When they advanced to meet Goliath and his forces, they prayed: "Our Lord! Pour out constancy on us and make our steps firm: Help us against those that reject faith." Al-Baqarah 2:250 ⧉
Tafsir:
What is essential to gain a victory in any such encounter is that the participants must have the capacity to persevere, whatever the odds, and must obey their leader. Saul forbade his soldiers to drink water from the river in order to test their obedience and perseverence. According to the Bible, only 600 out of the whole army were able to refrain from drinking water. Those who could not resist drinking it were confirmed in their moral weakness. That was why they were all the more terrified at the sight of the apparently strong army of their enemies. But those who had not drunk the river water had by their obedience confirmed their patience and endurance. Then they realized that God alone brought defeat or granted victory. In the words of the Bible, ‘Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands’ (1 Samuel, 17:47 ).