250. " so when they encountered goliath and his troops, they said:
` our lord! pour down upon us patience,
and make our steps firm,
and help us against the disbelieving people '."

commentary:
 in this verse, the incident of those two forces facing each other is
pointed out. it says:

" so when they encountered goliath and his troops, they said:
` our lord! pour down upon us patience,
and make our steps firm, and help us against the disbelieving people '."

in fact, saul and his troops asked for three things from their lord
in their prayer, and the prayer is well graded. first, patience and
perseverance was prayed for. their second beseech from allah was
steadfastness in the field. they asked him to make their steps firm in
order that they would not flee. the first invocation, indeed, had an
inward aspect while the second prayer had an apparent and outward
aspect; and surely the firmness of step is one of the consequences of the
spirit of patience and perseverance.

their third prayer was that allah might help them to be
victorious against those infidels. that was, of course, the result or the
reward of those two qualities: i.e. patience and perseverance, and being
firm in the battlefield.

bible says:

9. " and it was so, that when he (saul) had turned his back to go
from samuel, god gave him another heart."

10. " and the spirit or god came upon him and he prophesied.
(samuel 10: 9.10)

* * * *

there is some similar incident mentioned in the bible (judges 7:
1-6) of trying the people with thirst, but that is a different incident. it
was when gideon tried his forces by the ` well of harod '. the trial of
the people under saul was by the river.

from this verse it becomes clear that the one who leads the
people should have inspired knowledge of good and evil for his
followers and be able to conduct trials of the people's faith as was saul
who directed his men not to drink more than one handful of water from
the river, even though they were dying of thirst. it was only a trial that a
few, who were true believers, succeeded and allah helped them to win
goliath and his troops.