Question

A few weeks ago me and my wife had an argument. A day later she asked to speak to me and we arranged to talk. She said something to the effect : I want you to release me from this marriage ? I said if that’s what you want then ok. She replied yes. I said ok that’s fine then. When we spoke about it later, she said her intention was not to go away or ask for it at all …that she was in a state of confusion.

Question is :
a ) is this classified a khulla ?

b) if not is a revocable or irrevocable divorce ? ( since I only said Ok to her question once )

c )And what is the iddah period in case of being a divorce ?

JazakAllah

Answer

To answer the questions at hand:

a) This will not be regarded as khula’. In simple terms, khula’ is an agreement between the husband and wife to terminate the marriage in lieu of compensation paid by the wife.

b) Based on the given scenario, divorce will not have occurred. The wife requested that she be released from the marriage and the husband merely affirmed that he ‘will’ do so by replying with “ok”. An initiation of divorce was not uttered, by saying “OK, you are released from the marriage” for example.

c) Based on the above, the waiting period (‘iddah) will not be required.

الفتاوى الهندية (1/ 488)
إذا تشاق الزوجان وخافا أن لا يقيما حدود الله فلا بأس بأن تفتدي نفسها منه بمال يخلعها به فإذا فعلا ذلك وقعت تطليقة بائنة ولزمها المال كذا في الهداية

Answered by:
Mawlana Mehdi

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel