What is the sin of cutting ties of kinship?

What the scholars say it is

The Arabic word for the one who does this is qati' rahim — the severer of the womb, the one who breaks the bond Allah commanded to be kept. The scholars explain that this bond is not a courtesy but an obligation Allah Himself placed on the relatives, one against another.

Shaykh Ibn Baz said the matter is among the major sins and among the causes of being deprived of entry into Paradise, unless Allah pardons the one who did it. IslamWeb describes it as a grave crime and a great sin, and says it is a cause of being driven away from Allah's mercy.

The evidence they rely on

The scholars cite a verse in Surah Muhammad that ties severing kinship to corruption on the earth and to Allah's curse:

"So would you perhaps, if you turned away, cause corruption on earth and sever your ties of kinship? Those are the ones whom Allah has cursed, so He deafened them and blinded their vision."— Qur'an 47:22–23

And they cite the Prophet's ﷺ warning:

"The one who severs kinship will not enter Paradise."— Sahih al-Bukhari 5984

The scholars explain this narration carefully. It is a text of warning, and the way of many of the early scholars — Malik, Ahmad and others — was to leave such texts as they came rather than explain them away. But if it is explained, the meaning is that such a person will not enter Paradise with the entry that is free of prior punishment; it does not mean he is a disbeliever or that Paradise is forbidden to him forever. His final destination is still Paradise, but preceded by punishment proportionate to his sin. Everything short of disbelief remains under Allah's will: He may punish or He may forgive.

There is also the hadith of the kinship bond itself, which the scholars quote to show how directly Allah is involved in this matter:

"Allah said to the womb: 'Will you not be pleased that I will keep ties with the one who keeps ties with you, and cut off the one who cuts you off?' It said: 'Yes, my Lord.' He said: 'That is it.'"— Sahih al-Bukhari 7502, from Abu Hurayrah

And the Prophet ﷺ defined who the true keeper of ties is:

"The one who keeps ties is not the one who merely reciprocates; rather the one who keeps ties is the one who, when his kinship is severed, reconnects it."— Sahih al-Bukhari 5991, from Abdullah ibn Amr

What actually counts as severing

The scholars do not leave this vague. 'Abd Allah al-Fawzan explains that severing happens in two ways, and the worse of the two is the first:

• By harming them: insulting them, wronging them, speaking ill of them — this is the most severe form.
• By abandoning kindness: not visiting, not greeting, not helping, not checking on the sick, not answering their invitations, not advising them.

He also lists a subtler form: turning relatives into factions, setting some against others over the smallest cause, until grudges take root and the young grow up not even knowing their own relatives. He calls this a clear error — an error in listening to gossip, and an error in acting on it.

When you are not blameworthy

The scholars are equally clear that the obligation has limits, and they name the cases where the blame falls elsewhere.

• If they cut you off and refuse you: Ibn Baz said that if your relatives sever you, refuse to receive you and will not let you come to them, then you are excused. As long as they do not prevent you, you keep connecting with them and treating them well, even if they treat you badly.
• If they persist in open sin or innovation: Ibn Baz said you may leave them and keep away from them — but this is for their religious state, not for personal resentment.
• If the cause is a grudge: then the duty is not to sever but to treat it — with wisdom, with good manners, and by asking upright people to mediate until the resentment goes and is replaced by love and connection.
• If someone orders you to sever: Ibn Uthaymeen said the one who commands it is opposing Allah and His Messenger and must repent. The one commanded is not permitted to obey, because there is no obedience to a created being in disobedience to the Creator. A woman ordered by her husband to cut her relatives is not bound to agree — unless her visiting genuinely brings harm into her marriage or leads her into something forbidden, in which case he may prevent her, but with the intention of avoiding harm, not of severing kinship.

The Permanent Committee adds a distinction worth holding onto: the one who deliberately severs is not the same in sin as the one who neglects it through being absorbed in worldly affairs. The obligation itself does not drop — a Muslim must keep ties as much as he is able, even by a visit with a warm face and kind words, or by writing and messaging — but the deliberate severer carries more.

If you have already done it

The response the scholars give is consistent: repent, and reconnect. The Permanent Committee told a questioner who had sworn an oath to cut off his brother that he must repent to Allah for the severance, for the oath, and for anything he declared unlawful that Allah made lawful; then reconnect and meet his brother's bad treatment with good. If he had sworn an oath, he owes an expiation — feeding ten poor people, or clothing them, or freeing a believing slave; if he cannot, then fasting three days.

Ibn Baz's advice to someone who claimed his relatives were harming him through magic was blunt: such a claim may be baseless, a mere illusion with no evidence. Do not sever kinship over desire, whispers, or unfounded claims. If they genuinely wrong you, you may forgive, or you may take the matter to court — but you do not cut the bond.

Key takeaways

• Severing kinship is a major sin, not a minor failing, and the scholars place it among the gravest of sins.
• The obligation is to connect, not to reciprocate: the true keeper of ties is the one who reconnects when the other side has cut him off.
• You are excused if they refuse you entirely — but as long as they do not prevent you, the duty to reach out remains yours.
• A grudge is not a valid reason to sever. Treat it with wisdom and mediation rather than distance.
• If you have already severed, repent and reconnect — and if you swore an oath to cut off a relative, an expiation is owed.

Further reading

• Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen, Fatawa Nur 'ala al-Darb
• 'Abd Allah al-Fawzan, Minhat al-'Allam Sharh Bulugh al-Maram, the chapter on the sin of the one who severs kinship

And Allah knows best.