(Indeed, Allah will be testing you with a river)

(He said, “Indeed, Allah will be testing you with a river”) they split into three groups:

The disobedient: they scooped up more than one handful with their hands.

Those who believed: they scooped up a single handful.

The God-fearing: they did not drink.

Disobedience kept the first group from even resolving to obey (obeying the king who had been appointed over them, and fighting alongside him in the cause of Allah); it sapped their resolve and weakened their aspiration. This is how this world teaches us that loving it is the lowest share of everything: whoever's aspiration reaches only this far, you will find him weak in strength, defeated in spirit, never having learned that there are higher things, the highest of which is al-Firdaws al-A'la, and above it the Throne of the Most Merciful.

This is known even in psychology: whoever sets a low goal for himself believes his abilities allow him no more than that, and comes out with poor, weak results, what they call a lack of competence.

As for whoever makes the Hereafter his concern, you will find his aspiration very high, like someone who has expanded his abilities and given free rein to his horse, so he will not settle for the lesser and the lowly. He wants the highest in everything: worship, knowledge, specialization, and service to his country,,.

People differ in their ranks in the Hereafter according to how their aspirations differed in seeking knowledge in this world; so look at what you choose, and see clearly.

The second group: those who believed with him; they scooped up a handful, taking what was permissible, yet the abundance of permissible things and distractions weighed them down from marching and fighting. They did form the intention to fight, then marched with him a little, then stopped (Then when he had crossed it along with those who believed with him, they said, “There is no power for us today against Goliath and his soldiers.”) Patience sharpens long-term willpower, and he only meant to deprive them of the river not as a punishment for them, but as a test and a training in endurance.

The third group: those who feared Allah and were patient (and is there any God-fearing without patience?) through thirst, fasting, abstinence and scrupulousness, through dryness and deprivation and scarcity, and through poverty and through sickness. These are the ones who marched to the very end, and fought with valor and skill and humble supplication to Allah (they said, “Our Lord, pour upon us patience and plant firmly our feet and give us victory over the disbelieving people.”)

(But they drank from it, except a few of them) and these few who did not drink and held back out of scrupulousness are the ones who said:

(Those who were certain that they would meet Allah said, “How many a small company has overcome a large company by permission of Allah. And Allah is with the patient.”)

Then look at His eloquent description of what lay behind their lofty aspiration, their steadfastness and their endurance: (those who were certain that they would meet Allah)

Their aspirations were attached to the Hereafter; (yaẓunnūn: yūqinūn, they were certain) of meeting Allah, and they preferred what is better over what is lower, so they completed the march, and endured and were patient (So they defeated them by permission of Allah).

The story tells us that whoever prefers the Hereafter over this world, his aspiration rises and soars and towers like the mountains; and that whoever triumphs over the whims and desires of the self will endure and triumph in the battles of this world, and whoever has not triumphed here will not triumph there. True kingship is to be king over the kingdom of your own self. And whoever hopes for Allah and for meeting Him sees nothing of this world before him but he casts it aside, so nothing of this world will meet him except what he left behind him!, and what is behind him is behind him! Because the meaning is greater, the concern for the Hereafter weighs more, and Allah is more hoped-for than any good or hope.

* And what is behind him is behind him!: meaning, what he put behind him he will find before him, and this is known in the Quran (Before him is Hell): warā'ihi (“behind him”) means: in front of him.

— Shoroog Almehmadi