The Iddah of a woman awaiting divorce proceedings

28-7-2004 | IslamWeb

Question:

The Iddah of a woman who seeks khula but the husband refuses and she has to go to court to get it? More than 3 monthly courses elapsed between when she instituted the matter in court and when the khula was finally granted. She did not cohabit with her husband within that period as she does not live in his house. Will she still have to observe Iddah when the divorce comes through?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If a wife takes her case to the Muslim judge wishing to get divorced from her husband and the judge issues a ruling in favor of her separation from her husband [Khul'], then her waiting period starts from the time she was issued with the ruling and not from the time she took her case to the judge.

The fact that her husband did not have sexual intercourse with her during this period does not mean that she is not obliged to observe the waiting period since the husband had consummated the marriage with her. Finally, it should be noted that it is disliked for a woman to ask for Khul’ without a sound reason. It is reported in a sound Hadeeth that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Women who seek Khul’ (without a sound reason and who get it) are hypocrites.” [At-Tirmithi and Others]

Allaah Knows best.