(53–54) “Say, ‘Spend willingly or unwillingly; it will never be accepted from you. You have indeed been a defiantly disobedient people. Nothing prevents their contributions from being accepted except that they disbelieve in Allah and His Messenger, come to prayer only sluggishly, and spend only reluctantly.’”

Allah Most High explains the invalidity of the hypocrites’ contributions and mentions the reason for it: “Say” to them, “Spend willingly,” of your own accord, “or unwillingly,” compelled to do so and not by your own choice. “It will never be accepted from you”—nothing whatsoever of your deeds—“for you have been a defiantly disobedient people,” having departed from obedience to Allah.

He then explained the nature of their disobedience and their deeds, saying: “Nothing prevents their contributions from being accepted except that they disbelieve in Allah and His Messenger.” Faith is a condition for the acceptance of every deed, but these people possess neither faith nor any righteous deed. Even when they rise to perform prayer—the best of bodily deeds—they do so sluggishly. He says: “They come to prayer only sluggishly”; that is, they drag themselves to it and can scarcely perform it because it weighs so heavily upon them.

“And they spend only reluctantly,” without openness of heart or willing resolve. This constitutes the severest censure of anyone who acts as they do. A servant should therefore come to prayer only with body and heart full of energy for it, and should spend only with an open heart and firm resolve, hoping for its stored reward and recompense from Allah alone, without imitating the hypocrites.