Her husband divorced her (talaaq) then took her back, then she asked him for a second and third talaaq, and is asking whether this is khul‘ or talaaq

Question: 209832

My husband said once „I divorce you”. Then he took me back but after some time i found out he did something really bad that he knew would hurt me very much so i told him to divorce me. The same day he said „Talaq” but he says he felt his heart breaking by this (he didnt want a divorce but agreed top do it because i wanted). The next morning i called him and aked for 3rd divorce so he said „talaq” again. I didn’t give him back my mahr as i didn’t know about such thing as khula at that time. Now i’m confused – are we divorced by talaq, by khula or not at all? Please answer me as soon as possible.

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

Firstly:

It is not permissible for the wife to ask for a divorce
(talaaq) from her husband without a valid shar‘i reason, because the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Any woman who asks her
husband for a divorce when it is not absolutely necessary, the fragrance of
Paradise will be forbidden to her.”

Narrated by Imam Ahmad, 21874; and Ibn Maajah, 2055. What is
meant by the phrase “when it is not absolutely necessary” is without there
being any hardship which makes it necessary to resort to talaaq (as-Sindi’s
commentary on Ibn Maajah).

Secondly:

What has happened is that your husband divorced you with the
first talaaq, then took you back; then he divorced you once again, based on
your request. Then you asked him for another talaaq after that, so he gave
you another talaaq. In this case only two talaaqs have definitely taken
place, namely the first and second talaaq. The second talaaq cannot be ruled
out because of what your husband said about not wanting it to count as such,
and that he only spoke the words to go along with your wishes, because if
the husband utters the word of talaaq, knowing what it means and not being
forced to say it, then the talaaq counts as such whether the husband really
intended it or not. This has been discussed previously in fatwa no.
171398.

With regard to the third talaaq, if your husband had not
taken you back after the second talaaq, then there is a difference of
scholarly opinion as to whether the third divorce counts as such. Some of
the scholars said that it does count as such and others said that it does
not. The more correct view is that it does not count as such, as we have
previously explained in fatwa no.
126549.

But if your husband had taken your back following the second
talaaq, then he issued a third talaaq to you, then it does count as such
according to scholarly consensus.

Thirdly:

With regard to your question about what happened and whether
it is a talaaq or khul‘, the answer is that it is a talaaq because it took
place with the word of talaaq and without any compensation (from the wife).

In fatwa no. 126444
we have previously explained that in the case of khul‘ there must be
compensation. Any separation between husband and wife that happens in return
for compensation is khul‘, even if it is done by uttering the word of
talaaq, according to the correct scholarly opinion.

And Allah knows best.

Source:

Islam Q&A

Was this answer helpful?