A husband verbally gave his wife one talaaq and then later messaged her via WhatsApp with another talaaq.

Answer

Two Talaaqs came into effect. Anger does not cancel Talaaq. In fact, 99.9% of husbands issue Talaaq in the state of anger. No one issues Talaaq in the state of love. Rare are the men who issue Talaaq intelligently.

Since the term Talaaq was used, they may reconcile immediately without need for renewing the Nikah. The reconciliation without Nikah is permissible prior to the expiry of the wife's Iddat. The Iddat is a period of three haidh cycles.

The man should understand and remember that even after reconciling, the two Talaaqs will remain suspended. Should he issue one more Talaaq, all three will be activated and the Nikah will then terminate irrevocably and finally. Thus, he should not treat Talaaq as a joke, then plead anger, bipolarism, OCD and such nonsense whispered by Iblees.

The Shaafi sheikh has erred by claiming that the Talaaq in anger is not valid. Since the husband is a Shaafi, he should say some words to the effect of revocation, e.g. "I revoke the Talaaq". But renewal of Nikah is not incumbent even according to the Shaafi Math-hab in view of the Raj'at (Revocation) having been effected before expiry of the Iddat.

The arrangement between the man and woman mentioned by you will not entitle him to demand renewal of the Nikah after expiry of the Iddat. Once the Iddat has expired, the woman will be free to marry any other man.

It should also be understood that according to the Shaafi' Math-hab, if the husband has any kind of sexual relations with his 'wife' prior to Ra'jat, it will be tantamount to zina. But according to the Hanafi Math-hab, any such relationship will be permissible and it will effectively be Ra'jat (Revocation).