Waiting period of the woman in Khul’
14-3-2007 | IslamWeb
Question:
Assalam Alay Kum! I urgently require clarification on the issue of duration of Iddah after Khul. I have read and heard that it is 3 months in case of Talaaq.I have come across this hadith Please comment on it and tell me if it should be ignored?OR it can be followed. Hadith was narrated from Ibn ‘Abbaas that the wife of Thaabit ibn Qays ended her marriage to her husband by means of khula’ at the time of the Prophet (P.B.U.H). The Prophet (P.B.U.H) commanded her to observe an ‘iddah of one menstrual cycle. (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 1185; Abu Dawood, 2229. Also narrated by al-Nasaa’i (3497) from the hadeeth of al-Rabee’ bint ‘Afra’.For verification kindly visit this site http://www.islam-qa.com/index.php?ref=5163&ln=eng JAZAK ALLAH KHAIR
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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
The scholars 
differed in opinion about the issue of the waiting period of a woman in Khul' (asking for divorce in return for compensation). Some of them act according to the narration which you referred to in the question, that a woman in Khul' should observe a waiting period of the duration of one menstruation; this is the view of Ibn Taymiyyah 
. However, there is a controversy about the chain of narrators of the above narration; some scholars classified it as authentic and others classified it as weak. On the other hand, the majority of the scholars are of a different view; their evidence is the saying of Allaah (which means): {Divorced women shall remain in waiting [i.e. do not remarry] for three menstrual periods.} [Quran 2:228]
The waiting period differs according to the state of the divorced woman. The waiting period of some of women are calculated by months, and for some others they are calculated by three menses, and so forth. For more, please refer to Fatwa 82929.
Allaah Knows best.