The superiority of Arab believers over others, as discussed in the previous chapters, is dramatically missing in other traditions in which the sins of Israel are also the sins of the Muslims. These traditions no longer make mention of the notion of the Muslims being God's chosen community, and in them the Muslims are no better than any other nation under the sun. These traditions delineate another link between Muslims and non-Muslims, one that is based on similarity in the sense that Muḥammad's community shares with the other communities the same fate of sin and punishment. Glimpses of such a notion have already been seen in Shīʿī traditions comparing the Muslim enemies of the Shīʿa to the sinful Israelites. There are, however, Sunni traditions in which a similar incriminating comparison is drawn between Israelites and Muslims, and they will be the subject of the following chapters.

The major sin that emerges in the traditions as being shared by Muslims and others is that of inner division and civil wars. These conditions of crisis are presented in the traditions as the main reason why Muslims have become like other sinful communities. The underlying message of these traditions is antiheretical. They are aimed at such groups as Khawārij, Qadarīs, Shīʿis and others, who are accused of introducing into Islamic society Israelite modes of dissension and schisms. As will be seen below, such accusations were not merely abusive mannerisms but stemmed from substantial parallels between Israelite and Islamic division. The attack on these groups is marked by a fear of assimilation with others, and is designed to maintain for the believers a distinctive Islamic identity.

The present traditions continue to draw on the Qurʾan, but now the Qurʾānic models of Israelite sin are adduced to rebuke the Muslims, not to praise them.

The Qurʾānic model of the Israelite sin of schism is presented in various passages. In Sūrat al-Jāshiya (45):16-17 (see also Sūrat Yūnus [10]:93), God condemns the Children of Israel for their inner conflicts (ikhtilaf) which divided them after He had given them the Book, the judgement and the prophethood, and after He had preferred them above all beings. Therefore, God will judge between them on the Day of Resur- rection. In Sūrat ĀlʿImrān (3):19, God says the same about the People of the Book.