The Waiting Period of a Woman Who Requested Khul'

Question: There is a woman whose husband traveled away from her while she was pregnant. She gave birth to a son for him while he was absent from her. He was ill during his journey, and the woman was not receiving any expenses from him. After a period of time, she requested a khul' divorce from him. He was absent when he divorced her before he had any sexual intercourse with her after the birth. Does the woman have a waiting period for her former husband? Or is the waiting period dropped from her because of the lack of intercourse between them after the birth? Please inform us; may Allah reward you.

Answer: Divorced women have a waiting period, even if the husband left her for a long time and did not have intercourse with her during the pregnancy or after the pregnancy. This is based on the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic): [al-Baqarah:228]. This encompasses all divorced women with whom their husbands had intercourse. So, any woman with whom her husband had intercourse and then divorced her has a waiting period, even if his divorce of her was after the birth, and even if he did not have intercourse with her after that. She must observe the waiting period due to the generality of the noble verse and what came in its meaning.
However, the scholars differed: Does the woman who obtained a khul' observe a waiting period of three months, or one menstrual period?
The woman you asked about is one who obtained a khul'—if she assigned him money, or gave him money so that he would divorce her via khul'. The correct view is that one menstrual period is sufficient for her. This is based on the hadith of al-Rabi' bint Mu'awdh, when she obtained a khul' from her husband, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered her to observe a waiting period of one menstrual period. Similarly, the hadith of Thabit ibn Qays came in this regard.
The point is: For the woman who obtained a khul' where her husband divorced her in exchange for money, if she observes a waiting period of three menstrual periods, that is better and more cautious, and it allows her to avoid the disagreement among scholars. If she observes a waiting period of one menstrual period, that is sufficient for her—in the most correct of the opinions of the scholars of knowledge—because of what is established in the Sunnah regarding this, as mentioned. And success is from Allah.