Maintaining family ties means keeping in touch with relatives connected to us through blood or marriage, treating them well, standing by them during difficult times and helping them according to one’s ability.Islam places great importance on maintaining kinship. The Quran repeatedly instructs believers to preserve family relationships and condemns those who sever them.The Quran describes maintaining ties of kinship as one of the qualities of knowledgeable and God-conscious believers.“Those who maintain the relationships Allah has commanded to be maintained and fear their Lord and fear the evil of the reckoning.” — Surah Ar-Ra’d, 13:21In a video, Islamic scholar and chairman of As-Sunnah Foundation Shaykh Ahmadullah outlined three broad categories of relatives and explained their importance.First category: Closest relativesAccording to Shaykh Ahmadullah, the first category includes relatives on the father’s side and other immediate family members who have the highest priority. These include parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters and children.He also included the mother among the closest relatives.Second category: Other blood relativesThe second category consists of blood relatives who do not directly fall into the first category or have a direct share in inheritance.These include maternal uncles, maternal grandparents and maternal aunts. Since they are connected through the mother’s bloodline, they also have a blood relationship with an individual.Third category: Relatives through marriageThe third category includes relationships created through marriage, particularly relatives from the spouse’s family.Although there is generally no direct blood relationship with these relatives, they remain part of the broader family relationship created through marriage.Islam therefore encourages believers to maintain these relationships, treat relatives with kindness and support them according to their circumstances and one’s own ability.