The Blessing of Faith...

A friend of mine once said to me:

“What if the person who created Google Maps were a Muslim? Imagine how much reward he could earn!”

I replied: “It would be immense!”

Every single time someone is guided along a road, it could count as charity, as mentioned in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī:
“And showing someone the way is an act of charity.”

And in a hadith recorded by al-Tirmidhī:
“And guiding a man in a place where he has lost his way is charity for you.”

In fact, the reward could be even greater than that: like freeing a slave!

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

“Whoever donates a gift of milk, or a piece of silver, or who guides others through a strait, he will be rewarded as if he has freed a slave.”

The phrase “guides someone to a small road” means showing someone the way.

Reported by Aḥmad, al-Tirmidhī (and this is his wording), and Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ. Al-Albānī graded it authentic.

If the creator of Google Maps were a believer, he could earn billions of acts of charity and rewards equivalent to freeing slaves, corresponding to the countless people who find their way using his maps.

So, reflect on the greatness of faith: it gives value to your deeds. And consider the tremendous loss of those who are deprived of it.

Allah, the Most High, says:

“The example of those who disbelieve in their Lord is [that] their deeds are like ashes which the wind blows forcefully on a stormy day; they are unable [to keep] from what they earned a [single] thing. That is what is extreme error.”
(Qur’an 14:18)

Imām al-Ṭabarī, may Allah have mercy on him, explained:
“The example of the deeds of those who disbelieved, which they performed in this world believing that they were seeking Allah through them, is that of ashes scattered by a fierce wind on a stormy day. The wind scatters them and carries them away. In the same way, on the Day of Resurrection, those who disbelieved in Allah will find nothing in their deeds that can benefit them before Allah or save them from His punishment, because they did not perform their deeds sincerely for Allah alone. Rather, they associated idols and false gods with Him in their worship.”

— Dr. ʿAbdullāh ibn Balqāsim, may Allah protect him.