The Slingshot

The battle started. A huge army was fighting the small army, al-fiʾah al-qalīlah, with Ṭālūt. Jālūt was the king of the enemy: powerful, huge, a strong man, with arrogance and pride, fighting on the battlefield and asking for anyone to challenge him. Who dares to fight me?

Ṭālūt said: who will go out and get rid of him? Who will eliminate Jālūt? He did not get any response. A young man — short; he was described by Wahb ibn Munabbih as a short man — came up to Ṭālūt and said: I will. Ṭālūt saw that this was a child, so he made the announcement again: who will go and face Jālūt? Nobody responded except this young man. And for the third time, nobody came except him. Ṭālūt said: then go.

This young man was armed with a slingshot — with a slingshot. But in his heart he was armed with īmān and trust in Allah (swt). He went up to Jālūt and challenged him. Jālūt said: I do not want to fight you; you are a kid; send somebody stronger; I do not want to kill you. This young man said: but I want to kill you. And he put a small pebble in a slingshot, and he shot Jālūt, and Jālūt was dead. He eliminated the king of the enemy, and the battle was over.

And this young man was Dāwūd (peace be upon him). At that time he was not a nabī yet; he was a young fighter in the army. After that, he was the one who inherited the kingdom from Ṭālūt.