No one judges except God our creator. He knows us what we did right and wrong. Even we can’t judge ourselves because it is very hard to account our good and bad deeds.
We can say the totality of our deeds (good and bad deeds) will affect whether we will be rewarded or punished. God knows that we are human beings and we will sin. So, when we believe in God our creator and when we do something wrong (which everyone will sin whether believer or non-believer), God our creator will forgive us or give us some sort of punishment like shortage of money, sickness, fear, enemy, depression or any discomfort in this life… This will make us strong as humans in this life and on the day of judgement, the suffering or punishment that we were complaining in this life will justify or bad deeds and the person will be left only with the good deeds which will lead him/her to heaven eternal life. Look at what the Quran and hadith say ( Hadith means What prophet Mohammed said or advised):
Abu Sa’id and Abu Hurairah reported that the Prophet Mohammed said:
“Never a believer is stricken with a discomfort, an illness, anxiety, a grief or mental worry or even the pricking of a thorn but Allah will expiate his sins on account of his patience”.
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
And Quran 29:7
And the ones who have believed and done deeds of righteousness, indeed We will definitely expiate for them their odious deeds, and indeed We will definitely recompense them the best of whatever they were doing.
Can I be a good person while not believing in God?
No. A person who knows who has a creator and denies his existence is a sinner. Because every blessing in the person life is given by God our creator. For example, to have a son or daughter is a blessing. A newborn baby is a great sign of God blessing, and that moment we should not deny God rather we should be grateful.
Some people say that I will be a good person, I will give charity, I will do only good in my life, but I will not believe in God our creator. Remember, one of the purposes of life is how well we handle the truth about our creator existence. When you know you have a creator and when you deny your creator you are making big sin. Because he was the cause of your existence. Believing in other false deities other than our creator is even more terrible sin. When the truth about God comes to us we have a great responsibility to accept our creator for ourselves sake. Read this article about the major purpose of life: Major Purpose & Responsibility Of Life & Things which should be considered if a person decides to deny God, our creator.
Having said that, there are general rules. Whether a person believes in God our creator or not, the person can not wrong others and do whatever he/she wants. We have to do continually good deeds and be fair with humans, animals and everything else because we don’t have the right to wrong other creatures. But remember, on the day of judgement, our deeds will be presented to us and we can’t deny it, whether you believed or not everything will be presented and we will have to be responsible for our deeds. God will not punish anyone without proving to him/her what the person was doing wrong. In fact, On the day of judgement, the disbeliever will testify to him/her self that he/she disbelieved in God our creator intentionally.
[God our creator will say on day of judgement] “O company of jinn and mankind, did there not come to you messengers [like Moses, Jesus, Mohammed…] from among you, relating to you My verses and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours? [I.e Day of judgement]” They will say, “We bear witness against ourselves”; and the worldly life had deluded them, and they will bear witness against themselves that they were disbelievers.
So, it is a must that we believe in God our creator and be thankful for him for everything. Then we have to follow by good deeds. We don’t know sometimes we do something small, but in the eyes of our creator is big deal, which may be the cause for the person to be forgiven for the sins and get an eternal reward.
Let’s take these two examples:
Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3143, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2245
There was a dog moving around a well whom thirst would have killed. Suddenly a prostitute from the prostitutes of Bani Isra’il (A Jew lady) happened to see it and she drew water in her shoe and made it drink, and she was pardoned [forgiven] because of this.
Another Example:
Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3295, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2242
Ibn Umar reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “A woman was punished due to a cat she had imprisoned until it died, so she entered the Hellfire. She did not give it food or water while it was imprisoned, neither did she set it free to eat from the vermin of the earth.”