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Fatwa CenterExtent of obedience to one's maternal aunt
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. In one of your fatwas, you said that the maternal aunt holds a great status and that the nieces and nephews must be dutiful to her; does this mean that they have to obey her in everything halal and that if they do not do so they will be seen as disobedient to her and will be destined to hellfire? So if the maternal aunt tells her nephew to do a lot of work for her and her husband in his shop for free even though he does not want to, does the nephew have to do it? Please clarify.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad 
is His Slave and Messenger.
The hadeeth indicates that the maternal aunt is held in the same status of the mother; this very wording is authentically reported on the authority of Al-Baraa' 
about the story of Hamzah's daughter. The Prophet decided to grant her maternal aunt the custody over the daughter and said in this occasion, "The maternal aunt is like the mother."
However, this does not mean that the maternal aunt has the same rights of the mother in every regard; the context of the hadeeth indicates that the statement was said in relation to the custody over children. Therefore, hadeeth scholars who explained this report agreed that the hadeeth means that the maternal aunt holds the same status as the mother as far as custody over the children is concerned.
Al-Haafith Ibn Hajar 
wrote:
"The hadeeth indicates that the maternal aunt is held in the same status as the mother as regards the ruling on custody over children because she is similar to the mother in terms of compassion towards the children (her nephews and nieces) and seeking that which serves their best interests, as indicated by the context of the hadeeth. Therefore, there is no supportive evidence for the claims that the maternal aunt inherits from her nephews and nieces as their mother does. The hadeeth narrated on the authority of ʻAli and the mursal report (i.e. a Hadeeth narrated by a Tabi'i [successor of the Prophet's Companions]) narrated on the authority of Al-Baaqir (Muhammad Al-Baaqir ibn ʻAli ibn Al-Husayn 
) indicated that the maternal aunt has the status of the mother for her nephews and nieces, meaning that she is held in the same status of the mother and not that she is a real mother as far as the relevant religious rulings are concerned. It is deduced from this report that the maternal aunt is given priority over the paternal aunt as far as the custody over children is concerned."
That said, you realize that the maternal aunt is entitled to her rights over her nephews and nieces as one of the relatives entitled to dutifulness enjoined by the sharee'ah; it is obligatory to maintain ties of kinship with her within the extent acceptable by the common practice so that the person is not accused of cutting the ties of kinship.
As for obeying her orders and carrying out whatever she asks for, the nephew and niece are not obliged to obey the maternal aunt in this regard. However, when the person shows dutifulness towards his relatives and upholds the ties of kinship, he earns rewards that Allaah, The Exalted, preserves for him; verily, Allaah does not allow the rewards of the good doers to be lost.
Allaah knows best.
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