What are the individuals with whom ties of kinship must be maintained and boycotting them is forbidden? Is it obligatory to maintain ties with relatives through suckling or distant grandparents, or maternal cousins, in the event of unwillingness or the husband's refusal?

Scholars differ on specifying the kin with whom ties must be maintained. The preponderant opinion is that they are all relatives from both the paternal and maternal sides, such as fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, children and their offspring, brothers and sisters and their children, paternal uncles and aunts, and maternal uncles and aunts and their children. These are included in the verses that warn against severing ties of kinship and encourage maintaining them.

As for a foster paternal aunt and those of similar status, she is not included among the kin with whom ties must be maintained due to blood relation. Rather, she falls under the general kinship among Muslims; therefore, one should be kind to her and honor her, but one does not incur sin by severing ties with her.