فَلَمَّا فَصَلَ طَالُوتُ بِالْجُنُودِ قَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُم بِنَهَرٍ فَمَن شَرِبَ مِنْهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي وَمَن لَّمْ يَطْعَمْهُ فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي إِلَّا مَنِ اغْتَرَفَ غُرْفَةً بِيَدِهِ فَشَرِبُوا مِنْهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِّنْهُمْ فَلَمَّا جَاوَزَهُ هُوَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ قَالُوا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا الْيَوْمَ بِجَالُوتَ وَجُنُودِهِ قَالَ الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُم مُّلَاقُو اللَّهِ كَم مِّن فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةً بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ
As Saul set out with the troops, he said, ‘Allah will test you with a stream: anyone who drinks from it will not belong to me, but those who do not drink from it will belong to me, barring someone who draws a scoop with his hand.’ But they drank from it, [all] except a few of them. So when he crossed it along with the faithful who were with him, they said, ‘We have no strength today against Goliath and his troops.’ Those who were certain that they would encounter Allah said, ‘How many a small party has overcome a larger party by Allah’s will! And Allah is with the patient.’
Agha Ali Puya Commentary
Commentary on Quran 2:249
[Pooya/Ali Commentary 2:249] This verse depicts the differentiation between those who are the real followers of the path of submission and truth, and those who are not. He who leads the people must have the knowledge of what is good and what is evil for his followers, and also should be able to find out ways and means to correctly ascertain the sincerity of their faith. Talut tests his men by means of the river (saying: whoever then drinks from it, he is not of me, and whoever does not taste of it, he is certainly of me, except he who takes as much of it as fills his hand), but only a few of them are found faithful. It must be noted that although the men with Talut were aware of their weakness against Jalut, they did not desert him, but history is a witness to the fact that some of the companions of the Holy Prophet not only ran away from the battlefield (Uhad) but also advised their comrades to return to their former state of idolatry, because they loudly announced that the Holy Prophet had been killed. They did not realise that Ali (the hand of Allah) was there to defend the Holy Prophet and disperse the hordes of enemy soldiers single-handedly and turn the impending defeat into a glorious victory. Ali did the same in every battle that the Holy Prophet fought against the infidels (see the books of history written by well-known Muslim authors), but after the departure of the Holy Prophet, the deserters became the heroes of Islam and Ali was forced to withdraw himself from the public life, although he continued to guide the sincere followers who came to him to seek guidance and wisdom.