Valentines Day Haraam for Muslims?

http://63.175.194.25/topics/hobb/Valentines_eng.html

Someone may ask: why do we Muslims not celebrate this festival?

This question may be answered in several ways:

1. In Islam, the festivals are clearly defined and well established, and no additions or subtractions may be accepted. They are an essential part of our worship and there is no room for ijtihaad or personal opinion. They have been prescribed for us by Allaah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

“Festivals are part of the laws, clear way and religious ceremonies of which Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
‘To each among you, We have prescribed a law and a clear way[al-Maa’idah 5:48]
‘For every nation We have ordained religious ceremonies which they must follow’[al-Hajj 227]

like the qiblah (direction faced in prayer), prayer and fasting. So there is no difference between joining them in their festival and joining them in their other rituals. Agreeing with the whole festival is agreeing with kufr. Agreeing with some of their minor issues is the same as agreeing with them in some of the branches of kufr. Festivals are the most distinctive things by which religions are told apart, so whoever celebrates their festivals is agreeing with the most distinctive rituals of kufr. Undoubtedly going along with them in their festivals may in some cases lead to kufr. Dabbling in these things, at the very least, is a sin.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) referred to the fact that every nation has its own festivals when he said: ‘Every nation has its own Eid and this is our Eid’ (al-Bukhaari , 952, Muslim, 1892).” (al-Iqtidaa’, 1/471-472)

Because Valentine’s Day goes back to Roman times, not Islamic times, this means that it is something which belongs exclusively to the Christians, not to Islam, and the Muslims have no share and no part in it. If every nation has its own festivals, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said – “Every nation has its Eid” (narrated by al-Bukhaari and Muslim) – then this means that every nation should be distinguished by its festivals. If the Christians have a festival and the Jews have a festival, which belongs exclusively to them, then no Muslim should join in with them, just as he does not share their religion or their direction of prayer.


2. Celebrating Valentine’s Day means resembling or imitating the pagan Romans, then the Christian People of the Book in their imitation of the Romans in something that was not a part of their religion. If it is not allowed to imitate the Christians in things that really are part of their religion – but not part of our religion – then how about things which they have innovated in their religion in imitation of idol-worshippers?!
Imitating the kuffaar in general –whether they are idol-worshippers or People of the Book – is haraam, whether that imitation is of their worship – which is the most serious form – or of their customs and behaviour.

This is indicated by the Qur’aan, Sunnah and ijmaa’ (scholarly consensus):
(i)From the Qur’aan: Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And be not as those who divided and differed among themselves after the clear proofs had come to them. It is they for whom there is an awful torment”[Aal ‘Imraan 3:105]

(ii) From the Sunnah: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” (narrated by Ahmad, 2/50; Abu Dawood, 4021)

Shaykh al-Islam (Ibn Taymiyah) said: “This hadeeth at the very least indicates that it is haraam to imitate them, although the apparent meaning implies that the one who imitates them is a kaafir, as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): ‘And if any amongst you takes them (as Awliyaa’ [friends and helpers]), then surely, he is one of them’ [al-Maa’idah 5:51].” (al-Iqtidaa’, 2/722-725)

(iii) With regard to ijmaa’, Ibn Taymiyan narrated that there was agreement that it is haraam to imitate the kuffaar in their festivals at the time of the Sahaabah (may Allaah be pleased with them), and Ibn al-Qayyim narrated that there was scholarly consensus on this point. (See al-Iqtidaa’, 1/454; Ahkaam Ahl al-Dhimmah, 2/722-725)

Allaah has forbidden imitation of the kuffaar; He has described it as hateful and has warned against the consequences of that, in many aayahs, on many occasions, and in various ways, especially imitation of the kuffaar. Sometimes He does that by forbidding following them or obeying them; sometimes by warning against them or being deceived by their plots, following their opinions, or being influenced by their actions, conduct or attitude.

