“You will surely follow the ways of those before you, matching them exactly, so much so that if they entered a lizard’s burrow, you would enter it too.”

They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, the Jews and Christians?”

He replied, “Who else?”

He also said:

“You will surely follow the course of the nations before you, span by span and cubit by cubit.”

They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, the Persians and Romans?”

He replied, “Who else?”

Both hadiths are in the two Sahīh collections. During the expedition of Hunayn, the polytheists had a lote tree on which they hung their weapons. Some people said, “O Messenger of Allah, appoint for us a Dhāt Anwāt (tree with hanging objects), just as they have a Dhāt Anwāt.”

He, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Allah is the Greatest! By Him in whose hand is my soul, you have said just what the companions of Moses said: ‘Make for us a god just as they have gods.’ These are recurring ways! You will surely follow the ways of those before you.”

The Quran has made clear that evil deeds come from the soul, even though they occur by Allah’s decree. The gravest of them are denying the Creator, associating partners with Him, and the soul’s desire to be a partner to Him—glory be to Him—or a god besides Him. Both of these latter ambitions have occurred: Pharaoh and Iblīs each sought to be worshipped and obeyed instead of Allah. What was in Pharaoh and Iblīs represents the utmost wrongdoing and ignorance, and within the souls of all other humans and jinn there is a share of this. Unless Allah helps and guides His servant, he will fall into some of what Pharaoh and Iblīs fell into, to the extent that he is able.

One of those possessed of spiritual insight said: “There is no soul that does not contain something of what was in Pharaoh’s soul. The difference is that he had the power and so revealed it, whereas others lacked the power and so concealed it.”