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Are We To Participate In The Celebration Of This Day?
Part 1 of 2
Praise be to Allah. We seek His help and His forgiveness.
We seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our own souls and from our bad
deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever
Allah leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but
Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
Valentine's Day is a Christian festival celebrated on
February 14th (mostly, but some churches celebrate it on other days in July) of
every year to commemorate one of their third-century saints (Saint Valentine).
In addition to its Christian origin, a commercial celebration
of romance and love also takes place (presumably started in the 14th century
with the tradition of courtly love), and over time, this was manifested by
presenting flowers and confectionery (typically by men to women, although in
some parts of the world, it is the other way round).
Alban Butler and Francis Douce have debated that Saint
Valentine's Day was actually the Roman pagan holiday of Lupercalia, but
Prof. Jack B. Oruch (University of Kansas) argued that this was incorrect
and that current legends of this day started in the 14th century in England by
Geoffrey Chaucer.
While the origin of Saint Valentine's Day remains to be a
matter of debate, no claim is known that it has an Islamic origin; it is either
a Roman pagan holiday, a Christian martyrdom day, or a romance-based English
celebration.
As we have clearly understood its bases and origin, we say;
as a Muslim, we should not celebrate or participate in a non-Muslim festival.
Celebration or participation may indicate an endorsement of such an occasion
and its principle. Celebrations are characteristic of groups and, as Muslims,
we have our own celebrations and festivals. Also, imitating a group may render
one to be a member of such a group. Hence, as Muslims, we should treat
Valentine's Day as any other day and do nothing special whatsoever (dining
included) on this day.
Allah tells us in the Qur'an that every religion has its
own assigned rituals, and that different groups may have different rituals:
(Interpretation of its meaning) “For every religion We have appointed rites
which they perform. So, [O Muhammad], let the disbelievers not contend with you
over the matter but invite them to your Lord. Indeed, you are upon straight
guidance.” [Surat Al-Haj 22:67]
At-Tabari said that an appointed rite (mansak, Arabic: منسك)
refers a tradition (which was the opinion of 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbās), or a place
that one frequents under specific conditions (good or evil), or a celebration
or a festival (which was the opinion of Qatada and Mujahid), or a time when a
sacrifice is offered.
The Prophet showed us
on another occasion that we as Muslims should not celebrate the festivals of
others as we have been given the best of festivals, namely 'Eid al-Fitr and
'Eid al-Adha:
Narrated Anas ibn Malik: When the Messenger of Allah came to
Medina, the people had two days on which they engaged in games. He asked: What
are these two days (what is the significance)? They said: We used to engage ourselves
with them in the pre-Islamic period. The Messenger of Allah said: Allah has
substituted for them something better than them, the day of sacrifice and the
day of the breaking of the fast. [Sunan Abi Dawud, Book 2, Hadith 745]
The hadith above shows that the Prophet did not endorse the
celebration of pre-Islamic festivals and that our annual festivals as Muslims
are two festivals, as clearly stated above to be 'Eid al-Fitr (day of breaking the fast) and 'Eid al-Adha (day of sacrifice). Read part two here.
May Allah bless our Prophet Muhammad.
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