Allatheena yuqeemoona assalata wayu'toona azzakata wahum bil-akhirati hum yooqinoon (surah Luqman: 4)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(31:4) who establish Prayer and pay Zakah, and have firm faith in the Hereafter. *3

Allazeena yuqeemoonas Salaata wa yu`toonaz Zakaata wa hum bil Aakhirati hum yooqinoon

*3) It does not mean that "the righteous people" bear only these three qualities. By using the common epithet of "righteous" for them, it has been pointed out that they refrain from aII those evils which this Book forbids and practise aII those good things which this Book enjoins. Then, the three qualities of the "righteous" have been especially mentioned in order to show that alI other good acts depend on these three things. They establish the Salat which engenders God-worship and piety as a permanent habit with them; they pay the Zakat which strengthens the spirit of sacrifice in them, subdues the love of the world and arouses a desire for the goodwill of Allah; and they believe in the Hereafter, which instils the sense of responsibility _and answerability, which does not allow them to live like an animal, which is free to graze at will in the pasture, but like a man who is fully conscious of the fact that he is not independent but the slave of a Master before Whom he is answerable for all his activities of life. Owing to these three qualities, these "righteous" people are not the kind of the righteous persons who happen to do good just by chance, who may commit evil as often and as freely as they would do good. Contrary to this, these qualities inculcate in them an enduring system of thought and morality owing to which goodness issues forth from them in a regulated and systematic manner, and the evil, if at alI committed, is committed just by chance. They do not have any deep-rooted motives, which might be arising from their own system of thought and morality and leading them on to the evil way under their own nature impulse.