In my opinion, maintaining ties of kinship is the best act of obedience to Allah.

If you have a brother, a sister or a relative who lives very far from you, who else other than you does he/she have? Maintaining these ties is the best act of obedience to Allah especially in occasions like Eid or Ramadan.

Keeping in touch with your siblings, in laws and relatives is considered the greatest act of worship.

Maintaining these ties brings the members of society together, strengthens it and makes it coherent.

Visit your brother, your brother in law, your relative, your uncle or your cousin if he lives very far from you.

A man who listened to one of my lectures about maintaining ties of kinship, was impressed by it. Therefore, he visited a relative of him whom he never visited before. To his surprise, he found him living in a basement to which the sun could not find its way, and so his children were suffering from illnesses.  Since he was rich, he bought a house for his relative in the third floor. This is a very good deed.

People misunderstand the concept of maintaining ties of kinship, and they think of it in a funny way. They pay a visit to the relative wishing that he will not be home, and if he is not home, they put a note on the door that they were here. This is not the real meaning of maintaining ties of kinship.