What happens if a Saudi citizen wants to marry a Muslim who is not a Saudi citizen? There are a few requirements.

First, a man must be no older than 55 years old, or 50 for a woman. Any older than this, and the marriage is not allowed. If they are under this age, the person they want to marry must be no more than 15 years younger than them. So a 54 year old Saudi man cannot marry a 38 year old non-Saudi woman, but he may marry a 39 year old non-Saudi woman, and a 49 year old Saudi woman may not marry a 33 year old non-Saudi man, but she may marry a 34 year old non-Saudi man.

A man must be no younger than 40 to marry a non-Saudi citizen, and a woman may be no younger than 30. So a 39 year old man or a 29 year old woman wanting to marry a non-Saudi will need to wait a year. The marriage requires government approval, and this approval will only be granted to a Saudi man who has a salary of over 3000 rials (around 800 USD) and owns a house. If the Saudi citizen who wants to marry is divorced, they may not marry the non-Saudi until 2 years after divorce.

If the Saudi citizen wants to marry a non-Saudi citizen as a second wife, he will need a certificate from a hospital stating that his first wife is unable to have sexual intercourse or unable to bear children. The certificate must be endorsed by the ministry of health. The man also has to sign a certificate acknowledging that his wife may not have the right to Saudi nationality.

A non-Saudi citizen is not allowed to marry a Saudi woman as a second wife under any circumstances. If he wants to marry her as a first wife, he must prove he has no criminal record and no infectious or genetic diseases. He can never have served in the military of any country, must have a salary of at least 4000 riyal (around 1100 USD), must have a valid residence permit, and must own a house or apartment.

Any non-Saudi citizen wanting to marry a Saudi citizen must have a nationality. Stateless individuals do not have the legal right to marry. The individual will also have to pass a series of security checks before the marriage is approved.

So how can we explain these seemingly insane regulations? This is partly a result of the modern model of governance. These laws are mainly about preventing non-citizens from benefiting from the social services in the country and taking more wealth than they generate for the country. In other words, these regulations are designed to prevent wealth outflows. Since stability is maintained by satisfying the desires of the people, it’s necessary to maintain lucrative patronage networks by encouraging marriage between citizens.

But many wealthy liberal democracies also provide services to their citizens, including legal protections, infrastructure, education, and health care, but they are much more open when it comes to granting citizenship to non-citizens. Why?

Europe and America derive their wealth largely from productive activities like manufacturing and services rather than natural resource extraction. Expanding the labor pool adds value to their economies. Even unemployed people who collect benefits increase consumption and demand, generating more jobs and economic activity.

An economy like Saudi Arabia’s depends mainly on the extraction of non-renewable natural resources. Domestic consumption is highly dependent on imports, so adds little value to the economy. Giving cash benefits or rights to non-citizens does not strengthen the economy or the state much at all. Rather, it depletes their limited reserves.

Legal measures designed to promote concentration of wealth within a single nation depend on a very materialistic mindset and a short time frame. If you support your Muslim brothers and sisters financially, even if you lose some material wealth, Allah’s bounty and generosity is unlimited. You will build goodwill and relationships of mutual support which can turn into trade networks spanning the ummah and generating sustainable wealth.

For example, it’s quite common for intermarriage to result in trade ventures between two different countries. On paper, there may be a financial loss, but there may be a substantial gain when it comes to social and intellectual capital. Furthermore, stronger links between Muslim families from different regions increases the unity of the ummah, which translates to greater political strength and a stronger sense of unity.

The Saudi government doesn’t seem believe it can get much meaningful support from Muslims, or Allah, for that matter. Rather, they depend primarily on support from America and Europe. This is why Americans, Europeans, and even Japanese, Korean and Chinese mushrikeen are now allowed to travel freely in and out of the lands of the Haramain, while Muslims around the world do not have this right.

They prefer to form deeper bonds with wealthy disbelievers rather than Muslims, because they believe they will derive more worldly benefit from them. If they used their intellects rather than obeying their shayateen, they would understand that the prevailing world system is unsustainable, and that their “friends” from Europe and America will abandon them when the going gets tough (if they don’t betray them outright, which is very likely).

Sooner or later, those in power in the United States will have to make the choice of whether to save its own people, or to save its Saudi allies, and they will certainly favor their own people.

At that point, the Saudi elite will find themselves without the support that they have grown dependent upon, and will also find themselves surrounded by hundreds of millions of people they have been disrespecting and who they’ve severed their ties with.

Preventing poor Muslims from going to hajj, abusive labor practices, and taking the profits from this exploitative behavior and spending it on obscene levels of luxury and ostentation builds up a lot of ill will. At some point, the chickens will come home to roost, and they will pay the price of their oppression, both in this world and the hereafter, except for those who repent and turn to good works.