the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:
“Part of the excellence of a person’s Islam is leaving what does not concern him.”
When he involves himself in what does not concern him, this detracts from the excellence of his Islam and thus counts against him. Something need not make him deserving of the punishment of Hell and Allah’s wrath in order to count against him; even a reduction in his standing and rank counts against him.
Hence Allah Most High says:
“It will have the good it has earned, and it will bear the evil it has earned.”
Everything a person does counts either against him or in his favor. If it is something he has been commanded to do, it counts in his favor; otherwise, it counts against him, even if it merely diminishes his standing. The soul is active by nature and is never still. However, Allah has pardoned the thoughts that pass through believers’ minds so long as they neither voice them nor act upon them. Once they act upon them, their actions fall within the scope of commands and prohibitions.
If, then, Allah has made all sins hateful to the believers, while making faith beloved to them—faith which, as everyone agrees, impels them toward all acts of obedience when nothing opposes it—then, if He has made the opposing force hateful to them, the impetus toward obedience is free of that opposing force. Even the Murji’ah do not dispute that faith in the heart calls a person to obedience and impels him toward it, and that obedience is among its fruits and results. What they dispute is whether faith necessarily entails obedience. For although it calls a person to obedience, it faces opposition from the soul and Satan.
Furthermore, if they hate all evil deeds, nothing remains but good deeds or permissible things. Permissible things have only been permitted for people of faith who use them to help them perform acts of obedience. Otherwise, Allah has never permitted anyone to use anything to assist him in disbelief, wickedness, or disobedience. This is why the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, cursed both the one who presses grapes for wine and the one who has them pressed, just as he cursed the one who drinks it. And the one who presses them