And I know of no scholar versed in transmitted reports who has authenticated the reports from the Companions that khulʿ constitutes an irrevocable divorce counting as one of the three. Rather, the strongest report they have on this matter is the one attributed to ʿUthmān. Yet it has been transmitted from ʿUthmān through an authentic chain that he instructed a woman who had obtained khulʿ to establish that she was not pregnant by observing one menstrual period. He told her: “You are not required to observe a waiting period.”

This implies that, in his view, it constitutes an irrevocable separation, not a divorce. For divorce after consummation requires a waiting period of three periods, according to the explicit text of the Quran and the agreement of the Muslims. Khulʿ is different: the Sunnah and reports from the Companions establish that its waiting period consists of ascertaining that the woman is not pregnant by observing one menstrual period. This is the position of Ishāq, Ibn al-Mundhir and others, and one of the two positions reported from Ahmad.

Ibn ʿAbbās returned a woman to her husband after two divorces and one khulʿ, without her first marrying another husband. When Ibn al-Zubayr appointed Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās governor of Yemen, Ibrāhīm asked Ibn ʿAbbās about this issue, saying: “Most divorces among the people of Yemen take the form of release in return for compensation.” Ibn ʿAbbās replied that release in return for compensation is not divorce; rather, people had mistakenly called it that.

Ibn ʿAbbās cited as evidence the words of Allah Most High:

“Divorce is twice; then either retain her honorably or release her with kindness. It is not lawful for you to take back anything you have given them, unless both fear that they cannot keep within the limits set by Allah. If you fear that they cannot keep within the limits set by Allah, there is no blame on either of them concerning what she gives to secure her release. These are the limits set by Allah, so do not transgress them. Whoever transgresses the limits set by Allah—it is they who are the wrongdoers.”

“Then if he divorces her, she is not lawful for him afterward until she marries another husband.”

Ibn ʿAbbās said: Allah Most High mentioned release in return for compensation after divorce twice, then said:

“Then if he divorces her, she is not lawful for him afterward until she marries another husband.”

This applies specifically to cases involving release in return for compensation, and generally to other cases. Thus, if release in return for compensation were itself a divorce, there would be four divorces. Ahmad, according to the well-known position reported from him, and the scholars mentioned earlier followed Ibn ʿAbbās.