As for the words of Allah Most High:

“Allah accepts only from the God-fearing,”

this means those who fear Him in that particular deed: it must be righteous, performed sincerely for the sake of Allah Most High, and in accordance with the Sunnah. As Allah Most High says:

“So whoever hopes to meet his Lord, let him do righteous deeds and associate no one in the worship of his Lord.”

‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb used to say in his supplication:

“O Allah, make all my deeds righteous, make them sincerely for Your sake alone, and let no one else have any share in them.”

The proponents of the doctrine of divine threats say that deeds are accepted only from those who fear Him by abandoning all major sins. This contradicts what the Quran and Sunnah teach, as in “the account of Himār, who used to drink wine, yet of whom the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said that he loved Allah and His Messenger.” It also contradicts the hadiths concerning intercession and the deliverance of those who commit major sins from the Fire, until even those with an atom’s weight of faith in their hearts are brought out of it. Allah Most High says:

“Among them are those who wrong themselves, those who follow a middle course, and those who are foremost in good deeds by Allah’s permission,” and so on in the verse.

Nevertheless, it is authentically reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The adulterer is not a believer while committing adultery; the thief is not a believer while stealing; and the one who drinks wine is not a believer while drinking it.”

He also said:

“Whoever drinks wine in this world and does not repent of it will be deprived of it in the Hereafter.”

And he said:

“Allah has cursed wine, the one who presses it, the one who has it pressed, its seller, its buyer, its carrier, the one to whom it is carried, its drinker, the one who serves it, and the one who consumes its proceeds.”