Two points of benefit

1. A woman who is divorced before consummation has no ʿiddah (waiting period), for Allah the Exalted says, “O you who believe, when you marry believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, there is no waiting period for you to count against them” (al-Ahzab 33:49).(1)

Ibn Kathir states in his Tafsir (5/479): “This is a matter upon which the scholars are unanimously agreed: when a woman is divorced before consummation, no ʿiddah is required of her; she may immediately marry whomever she wishes.”

2. If a woman is divorced before consummation and a mahr (dowry) had been stipulated for her, she is entitled to half of it; if no mahr had been fixed, she is to be granted a suitable gift according to custom—such as clothing and the like. Should the divorce occur after consummation, the full mahr becomes hers. Allah says, “There is no blame on you if you divorce women before you have touched them or fixed for them a due dowry; but provide for them—let the wealthy man according to his means and the man of limited means according to his means” (al-Baqarah 2:236),(2) and He also says, “If you divorce them before you have touched them while a dowry has already been fixed, then half of what you stipulated is due to them” (al-Baqarah 2:237).(3) That is, there is no sin upon you, O husbands, in divorcing