Article taken from Niqabi's on facebook
Book 38, Number 4366:
Narrated Wa'il ibn Hujr: When a woman went out in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) for prayer, a man attacked her and overpowered (raped) her.
She shouted and he went off, and when a man came by, she said: That (man) did such and such to me. And when a company of the Emigrants came by, she said: That man did such and such to me. They went and seized the man whom they thought had had intercourse with her and brought him to her.
She said: Yes, this is he. Then they brought him to the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him).
When he (the Prophet) was about to pass sentence, the man who (actually) had assaulted her stood up and said: Apostle of Allah, I am the man who did it to her.
He (the Prophet) said to her: Go away, for Allah has forgiven you. But he told the man some good words (Abu Dawud said: meaning the man who was seized and wrongfully charged), and of the man who had had intercourse with her, he said: Stone him to death.
He also said: He has repented to such an extent that if the people of Medina had repented similarly, it would have been accepted from them.
Three people are being addressed in this hadith,
1. The woman who had been raped. There is no sin on her for what was done to her and therefore no punishment. She is still considered a chaste woman since she was not a participant of the deed.
2. The man who was wrongfully accused. He was given a pleasant word and sent on his way
3. The rapist. He received death. The punishment for rape is death. Also notice that he indeed repented and it was accepted, yet the punishment was still carried out.
In Islamic criminal jurisprudence, the overwhelming majority of Muslim scholars believe that there is no punishment for a woman forced to have sex. According to a Sunni hadith, the punishment for committing rape is death, there is no sin on the victim, nor is there any worldly punishment ascribed to her. Most scholars treat rape as hiraba (disorder in the land).
In Islamic military jurisprudence, classical jurists laid down severe penalties for rebels who use "stealth attacks" and "spread terror". In this category, Muslim jurists included abductions, poisoning of water wells, arson, attacks against wayfarers and travellers, assaults under the cover of night, and rape. The punishment for such crimes were severe, including death, regardless of the political convictions and religion of the perpetrator.
Don't let the ignorant lie to you, it was NOT your fault, YOU did NOT cause this, YOU did NOT ask for it and YOU are NOT the disgraced one.
It is up to you to decide what you will do in this situation. If you want to press charges or not is up to you. I personally advocate pressing charges because at the very least it creates a record for the perpetrator. IF he were to do this to another woman and she decides to take him to court it makes it more likely that he will be convicted and get a stiffer sentence. It is impossible to go around warning people of sexual predators but with a record he must register as a sex offender and it is public knowledge for whoever does a background check.
Keep all the people who have suffered through a sexual assault in your du'as because it is a daily struggle.
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