Sometimes He does that by mentioning some of their characteristics that will put the believers off from them and from imitating them. Most of the warnings in the Qur’aan refer to the Jews and hypocrites (munaafiqeen), then the People of the Book in general and the mushrikeen. Allaah tells us in the Qur’aan that imitating and obeying the kuffaar may constitute riddah (apostasy). Allaah also forbids following them, obeying them, or following their whims and desires and bad characteristics.

Prohibition of imitating the kuffaar is one of the basic principles of sharee’ah. Allaah sent His Messenger with guidance and the true religion so that it might prevail over all other religions, and Allaah has perfected His religion for mankind:

“This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion”[al-Maa’idah 5:3 – interpretation of the meaning].

Allaah has made Islam cover all (human) interests at all times and in all places and for all people. So there is no need to adopt the ways of the kuffaar or imitate them.

Imitation causes defects in the Muslim personality, such as feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, weakness and defeatism, then it leads to shunning and keeping away from the path and laws of Allaah. Experience has shown that admiration for the kuffaar and imitation of them causes people to love them, have complete faith in them and take them as friends and helpers, and to reject Islam and its people, its heroes, its legacy and values, and become ignorant of all of that.


3. The purpose of Valentine’s Day in these times is to spread love between all people, believers and disbelievers alike. Undoubtedly it is haraam to love the kaafirs.

Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“You (O Muhammad) will not find any people who believe in Allaah and the Last Day, making friendship with those who oppose Allaah and His Messenger (Muhammad), even though they were their fathers or their sons or their brothers or their kindred (people)…”[al-Mujaadilah 58:22]

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: “Allaah tells us that there is no believer who takes a kaafir as a close friend. Whoever takes a kaafir as a close friend is not a believer. Outward imitation may be taken as a sign of love, so it is haraam.” (al-Iqtidaa’, 1/490).


4. The love referred to in this festival ever since the Christians revived it is romantic love outside the framework of marriage. The result of that is the spread of zinaa (fornication and adultery) and immorality. Hence the Christian clergy opposed it at some stage and abolished it, then it came back again.

Most of the young people celebrate it because it lets them fulfil their desires, without thinking of the issues of imitation and resembling that are involved. Look at this tragedy, where they go so far as to commit major sins such as zinaa and the like, by imitating the Christians in something which is part of their worship and which may even be kufr.
Some people may wonder, and say, you mean to deprive us of love, but in this day and age we express our feelings and emotions – what is so wrong with that?

We say:

Firstly:

It is a mistake to confuse what they call the day with what the real intentions are behind it. The love referred to on this day is romantic love, taking mistresses and lovers, boyfriends and girlfriends. It is known to be a day of promiscuity and sex for them, with no restraints or restrictions… They are not talking of pure love between a man and his wife or a woman and her husband, or at least they do not distinguish between the legitimate love in the relationship between husband and wife, and the forbidden love of mistresses and lovers. This festival for them is a means for everyone to express love.
Secondly:

Expression of feelings and emotions is not a justification for the Muslim to allocate a day for celebration based on his own thoughts and ideas, and to call it a festival, or make it like a festival or Eid. So how about when it is one of the festivals of the kuffaar?
In Islam, a husband loves his wife throughout the year, and he expresses that love towards her with gifts, in verse and in prose, in letters and in other ways, throughout the years – not just on one day of the year.
Thirdly:

There is no religion which encourages its followers to love and care for one another more than Islam does. This applies at all times and in all circumstances, not just on one particular day. Indeed, Islam encourages us to express our emotions and love at all times, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “If a man loves his brother, let him tell him that he loves him.” (narrated by Abu Dawood, 5124; al-Tirmidhi, 2329; it is saheeh).

