Sheikh Muhammad Nur Abdullah, ISNA President and Member of the Fiqh Council of North America, states the following: “There is no explicit evidence for rape in the Qur’an. However, the general hadiths about coercion and the acts committed under force are used as evidences for it.
If a woman got raped, the Shari`ah does not punish her as she did not commit Zina willingly. The hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is very clear that Allah does not hold us accountable for things we are forced to do.
From the practice we see in cities where “Shari`ah” is partially applied we find that the rules are not applied fairly or properly. For example, if a woman was raped and she got pregnant, the rule is that she should not be punished for Zina if she said she was raped and there were no 4 just witnesses to attest to Zina.
The problem arises also from the opinion of some scholars who say that Zina is attested through 4 witnesses, confession, or pregnancy. Some people unfortunately misunderstand the word “pregnancy” and generalize to all forms of pregnancy, thereby ignoring the other hadiths mentioned by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) such as: “Disregard prescribe punishments on account of doubts.”
So in this case, if a woman claims to be raped and there is no proof to confirm she willingly committed Zina, the punishment should be applied in this doubtful case.”
In light of what is mentioned above, we can say that:
1. There is no direct reference to rape in the Qur’an but the whole issue is understood from the general tackling of the Prophetic hadiths as stated above.
2. There is a difference between the legal punishments stated by Islam for different penalties and the application of some Muslims to those penalties. Islam, for example, has prohibited Zina and has prescribed stoning for death for the convicted married adulterer. However, individuals are to avoid taking the law into their own hands in order to avoid chaos from taking place in the society.
3. As stated earlier, Islam has encouraged people around the raped victim to render her all forms of help and psychological assistance, but again there is a difference between what Islam calls for and the behavior of some Muslims who violate the teachings of Islam.
4. In rape cases, each party usually tries his best to present evidences that indicate his innocence. However, the raped victim is usually asked to present the evidences in order to prove her innocence and ask for the application of the punishment on the aggressor.