[2:247] Then their prophet said to them, 'Verily God has raised up Saul for you as king'. They said, 'How can he be king over us when we have better right than he to kingship, seeing he has not been given amplitude of wealth?' He said, 'God has chosen him over you and has increased him broadly in knowledge and body (jism). God gives the kingship to whom He will; and God is Embracing, Knowing.
They forgot [God's] right of free choosing (ikhtiyār), viewing the situation instead with the eye of the external world. They deemed it unlikely that Saul could be a king because he was poor and without property. [God] explained to them that merit is by the choice of the Real and that if he lacked wealth, 'God has increased him in knowledge and has favored him over you by his knowledge and body (jism)'. It is said He meant that he was praiseworthy in the qualities of the self (nafs), not large in [his] physical frame (binya), for as it is said in the adage, 'So and so is a name without a body (fulān ism bi-lā jism)', i.e. a man without substance.