presses grapes into juice that can be put to permissible use. Yet once it is known that the presser intends to turn it into wine, one may not assist him in disobeying Allah by providing something that is, in itself, permissible. Indeed, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, cursed him for doing so, because Allah has neither permitted assisting a sinner in his sin nor allowed him what he uses to commit it. Thus, these things are permissible for them only when they use them to help them perform acts of obedience. It follows that, in the absence of evil deeds, they do nothing but good deeds. Hence, whoever abandons all sins must necessarily occupy himself with obedience to Allah.
An authentic hadith states:
“Everyone goes out in the morning and sells his soul, either setting it free or bringing it to ruin.”
A believer must love good deeds and hate evil deeds; doing good must please him, and doing evil must distress him. If this is not the case in some matters, his faith is deficient. A believer may commit an evil deed and then repent of it, perform good deeds that erase it, or suffer an affliction that expiates it. Nevertheless, he must hate it, for Allah has told us that He has made faith beloved to the believers and made disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience hateful to them. Whoever does not hate all three is not among them. However, Muhammad ibn Nasr says: “The sinner hates them out of religious commitment.”
The response is: If this means that he believes his religion has forbidden them, that he loves his religion, and that this prohibition is part of it, then he does hate them. But if he loves his religion in general while having no hatred for them in his heart, then he lacks faith to that extent, as stated in the authentic hadith:
“Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot, then with his tongue. If he cannot, then with his heart—and that is the weakest degree of faith.”