What is the ruling of the Shari'ah regarding preventing a woman from marriage and delaying her marriage?

Question:
May Allah reward you with good. One of the sisters sent a question in which she says: We ask the Honorable Shaykh to speak about the ruling of the Islamic Shari'ah regarding preventing a woman from marriage and delaying her marriage to a suitable match. What is the ruling on that? May you be rewarded.

Answer:
Yes. Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) forbade preventing women from marriage. Preventing a woman from marriage means stopping her from marrying a suitable match she has accepted; stopping her from marrying a suitable match she has accepted is what is meant by preventing her from marriage, and it is forbidden. If her closest guardian prevents her from marriage, his guardianship over her is dropped and it passes to the guardian after him. The judge is referred to in this matter to transfer the guardianship from the one who prevented her to the one after him, in order to remove the harm from the woman. Yes.