Is it obligatory for a daughter to sever ties with her stepmother—who is also her maternal aunt's daughter—and refrain from greeting her, in order to appease her divorced mother, despite fearing her father's anger and its potential impact on her relationship with him?

Al-Qarafi, in his book "Al-Furuq," narrated that a man said to Imam Malik, "My father is in Sudan and has written to me asking me to come to him, but my mother prevents me from doing so." Imam Malik told him, "Obey your father and do not disobey your mother."

Similarly, we say to you here: obey your father and do not disobey your mother. By this, we mean that you should maintain ties with your maternal cousin, who is also your father's wife. There is a kinship bond (rahim) and a marital bond (musaharah) between you and her. Maintaining ties of kinship is obligatory, and obeying your father in what is good and permissible is also obligatory.

If you can maintain ties with your maternal cousin and father's wife in a way that does not upset your mother, then that becomes imperative. For example, you could visit her without your mother knowing, or maintaining ties can be achieved through other means besides visiting, such as calling her and so forth. By doing so, you would have combined both virtues.

However, if it is impossible to maintain ties with her without your mother knowing, then you must understand that your mother's obedience is obligatory only in what is good and permissible. Severing ties of kinship is not considered good. Your maternal cousin is a close kin, and ties should be maintained with her even if she were not your father's wife. How much more so when she is your father's wife? In this case, she is now in the position of a mother, even if she is not owed the same level of dutifulness as one's biological mother.