Chapter: Khulʿ
A husband may conclude khulʿ (divorce for compensation) with his wife in return for her entire dower, for less, or even for more, provided she consents, has full legal capacity, and he does not wrong her so that she ransoms herself from him. If she redeems herself under coercion or harm, she is entitled to reclaim whatever he took, and the divorce nevertheless takes effect.
There is a divergence in the transmissions from Mālik concerning whether this divorce is revocable. One report states that if the husband returns what he took from her, he may take her back during her ʿidda; another maintains that it is an irrevocable divorce because it is khulʿ. Even when he intends to carry out khulʿ without any compensation, Mālik still deems it khulʿ, and the divorce is irrevocable. A further opinion ascribed to him says that it is not irrevocable unless compensation is actually paid; this, in my judgment and in that of the legal scholars and critical jurists, is the sounder of his two positions.
The mukhtaliʿa is the woman who relinquishes everything due to her, whereas the muf’tadiya ransoms herself with part of it and retains part; legally both are treated alike. In either case the act counts as a single irrevocable pronouncement, whether the husband explicitly designates it as such or not, and he has no right of return to her during the waiting period. He may, however, marry her anew during her ʿidda or afterwards—subject to her consent, the presence of a guardian, and a new dower—just as any other man would, since her waiting period is incurred on account of his semen so long as no other husband has consummated marriage with her.
If he does take her back under a new marriage contract, she returns to him with two pronouncements remaining, for khulʿ is not a dissolution (faskh) in Mālik’s view but an irrevocable divorce. Whoever intends two or three pronouncements when effecting khulʿ is bound by that intention. When a verbal divorce accompanies khulʿ in the same sitting, it counts as two pronouncements; if the additional divorce statement is delayed, it does not attach.
Khulʿ may be effected either before the ruler or privately. No subsequent divorce pronouncement affects a woman who has undergone khulʿ, even if one is uttered during her ʿidda. She is entitled to no maintenance unless she is pregnant, though she is entitled to housing whether pregnant or not.
A man who has issued an irrevocable divorce or a khulʿ-divorce may, during her waiting period, marry a fifth wife in her stead, and he may marry her sister or her paternal aunt.