The identical historical fate uniting the Muslims and the other communities comprises not only sin, but punishment as well. Just as the sunna statement says that the Muslims are bound to commit the same sins known from the history of other communities, other traditions say that they are also liable to suffer the same punishments which others have already endured. The traditions drawing this historical analogy belong to the same brand of statements designed to eliminate from Islamic society phenomena of assimilation to other communities, and to ensure for the Muslims a distinctive Islamic identity.

That the history of previous communities includes a punitive worldly calamity is a well-known Qurʾānic idea. For example, in Sūrat al-Māʾida (5):26 the Children of Israel are barred entrance to the Promised Land after refusing to go to war, and wander in the wilderness for 40 years (till they perish); in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf (7):162, they are destroyed in a disaster (rijz) from heaven after refusing to say hiṭṭa. In Sūrat Bani Isrā'il (17):4-7 they are twice punished by men of great strength, who destroy their Temple. Destruction in this world is also suffered by the pre-Israelite communities whose fate is described in the Qurʾānic “punishment stories”.

The link between the historical calamity that has already befallen the ancient communities and the worldly punishment awaiting Muslims for following the evil ways of the ancients is provided in a special group of traditions, the halaka statements. The Arabic verb halaka means “to perish”, and these traditions assert that certain practices pursued by the Muslims have already brought perdition on the previous communities. The allusion to the history of the non-Arab communities is only made to derive from it an apocalyptic lesson for the Muslims: by repeating these deeds, the Muslims have condemned themselves to the same punishment as that suffered by their predecessors.

A scrutiny of various kinds of such halaka statements will further il-luminate the efforts to retain for the Islamic umma a distinctive non- Jewish and non-Christian identity. The various versions will again show that the core of the sin shared by Muslims and others is inner division, mainly that which revolves around the Qurʾān.