He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was asked about a man whose wife said to him:

“Divorce me, and I release you from all my claims against you. I shall take the girl and provide for her; she shall be owed one hundred dirhams by you, at a rate of one-sixth of a dirham each day.”

Upright witnesses attested to this, and he divorced her on that basis, under the terms of the release or guarantee. May she subsequently demand an assessed maintenance allowance for the girl, or not?

He answered:

If he grants her a khulʿ on condition that she release him from her claims, take the child into her care and undertake his support, and not demand maintenance from him, this is valid according to the great majority of scholars, including Mālik, Ahmad—according to the well-known position in his school—and others. According to the majority, khulʿ is valid in exchange for something that does not yet exist but is expected to come into existence, such as the offspring her slave woman may bear and the produce her trees may yield. As for maintenance during her pregnancy, nursing her child, and his maintenance, the basis for their arising and permissibility has already been established.

The same applies if she says to him: “Divorce me; I release you from my claims, I shall take the child and undertake his support, and I release you from his maintenance,” or uses similar wording that conveys the intended meaning.

If someone who considers this kind of khulʿ valid—such as a Mālikī judge—effects the khulʿ between them on these terms, no other judge may overturn it, even if he considers it invalid; nor may he award the child