Saudi Personal Status Law: An Overview

The Personal Status Law governs family matters in Saudi Arabia, from engagement and marriage to the separation of spouses and its effects, and from guardianship of minors to wills and inheritance. It was issued under Royal Decree No. M/73 dated 6/8/1443H and published on 15/8/1443H, and its record on the Ministry of Justice Legal Portal lists it as in force. This article explains in plain language what the Law covers and which court hears its matters, and the Law is arranged in eight parts:

• Marriage: engagement, general provisions on marriage, the pillars and conditions of the marriage contract, and the rights of the spouses (Articles 1 to 43).
• Effects of the marriage contract: maintenance and lineage (Articles 44 to 75).
• Separation between spouses: divorce (talaq), khula and dissolution of the marriage contract (Articles 76 to 115).
• Effects of separation between spouses: the waiting period (iddah) and custody (Articles 116 to 135).
• Guardianship (wisaya and wilaya): general provisions, the testamentary guardian, the court appointed guardian and their dealings, and absent and missing persons (Articles 136 to 168).
• Wills: general provisions, the pillars and conditions of a will, and what invalidates it (Articles 169 to 196).
• The estate and inheritance: general provisions, inheritance by fixed shares, exclusion, residuary inheritance, proportional reduction and return, inheritance by distant kindred, the inheritance of missing persons, unborn children and persons whose lineage has been denied, and takharuj, a settlement between heirs (Articles 197 to 245).
• Final provisions: these include confidentiality of the information seen by those who apply the Law, use of the Hijri calendar for its periods, its application to cases with no final judgment before it took effect, and, where it has no provision, applying the rules of Islamic Sharia most consistent with the positions the Law adopts (Articles 246 to 252).

Marriage, the Contract and Its Effects

Under the Law, marriage is a contract with pillars and conditions that creates rights and duties between the spouses (Article 6), and its pillars are the spouses and the offer and acceptance (Article 12). For the contract to be valid, the spouses must be identified and both must consent, the offer must come from the woman's guardian (wali), two witnesses must attest it, and the woman must not be prohibited to the man permanently or temporarily (Article 13). A guardian, even a father, may not marry a woman in his guardianship to anyone without her consent (Article 17), and if he prevents her from marrying a suitable man she has accepted, the court conducts the marriage at her request or that of an interested party (Article 20). The marriage contract must be documented, and documenting it is not permitted for anyone under eighteen, although the court may permit the marriage of a person under that age who has reached puberty, after confirming it is in their interest (Articles 8 and 9).

The spouses are bound by the conditions they agree, and a condition gives a right to dissolve the contract only if it is written into the marriage contract document or both spouses acknowledge it (Article 27). The dower (mahr) belongs to the wife (Article 38), and each spouse owes the other rights, including living together on good terms and not causing harm (Article 42). A wife's maintenance is owed by her husband even if she has means of her own, a child without property is maintained by the father if he has means or can earn, and maintenance is assessed according to the circumstances of the person maintained and the means of the person paying (Articles 44, 46 and 58). A child's lineage to the father is established by birth within a valid marriage, by acknowledgement or by evidence, and to the mother by proof of the birth (Article 67).

Divorce, Khula and Dissolution of Marriage

Separation between spouses occurs by divorce, khula, dissolution of the marriage contract, the death of either spouse, or li'an (mutual imprecation) between them (Article 76). Divorce (talaq) is the ending of the marriage contract by the husband's will through words that express it, and it is of two kinds: revocable, which ends the contract only when the waiting period ends, and irrevocable, which ends it as soon as it occurs (Articles 77 and 85). Any divorce pronounced with a number, in words or by gesture, or repeated in one sitting, counts as a single divorce (Article 83). The husband must document the divorce with the competent authority within the period the Law sets, and this does not affect the wife's right to bring a claim to prove the divorce (Article 90).

