And when Saul marched out with his army, he said: 'Allah will test you with a river. He who drinks from it shall cease to be one of mine but he who does not drink from it, except he who scoops up once with his hand, shall be of mine' But for a few of them, they all drank from it. And when he had crossed it with those who believed, they said: 'We have no power this day against Goliath and his soldiers' But those of them who reckoned they would meet Allah replied: 'Many a small band has, by the permission of Allah, vanquished a mighty army. Allah is with the patient' 249 And when they went forth to [face] Goliath and his soldiers, they said, "Our Lord, pour upon us patience and plant firmly our feet and give us victory over the disbelieving people." 250 So they defeated them by permission of Allah, and David killed Goliath, and Allah gave him the kingship and prophethood and taught him from that which He willed. And if it were not for Allah checking [some] people by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted, but Allah is full of bounty to the worlds. 251 These are the revelations of Allah We rehearse them unto thee with truth, and verily thou art of the sent ones. 252 ۞ We gave some of Our Messengers preference over others. To some of them God spoke and He raised the rank of some others. We gave authoritative proofs to Jesus, son of Mary, and supported him by the Holy Spirit. Had God wanted, the generations who lived after those Messengers would not have fought each other after the authority had come to them. But they differed among themselves, some of them believed in the authority and others denied it. They would not have fought each other had God wanted, but God does as He wills. 253