except so that we may learn lessons from it, for we need these lessons and benefit from them. Such lessons can only be drawn when we compare the later case with the earlier one, and both share the grounds that warrant the same judgment. Were there not within people’s souls something of what was in the souls of those who rejected the messengers—Pharaoh and those before him—we would have no need to learn lessons from people whom we do not resemble at all. Rather, the matter is as Allah Most High says:

“Nothing is said to you except what was said to the messengers before you.”

And as He says:

“Likewise, no messenger came to those before them without their saying, ‘A sorcerer or a madman!’”

And He says:

“Those before them said the same as they say; their hearts are alike.”

And He says:

“They imitate the words of those who disbelieved before them.”

This is why the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“You will surely follow the ways of those before you, as precisely as one arrow feather matches another, so that even if they entered a lizard’s hole, you would enter it too.”

They asked, “The Jews and the Christians?”

He replied, “Who else?”

He also said:

“My community will surely follow the course of the nations before it, span for span and cubit for cubit.”

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

He replied, “Who else?”

Both hadiths are recorded in the two Sahīh collections.