Arranged Halaalah

Halaalah is a process which if occurs will allow a couple to remarry if their marriage was broken because of the husband uttering three talaaqs. This process is that the wife will first of all complete the Iddat incumbent upon her after her first husband had issued the three Talaaqs. Thereafter she then goes onto marry another man, with whom she would also be necessarily required to consummate the marriage with by way of sexual intercourse. If this man (her second husband) subsequently either divorces her, or passes away, then she would be required to complete that Iddat, either the Iddat of Talaaq or Iddat of death, depending upon which situation is applicable. Once that Iddat terminates, she and her first husband will be able to unite after entering into a fresh and new marriage contract with each other.

Once the above has been fully understood, it is also essential to know that Halaalah must be something that takes place spontaneously, without any strings attached and without any pre-condition of divorce whatsoever. The couple that is seeking reconciliation and want to arrange a Halaalah, cannot do so by imposing upon the second husband that he must necessarily divorce the wife after the Nikaah and consummation thereof. In short, this must not be a “pre-arranged Halaalah” wherein conditions are put to the second husband that he must divorce the woman after having consummated the marriage. 

Such a conditional Halaalah would be prohibited as such an act has been severely condemned and cursed in the Ahaadith. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam warns in a Hadeeth with regard to such conditional Halaalahs (wherein a condition of divorce is made with the man marrying the divorced woman):

The man who enacts such a Halaalah and the man for whom such Halaalah is enacted are both cursed.
[Abu Dawood, Vol. 1, Pg. 284]

In fact, if at the time of Nikaah, a time-limit is stipulated with the second husband that the marriage would subsist for only two days for instance (after which they would separate), then such a Nikaah is not even valid, as this is a Nikaah-e-Mut’ah, i.e. a temporary Nikaah, which is Baatil (totally void). In such a case, even if sexual relations take place, then too, after her divorce from the second husband, she will not become Halaal for the first husband.