she should keep ties with her or leave her be. She said, “O Messenger of Allah, my mother has arrived while she is râghiba; should I maintain relations with her?” He instructed her to maintain them.

As for her words “while she is râghiba,” some scholars held that it means: she was inclined toward Islam, and so the Prophet’s command to uphold those ties was meant to win her heart for Islam. Others said it means: she desired that I keep in touch with her and was looking forward to it; therefore the Prophet ﷺ ordered me to do so. This second interpretation is the stronger one: she came longing and hoping that her daughter would give her whatever Allah willed.

The report proves that a person must keep relations with his relatives even if they are not Muslim, for kinship carries its own right. The Qur’an alludes to the same in Sûrat Luqmân: “But if they strive with you to make you associate with Me something of which you have no knowledge, then do not obey them; yet keep them good company in this world” (31:15). In other words, if your parents urge you—insistently—to commit shirk, you must not obey them, for there is no obedience to a created being in disobedience to the Creator. Nevertheless, treat them honorably in worldly matters and give them the due of kinship, even if they are unbelievers or openly sinful, because they possess the right of blood ties.

This ḥadith, then, conveys the same ruling as the verse: the Prophet ﷺ ordered Asmâʾ bint Abî Bakr (may Allah be pleased with her and her father) to stay connected to her mother even though the latter was an idolater.

Moreover, giving charity to one’s relatives brings a double reward: the reward for charity itself and the reward for maintaining kinship. The proof is the ḥadith of Zaynab bint Masʿûd al-Thaqafiyyah, the wife of ʿAbd Allâh ibn Masʿûd (may Allah be pleased with them). The Prophet ﷺ instructed the women to give in charity, whereupon she returned home—her husband, ʿAbd Allâh, being a man of modest means