unable to earn a living, for that too is counted as an act of maintaining kinship.

The jurists also said that among the obligatory expenses is arranging a marriage for the needy relative if he requires it, because safeguarding a person’s chastity is one of the most pressing necessities.

Accordingly, if a man has a full brother and that brother is his sole heir, while the brother is affluent and he himself is poor and unable to earn a livelihood, the wealthy brother must provide him with food, drink, clothing, housing, and—should he need it—transport, and must likewise arrange a marriage for him if he needs to wed; for protecting chastity is a paramount need and therefore falls under the heading of keeping the ties of kinship.

When someone is unaware of such rulings, he is obliged to ask the people of knowledge so that they may direct him to the truth, as the Almighty says: “We sent none before you except men to whom We revealed, so ask the people of remembrance if you do not know” (Qur’an 21:7).

The second hadith clarifies who has the greatest claim to a person’s good companionship. The Prophet ﷺ stated that the one most entitled is the mother. When the questioner asked again, he replied, “Your mother,” repeating this three times, and only then said, “then your father.” The reason is that the mother endures hardships for her child that no one else bears: she carries him “in weakness upon weakness,” bears him in pain and delivers him in pain, spends her nights soothing and comforting him until he sleeps, and if something hurts him she forgoes sleep until he is at ease. She shields him with her own body, warming him in the cold and cooling him in the heat. Thus her care exceeds that of the father, and for that reason her right is three times greater than his.

Moreover, she is a woman, generally weaker and less able to claim her full rights, and for this the Prophet ﷺ gave especial counsel concerning her.