What is the difference between refraining from minor sins and committing them while expiating them through fasting or prayers, knowing that the fast of Arafat expiates the past and coming year?

It is not permissible for a Muslim to be complacent in committing sins based on the texts promising forgiveness of sins through good deeds. He should not deliberately incur Allah's displeasure, imagining that acts of obedience will erase those evil deeds. The difference between one who guards himself against sins and one who plunges into them under the pretext of erasing them is like the difference between one who keeps his garment clean and one who soils it and then cleanses it. Sins are a defilement of the hearts, and avoiding them is a great gain.

Furthermore, a servant cannot guarantee the acceptance of his good deeds, as Allah the Almighty says: {And those who give what they give while their hearts are trembling because they know that to their Lord they will return} (Quran 23:60). And as Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, interpreted the verse: "They are those who fast, pray, and give charity, and they fear that their deeds may not be accepted from them." Therefore, indifference to sins and reliance on their expiation through fasting is not among the characteristics of the people of faith.