Khula is a separation requested by the wife and agreed by the husband in return for compensation paid by the wife or by someone else, and it is valid by the mutual consent of spouses with full legal capacity without a court judgment (Articles 95 and 96). Khula counts as a dissolution that is not one of the three divorces, its compensation may not be the waiver of any right of the children or of their custody, and it must be documented (Articles 97, 100 and 102). Every separation by court judgment is a dissolution (faskh), and the grounds the Law sets out include a harmful or repellent defect in either spouse, the husband's refusal to pay maintenance, and harm by the husband that makes continuing the marriage on good terms impossible (Articles 103, 104, 107 and 108). Where harm is not proved, the discord continues and reconciliation fails, two arbitrators are appointed from the spouses' families or from others, and if they cannot reconcile the spouses they set out the separation they see fit, with or without compensation, in a report to the court (Articles 109 to 111).

Iddah and Custody After Separation

The waiting period (iddah) is a set period during which a woman may not marry because a separation, or something treated as one, has occurred, and it runs from the divorce, khula or death, or from the date of the judgment where the marriage is dissolved by court judgment (Articles 116 and 118). Its length varies with the cause of the separation and the woman's circumstances, and the Law sets it for each case (Articles 119 to 121). A woman in the waiting period after a revocable divorce is entitled to maintenance until it ends (Article 53).

Custody (hadana) means protecting a person who cannot look after themselves from harm, raising them and seeing to their interests, including education and medical care (Article 124). It is a duty of both parents while the marriage lasts; if they separate, custody goes to the mother, then the father, then the mother's mother, then the father's mother, provided the custodian meets the conditions the Law sets, and the court may depart from this order in the child's interest (Articles 125 to 127). Where the child is in one parent's custody, the other parent may visit the child, have the child visit and take the child out as they agree, and the court decides if they disagree (Article 134). A child who reaches fifteen may choose which parent to live with unless the child's interest requires otherwise, and custody ends when the child reaches eighteen (Article 135).

Guardianship, Wills and Inheritance

Under the Law, a minor is a person who has not attained full legal capacity; the guardian (wali) is the father or a person the court appoints, and the testamentary guardian (wasi) is a person the father appoints for when he is unable to act or after his death (Articles 136 and 137). Guardianship is of two kinds, over the person and over property, and guardianship over a minor's property belongs to the father, then the father's testamentary guardian, then a person the court appoints (Articles 138 and 139). The testamentary guardian and the court appointed guardian must manage the minor's property in the minor's interest, without prejudice to the powers of the public authority responsible for guardianship over the property of minors and those in their position (Articles 144 and 155).

A will is a gratuitous disposal of property that takes effect after the testator's death, and the testator may amend or revoke it (Articles 169 and 175). A will is carried out if it does not exceed one third of the estate, anything above one third depends on the heirs' consent, and a will in favor of an heir takes effect only if the other heirs approve it after the death (Articles 179 and 190). The estate is the property and financial rights a person leaves after death, and rights over it are ranked in this order: the reasonable costs of preparing and burying the deceased, then the debts, then the will, and then division of the remainder among the heirs (Articles 197 and 198). Inheritance requires the death of the person inherited from, the heir being alive after that death, and a ground for inheritance with no bar to it, and heirs inherit by a fixed share, as residuary heirs, by both, or as distant kindred (Articles 199 and 204).

The Court for Personal Status Matters

The Law of Civil Procedure places all personal status matters within the jurisdiction of the personal status courts, including proving marriage, divorce, khula, dissolution of marriage and the husband taking his wife back after a revocable divorce (raj'a), as well as custody, maintenance and visitation (Article 33 of the Law of Civil Procedure). Their jurisdiction also covers matters including proving endowments, wills, lineage, absence, death and heir determination; inheritance and estate division, including real estate, where there is a dispute, an endowment share or a will, a minor or an absent person; proving the appointment of testamentary guardians and the designation of guardians; and marrying a woman who has no guardian or whose guardians obstruct her marriage. These courts also hear the claims that arise from personal status matters.

This is general information based on the cited laws when this page was prepared. It may change, and it is not legal advice on a specific case.