Today someone told me that they used to drink, smoke and do lots of other haram stuff.
Now they do not do it any more as they do not want to go to hell.
I guess the worry about the afterlife is the one of the big problems?
I do not believe it has much to do with hell as to do with the human need to improve and build.
People often want to do the right thing. Regardless of hell. They believe if they do the right thing, they will get a bigger rewards. If I starve myself in a diet today, I will have a great body tomorrow. If I suffer and pray Five times, there must be a reward to me because after all, if no pain no gain, then clearly, if there is pain then there must be some gain as well, right? right??
In the quest to turn and improve their life around, people will go to a lot of length to do the right thing. The issue is, what sources they will look into to get a list of 'right things' to perform? their doctor? magazine? friends? parents? the immutable and eternal word of god? TV? commercials?
Doing what the koran tells them to do is just them trusting the advice of the koran over the advice of a TV commercial.