How important is maintaining the ties of kinship? And how to keep it in the Coronavirus epidemic time that requires physical distance?
Praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. May His Blessings and Peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his purified family, and those who follow them till the Day of Resurrection.
Maintaining the ties of kinship is mandated by Shariˁah in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and the nation has agreed upon it. Allah said, "Be mindful of Allah in Whose name you make requests of one another. Beware of severing the ties of kinship". (Qur'an, 4:1). That is to say, 'Watch out for not severing the ties with your relatives. Some other verses reiterate the same instruction. In a Qudsi (Divine) Hadith, Allah says [to the womb, a symbol of kinship, "I’m the Beneficent and you’re the kinship. I treat with kindness those who treat you with kindness and sever ties with those who sever ties with you". (Hadith described as 'Sound'. It is narrated by Abu Dawoud) Al-Ḥasan Al-Basrῑ also said “If people show off with knowledge, neglect good work, love only through lip service but hate in their hearts, and sever their ties of kinship, Allah would curse them, make their ears deaf and their eyes blind”.
Scholars differed as to the number of relatives to be maintained on three opinions, the strongest being that they are the relatives of lineage, whether they are allocated share of inheritance from their deceased relatives or not. So, maintaining the ties of kinship should be kept without causing any harm. This is practiced either by visiting one's relatives when possible, or by contacting them through means of modern technology, knowing their updates, or by sending gifts to them by mail, for instance, or helping them -within one’s ability- when need be.
The general criterion in the issue is that one has to deliver as much good as possible to them, ward off as much evil as possible from them. Such harm can now be inflicted based on the convergence of visits and the like, during which overwhelming love feelings and sincere affection are expressed by shaking hands and hugging, that would most likely result in much harm such as infection with this deadly epidemic. Jurists have agreed to demand a stop of the Friday prayer, which is an individual duty, and other daily congregational prayers which are supererogatory congregationally due to the possible consequent infection. Whereas the ties of kinship are among the highly recommended actions, Shariˁah -as a matter of priority- forbids everything that contains harm and may lead to confirmed infection leading to jeopardy, and throwing oneself into decimation. So, now the ties of kinship should be kept away from physical visits and meetings, and physical distance in this exceptional case is imperative as a legal requirement. We have an alternative option in other means that Allah has granted us through technology, social media, such as mobile phones, internet and the like, by which the world has become like a small village. We have based our opinion on jurisprudential rules, which state that 'the affordable act of worship has to substitute the unaffordable one'; 'What cannot be completely attained should not be completely left behind\, and Allah’s saying 'Allah wills make ease for you, not hardship'". (Qur'an, 2:185)