How is maintaining family ties carried out?

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From the Jizan region, the listener Nasser Ahmad Hadi sent a message containing several questions. In one of his questions, he says: I have relatives who live far from the city where I reside, and I am unable to travel to visit them. Is there a sin on me for that? And is contacting them via telephone or corresponding with them via mail considered maintaining ties with them? Please inform us, may Allah reward you with good.
Answer: It is not obligatory to travel to them, and it is possible to maintain ties through correspondence and the telephone. All of this is possible, praise be to Allah. It is not obligatory to travel, except if need or dire necessity calls for it; in that case, it is a different matter.
The point is: Maintaining family ties is done through correspondence, through visiting if it is facilitated without burden, through the telephone, through sending greetings to them via companions and supplicating for their success and inquiring about their needs, and through money by giving them gifts if they are in need and supporting them financially. All of this is part of maintaining ties.
And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said in the authentic hadith:

Anyone who wants to have his provision expanded and his term of life prolonged should maintain ties of kinship.

من أحب أن يبسط له في رزقه، وأن ينسأ له في أجله فليصل رحمه

Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 56

, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Al-Wasil is not the one who recompenses the good done to him by his relatives, but Al-Wasil is the one who keeps good relations with those relatives who had severed the bond of kinship with him.

ليس الواصل بالمكافئ، ولكن الواصل الذي إذا قطعت رحمه وصلها

Sahih al-Bukhari 5991

, narrated by al-Bukhari in the Sahih. And a man said to him:

O Messenger of Allah! I have relatives whom I maintain ties with, but they cut me off. I do good to them, but they do ill to me. I am forbearing toward them, but they are ignorant toward me. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: If you are as you say, it is as if you are pouring molten sand on them—molten sand means: hot embers—and there will remain with you from Allah a support against them as long as you remain in that state.

يا رسول الله! إن لي قرابة أصلهم ويقطعونني، وأحسن إليهم ويسيئون إلي، وأحلم عنهم ويجهلون علي. فقال له ﷺ: لئن كنت كما قلت فكأنما تسفهم المل -المل يعني: الرماد الحامي- ولا يزال معك من الله ظهير عليهم ما دمت على ذلك

(Zahir) meaning: support. So the matter holds great good for a person if he maintains ties, remains upright, and is patient, even if they meet him with ill treatment. If he is patient with them and fulfills his right, he is upon great good, and he will have a good outcome. This is the title of true maintaining of ties, just as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

The one who maintains ties is not the one who reciprocates

ليس الواصل بالمكافئ

. The one who maintains ties with them when they maintain ties with him and cuts them off when they cut him off is not the one who truly maintains ties. But the one who truly maintains ties is the one who maintains ties with them even if they cut him off, and does good to them even if they do ill to him. This is perfection, and this is manliness, and this is noble character, and this is what the believer should do, so that he does good to the one who did ill to him, and is forbearing toward the one who is ignorant toward him. And through this, he attains great virtue and great reward. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.

Source binbaz.org.sa

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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