He heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, "Whoever shuns his brother for a year, it is as though he has shed his blood."
أنه سمع رسول الله ﷺ يقول: من هجر أخاه سنة فهو كسفك دمه.
Reported by Abu Dawud (4915) and Ahmad (17935), and Hakim graded it sahih (4/163), all of them through routes from Haywa, from Abu Uthman Walid bin Abu Walid, from Imran bin Abu Anas, from Abu Khirash Sulami, who related it. Its isnad is sahih. Iraqi also graded its isnad sahih in Takhrij Ahadith al-Ihya (3/156).The warning contained in these hadiths applies to one who shuns his Muslim brother without a legitimate religious reason. But whoever shuns another for a legitimate religious reason bears no blame for it.Abu Dawud said, "The Prophet ﷺ shunned some of his wives for forty days, and Ibn Umar shunned a son of his until he died." He also said, "If the shunning is for the sake of Allah, then there is nothing wrong with it, and indeed Umar bin Abdul-Aziz covered his face from a man."