgment, and deed; however, according to the view preferred by Beydâwî, acknowledgment must be added when heartfelt confirmation is possible.
والمراد به الخفي الذي لا يدركه الحس ولا تقتضيه بديهة العقل، وهو قسمان: قسم لا دليل عليه وهو المعني بقوله تعالى: وعنده مفاتح الغيب لا يعلمها إلا هو وقسم نصب موقع عليه دليل: كالصانع وصفاته واليوم الآخر وأحواله وهو المراد به في هذه الآية
Comparison
Common ground
Taberî and Ibn Kesîr converge on the matter of spending: both state that the verse encompasses general spending that includes both alms-tax and family/kinship maintenance, and we see that Ibn Kesîr even directly transmits Taberî's preference for this. Zemahşerî and Kurtubî, while arriving at opposite conclusions when focusing on the concept of 'rizq', both discuss the matter within the same theological framework (the relationship of rizq with ownership/lawfulness). Râzî and Beydâwî resemble each other in that both treat linguistic/grammatical analysis together with inter-school theological discussion (People of the Sunnah, Mu'tazilites, Khawârij) regarding the definition of 'ghayb' and faith; all exegetes are tacitly in agreement on the point that the ghayb consists of matters that cannot be perceived by the senses and reason (Allah, the afterlife, paradise and hellfire).
Differences
While Zemahşerî limits 'rizq' only to that which is lawful, Kurtubî explicitly rejects this on behalf of the People of the Sunnah and defines it broadly to encompass the unlawful; this is a direct reflection of the theological/doctrinal divergence between the Mu'tazilites (Zemahşerî's school) and the People of the Sunnah (Kurtubî). While Taberî operates with a narration-focused methodology (transmissions from companions and successors, linguistic support through poetry), Râzî and Beydâwî devote more space to linguistic grammatical analysis and theological sect discussions; this demonstrates the methodological difference between the narration-focused and reasoning-focused schools in exegetical methodology. Ibn Kesîr, meanwhile, adopts Taberî's view largely and supports it with hadith traditions, continuing the narration methodology. Furthermore, Taberî addresses the expression 'tatajaffâ' with a specific concrete interpretation relating to night prayer, while other exegetes have not gone into this detail.
Historical context
The earliest exegete Taberî (3rd-4th century) follows a narration-focused method based on transmissions from companions and successors, while in subsequent periods (Zemahşerî, Râzî, Beydâwî in the 5th-7th centuries), reasoning-based exegesis and theological/doctrinal discussions (the dispute between Mu'tazilites and People of the Sunnah, the definition of faith, linguistic analyses) become more prominent. Later exegetes like Kurtubî and Ibn Kesîr have both preserved the narration heritage and included prior theological discussions (such as refutations of the Mu'tazilites), combining the two methodologies. Thus, while the fundamental topics (spending, rizq, ghayb, faith) remain constant, the approach to them has evolved according to the period's school-based and methodological inclinations—from narration to reasoning, from simple transmission to systematic theological discussion.