Question

What is the relationship of jal with $ra?

Answer 1

The jal is a jump and link instructions and $ra kind of special register. When jal <label> do the jump to the label it store the program counter means the address of the current instruction in the $ra.

jal <label>                 jump to target address

jr                                 jump to specify register

$ra                              return address

jr $ra                          copy $ra to program counter, means return jump back to the address saved in $ra.