Is a milk sister and a paternal cousin among the relatives whose ties must be maintained?

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, the questioner asks: What is the relative whose ties must be maintained, such that a person sins by severing them? And are a milk sister, a paternal cousin, and a paternal cousin’s daughter included among them?

Answer:
Kinship by blood, whether through the mother or the father, these are the relatives whose ties must be maintained. Paternal cousins are among the relatives. Yes. As for a milk sister, a milk mother, and a milk brother, these are not kin; they do not have the rights of kinship.
But if he wants to honor them as a form of reciprocity and kindness, that is a good thing, but it is not obligatory for him. As for maintaining ties with blood relatives, it is obligatory, and severing them is forbidden. As for maintaining ties with milk relatives, nothing is obligatory by that except in the way of doing good and having good character with them. Yes.