The halaka statement is vague in that it usually does not specify the nature of the apocalyptic calamity shared by the Muslims and the previous communities. However, there is another set of traditions in which this calamity is described in the most specific terms and is specified as transformation into apes and pigs. This kind of punishment is explicitly Qurʾānic, and the traditions which threaten the Muslims with this fate again exemplify the evergrowing role of the Qurʾan as a source for historical models and moral lessons. The traditions using the Qurʾānic model of the punitive transformation into apes and pigs were also designed to denounce the assimilation of the Muslims to other communities.

The Qurʾānic Setting

In the Qurʾan, transformation into apes and pigs occurs as punishment for violating the Sabbath2 and signals the wrath of God. The Qur'ān itself does not specify to whom this punishment was meted out, but Muslim exegetes agree that they were the Children of Israel, or more specifically, the Jews (Yahūd).

Verses that do not explicitly mention apes and pigs were also linked by Qurʾan exegetes to the same punitive transformation. For example, in Sūrat al-Mā3ida (5):78–79, it is stated that the unbelievers among the Children of Israel were “cursed” by the tongue of David and Jesus, because they “forbade not one another any evil act (munkar) that they committed”. A few verses earlier (v. 60), the Qurʾan addresses the People of the Book, saying that God cursed some people by turning them into apes and pigs. This led the exegetes to explain the curse of v. 78 in the same manner. They say that in David's time the sinners became apes (Jews), and in Jesus’ time they were transformed into pigs (Christians). A Shi'i tradition says that the Jews killed 120 prophets of the house of David, and God therefore turned them into apes, pigs and other species. This happened in the time of Asaph son of Berechiahu, who according to the Old Testament was a seer in the time of David. The event in the time of Jesus is believed to have been connected with the miracle of the Table mentioned in the same sūra. The exegetes say that the Children of Israel were transformed into pigs, or into apes and pigs, because they denied the miracle of the Table, or denied the poor the food of the Table, or because they kept the remains of the food for the next day. The latter sin is identical with the Biblical sin committed by the sceptic Children of Israel with the remains of the manna.