the compensation for khulʿ, then it serves the husband’s interest. The wife may or may not have an interest in it, but he says, “I want to relieve this husband of his predicament.” We say to him: “May Allah reward you with goodness; there is nothing wrong with this, because it is beneficial.”
The second case is that it serves the wife’s interest: the wife may dislike her husband, and her husband may cause her hardship, but she does not have the money with which to ransom herself from him. Then a man comes and says, “So-and-so, grant your wife a khulʿ, and I will give you such-and-such an amount of money.” This is permissible, and it is an act of kindness towards her.
The third case is that it serves both of their interests—that is, the interests of both husband and wife. Each of them may wish to separate, but the husband is reluctant to forgo the bridal gift he gave her, while she does not have the means to ransom herself.
The fourth case is that it is intended to harm the husband. For instance, the woman may be righteous, serving her husband and caring for him, and someone envies the husband for this. He says to him, “Divorce your wife through khulʿ in return for compensation,” intending thereby to harm the husband because he envies him. This is undoubtedly unlawful and an act of aggression against his Muslim brother. It is worse than mere envy, and envy is among the major sins.
If someone were to say, “Is the matter not in the husband’s hands? Is he not able to say, ‘I will not grant a khulʿ, even if you were to give me the whole world’?”
The answer is: Yes, but a person may be deceived and tempted by money. For example, someone might say to him, “Grant your wife a khulʿ, and I will give you a car, one hundred thousand riyals, and a palace.” A person is human and may perhaps be deceived, and so grant the khulʿ. In this case, we say that offering money for such a khulʿ is unlawful because it entails aggression.
And if this person offering the compensation says, “I did not compel him; the matter was in his hands?”