Hi,

Let me quote an Islamic scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him)

“The level of fear that is praiseworthy and appropriate is that which prevents a person from transgressing the sacred limits of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted; if the fear passes that limit, there is the risk that it will led to despair and despondency.”

I’m not a scholar, nor am I a student. My knowledge of religion is not much, but I will try to explain based on what I know.

Fear in Allah, is fear in committing sins, doing bad and fear in disobeying him. We don’t fear Him like kids fear Freddy Krueger from Elm Street or like one fears his enemy. It’s not fear that result in hating and hiding, but it is fear that results in love and finding. And the fact that there is a clear description about punishment, is justice. One can’t have excuse that he didn’t know, we got all the information we need and the choice is in our hands.

Of course, there are people that commit good deeds and are not Muslims. And not all people that call themselves Muslim are Muslims. It is not just a label you can put on and remove whenever you want. And when someone commit crime, it doesn’t matter what his religion his, all pay equally and when one commits good, his good deed will not be lost. To come back to your question, why can’t you be good while not believing in Allah. The answer is simple. For example, let’s take a murderer. So, you have one crazy dude that kills people, but he commits a lot of good deeds, like caring for animals, helping homeless children. Will you consider him good? Of course not, you will want him to be jailed or killed and you will never forgive him for what he did. I think we can agree that killing is a big sin. As Muslims, we believe that the biggest sin is disbelief in Allah. You can do a lot of good deeds and it will help the community, but by disbelieving in Allah you harm yourself.