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Fatwa CenterA believer must live with hope for reward and fear of punishment
Question
Is a Muslim allowed to not really strive to obtain Paradise but be satisfied with just hoping to enter Paradise by following the basic principles and rules in Islam? That is, if a Muslim is generally a good human being and follows the five pillars but not necessarily each and every commandment as revealed in the Quran/Sunnah, then can they hope to reach Paradise? And with this belief that Allaah will forgive shortcomings because one does not commit major sins, can a Muslim live like this? Kindly clarify.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
A person who believes in the oneness of Allaah (i.e. a Muslim) hopes to enter Paradise, but he should not feel assured about his condition because some disobedient people may be punished in Hellfire in order to be purified from their sins if Allaah did not forgive them. Rather, a Muslim should combine between hope and fear and always read the texts of At-Targheeb (encouraging people to do good by mentioning Allaah’s promises and rewards) and At-Tarheeb (warning people from evil by mentioning Allaah’s threats and punishments) and induce himself to abide by all the good deeds and stay away from all sins, and he should not underestimate the small sins, as the Prophet warned us against the small sins and clarified to us that the accumulation of small sins leads a person to destruction.
Abdullah ibn Mas’ood 
narrated that the Prophet said, “Beware of underestimating the small sins, for they gather upon a person until he is devastated.” And Allaah’s Messenger, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, has coined a similitude for it as a group of people who stopped in a desert and their food was brought forth (to be cooked). So a person would go and bring a twig, and another would go and bring a twig until they altogether gathered a great amount (of twigs). They lit a fire and were able to cook their food well. [Ahmad - Al-Albaani graded it Hasan (good)]
Ibn Al-Qayyim 
said, “Many ignorant people relied on Allaah’s mercy, His forgiveness and His kindness, and they failed to abide by His commands and prohibitions and forgot that Allaah is severe in punishment, and His punishment cannot be repelled by the people who are criminals. If a person relies on mercy while persisting in sin, then he is like a stubborn person. Ma’roof said, 'Your hope for the mercy of the One Whom you disobey is betrayal and foolishness.' Some scholars said, 'The One Who cut a limb from you in this world because of stealing three dirhams, it is not sure that His punishment in the Hereafter will be the same.' Al-Hasan was told, 'We see you crying for long,' and he said, 'I am afraid that He (Allaah) will cast me in the Fire and He would not care,' and he used to say, 'People were distracted by the hope of forgiveness until they died without repentance; as one of them would say: Because I think good of my Lord, but he is a liar, because if he thought good of his Lord, he would have done good.'” [End of quote]
Al-Haafith Ibn Hajar said in Al-Fat-h, “Hope means that if someone is negligent about anything, he should think good of Allaah and hope that He will wipe out his sin; similarly, whoever does good wishes that it will be accepted from him. But he who is indulging in sin hoping that he will not be held accountable for it without repenting from it and without stopping to commit the sin, then such a person is in delusion. Abu ‘Uthmaan Al-Jeezi said an eloquent statement, 'Among the signs of happiness is to obey and fear that your acts of obedience will not be accepted from you, and among the signs of wretchedness is to disobey and hope that you will be saved from punishment…'”
Moreover, persisting in committing small sins makes them great sins, as it was said, “There is no small sin with persistence, and there is no big sin while seeking forgiveness.”
It is feared that the one who persists in committing small sins will have a bad end to his life, because the one who lives upon something dies upon it.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 10116, 83085, 88453 and 92203.
Allaah Knows best.
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