From the tafsir, The Surging Sea, of Ibn Ajeeba:
Ishaara: When you are travelling in the arenas of the nafs and your journeying to the presence of utter purity is realized, then there is nothing wrong in your restricting the physical acts of salat, other than the obligatory, which might preoccupy you, and persist in the salat of the heart – which is secluding oneself in the utterly pure presence – if you fear that the sweetness of physical acts [of worship] will divert you from witnessing: one of the arifs has said, “Be wary of the sweetness of actions [of worship] for they are mortal poisons”; and likewise the Qutub Ibn Mashish has said about the stations of contentedness and submission, “I fear that their sweetness will divert me from Allah, and Allah knows best.”
As for the arifs of Allah they are the greatest of ulama as their knowledge is connected to the essence of Allah, both in their unveilings and tasting; as for the ulama of the outward, their knowledge is connected to the legal rulings of Allah, distant from Allah – indeed they are the most veiled from Allah in comparison with others. One of the awliya has said, “Those who are most veiled from Allah are the ulama, then the [common] slaves [of Allah], then the people of zuhd” – as the sweetness which they find in their state prevents them from moving on from it – and we have spoken above of this in more detail at the words of His: “You are the best nation ever to be produced before mankind” The Family of Imran: 110, and Allah knows best.
There is no good in much of their secret talk, except in the case of those who enjoin sadaqa, or what is right, or putting things right between people. If anyone does that, seeking the pleasure of Allah, We will give him an immense reward an-Nisa’ – Women: 113
The Haqq jalla jalaalahu says, urging them to keep quiet: There is no good in their secretly talking about the thief or other matters, indeed there is no good in any talk except in the case of those who enjoin sadaqa, be it obligatory in the case of zakat or voluntary – in which case such people will have the same reward as [those who pay] it, or what is right i.e. deemed good according to the law of the shariat, and which accords with the intellect, like a loan, assisting those oppressed by worry, teaching the ignorant, guiding those astray and anything else which is “right”; or: putting things right between people by acts of reconciliation such as reconciling Tu’ma [the thief] and the jew or any other two [parties]. Mujaahid has said, “This refers to people in general” by which he means that there is no good in people’s intimate or secret talk with each other, their getting engrossed in such [talk] unless it involves good actions.
If anyone does that, i.e. gives sadaqa or pays zakat, does what is right, and puts things right seeking the pleasure of Allah i.e. sincerely for Allah We will give him an immense reward. Badawi has said, “He has based speech on amr, command [here translated as who enjoin] and made the reward conditional upon action in order to demonstrate that the inclusion of those who command, who enjoin among the people of good means that they are equated with people of action and that the fundament and goal is action and the command or enjoining is to be considered a means to it; moreover He has stipulated that action be undertaken in search of the pleasure of Allah /100/ as ‘actions are by intentions’ and anyone who does something good to show off or gain reputation will not merit a reward from Allah; and He has described the reward as immense to point out the baseness of what has passed him by of worldly interests.”
Indication: the ayat contains an encouragement to remain silent and this is a strong pillar of the path of tasawwuf, and it is one of the four pillars, [the others] being isolation, hunger and waking [in the night] – and which is the path of the beginners – and “Whoever has not beginning has no end.” They have said, “The more the tongue remains silent the more the heart is brought to life and the more it talks the more the heart is destroyed.” They have also said, “If knowledge increases, speech decreases, and if knowledge decreases, speech increases.” Further they have said, “Whoever knows Allah, then his tongue is diminished.” One of the ulama was asked, “Was there more knowledge in those earlier generations or the people of today” to which he replied, “Knowledge was greater in the earlier generations while today there is more talking.”
In His words: If anyone does that there is an indication that action is nobler than knowledge without action, and Allah ta’ala knows best.