Who is the relative whose ties we are obligated to maintain

The Shaykh : With the start of this session, I welcome Shaykh Muhammad with the warmest of welcomes. Welcome, Shaykh Muhammad.

The presenter : Welcome, and greetings.

The questioner : This questioner says: Who is the relative whose ties we are obligated to maintain? May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow them in excellence until the Day of Judgment. The relative whose ties a person is obligated to maintain is the one who shares a common ancestor with him at the fourth degree. The obligation of maintaining ties varies according to how close a person is to the other, and according to the other’s need for those ties. Thus, maintaining ties with a paternal uncle is more important than maintaining ties with a cousin, maintaining ties with a brother is more important than maintaining ties with a paternal uncle, and maintaining ties with someone in need is more important than maintaining ties with someone who is wealthy, and so on. The specific form of maintaining ties is not defined in the Shari'ah; rather, it is left to custom. Whatever people call maintaining ties is maintaining ties, and whatever they call severing ties is severing ties. For this reason, we find that maintaining ties varies. For some, maintaining ties consists of greeting them and honoring them when they visit, and the like. For others, it consists of giving them clothing, money, food, or the like. The important point is that maintaining ties varies, and the reference for this is custom, because the Shari'ah has not come with defining or specifying it. And whatever is of that nature is referred to custom. Yes. May Allah reward you with good.