Thank you for the much needed reminder. If there are issues of trust &protection ie. Certain close family members who divulge personal information about you & can not be trusted or if there is a resistance from their side for whatever reason. Then what is one to do?

Wa alaikumussalaam,

To be honest, this is a Fiqh question. You can try to find answers on http://islamqa.info/en

My understanding is that the closer the relationship, the more emphasis is upon us to connect with them…e.g. Parents have the most upon us, followed by spouse/children, followed by siblings, followed by paternal/maternal uncles/aunts, followed by their children..etc.. So it’s almost a ranking system… there’s no ‘cut-off’ per say, except that you keep relations with those you can, focusing on the closest first then the farther..

How far in the family tree does this apply to? How distant of a relative can a relative be where even then you still have to keep ties of kinship. For example, 1’st cousins and their families, 2nd cousins (children whose parents are your parents cousins) and their families, 3rd cousins (children whose parents are the second cousins of your parents) and their families? etc. How far does this go? Who is it that we must know about that they are related to us in order to start to build relationships with them and keep in touch with them and maintain ties. ??? jzk