And he said: “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, you will not enter Paradise until you truly believe, and you will not truly believe until you love one another. Shall I not tell you of something that, if you do it, you will love one another? Spread (the greeting of) salaam amongst yourselves.” (Narrated by Muslim, 54)
Fourthly:

Love in Islam is more general and more comprehensive; it is not restricted only to one kind of love, that between a man and a woman. There are many more kinds of love. There is the love of Allaah, love of His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and his companions (may Allaah be pleased with them), love for good and righteous people, love and support for the religion, love of martyrdom for the sake of Allaah. There are many kinds of love. It is a dangerous mistake to restrict this broad meaning to this one kind of love.
Fifthly:

What these people think, that love before marriage is a good thing, is wrong, as has been proven in studies and by real-life experience. In a study conducted by the University of Cairo, on what they called “love marriage” and “traditional marriage”, the following was stated:
In marriages which came after a love story, 88% of cases ended in failure, i.e., the success rate was not more than 12%. But in cases of what the study calls traditional marriage, 70% were successful. In other words, the success rate in marriages described as traditional was six times more than those described as “love marriages”. (Risaalah ila Mu’minah, p. 255).


Above is an extract from that otherwise very long article. A lot of it obviously interpretating parts of the Quran and the Hadeeth and applying it to Valentines Day.

How could a day be haram??
Most western "special" days have their roots in religion but now are more commercial then anything else. No one gets a day off and no one goes to Church. If you buy some flowers and give to your wife or whoever on Valentines day then there is nothing wrong with that. You will make her feel special and thats about it.

It's only a day, dont see why it would be haraam. in that sense then mother's day would also be haraam.

Hey dont shoot the messenger!!

As Muslims, we celebrate our life and our relationships every passing second of our lives by a uttering a very simple little phrase - ALHUMDOLILLAH-E-RAB-AL-ALAMEEN!! Yes, we thank ALLAH for providing us the perfect partner, progeny, parents etc and thank him for his blessings EVERy second of our existence - thats the way it should be - Valentines Day or not !

Why as a Muslim, one needs a special day to remind one of their loved ones is a mystery to me.

As for its Haraamness - would it matter if we called it the day of remembering the love of your life ? I dont think so at all!

Anyway- I am no religious expert - I am a commonsense guy!

Regards

MIG

I am feeling trigger happy today. Gots to shoot someone

To shoot Raz and given his height, you may need an anti-aircraft gun !!

Not if I am aiming for the knee.

Cant argue with that!!!

So are you doing anything special today? Perhaps a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocies for the missus?

Nope - its Haraam ...

Touche!!!!

ie thats what I told her when she asked me the same question ( ie I had forgotten to buy her flowers )

Just get a florist to deliver a nice bunch to your house and when you go to order them ask the florist to tell the delivery guy, to apologise to your wife about the lateness of the delivery saying they had a backlog of orders!!

I dont like being told by anyone when I should be expressing my love for anyone.

Valentines Day is a Capitalist's dream - all those cards/flowers/chocolates etc!

I deliberatey dont love my wife on this day in protest-she is locked away in the shed for 24 hours as a sign of protest.

Was watching Geo, and how MASSIVE Valentines Day in Pak is........

Thats what I love about us Pakistanis - if there is something we can copy in a hurry - we will do that - not a problem !

MIG i say give her a bottle of diet pepsi. That always does the trick

In my opinion, it is Haram.

Most of these special days the Western World came up with are part of their culture and for commercial puposes only. Mother's day, Father's day and this and that. 362 days of the year they dont care for their parents, and one day of the year they will send their fathers and mothers a letter and a gift each to their retirement home.
Samething for Valentines. They spend hundreds of dollars to buy women gifts which they dont need to to express their love. the only winner is the economy and the retailers who cash in bigtime.

From our (Pakistani) perspective, as a child growing up, I never saw my grandfather give anything special to my grandmother or my father to my mother or any of my elders to their wives on this day. Its like any other day for them. They go to work and provide for their families and live happy lives. I dont see why we need to even debate this. Whether its halal or haram is a non issue. Why significant it is for us is what I am concerned with. I look around and 90 percent of the young desi population is obsessed with finding someone just to give a valentine's card or gift to. This is breeding place for loose characters. I never believed in this and probably never will. If I get married, everyday shall be a valentine's day. 3 square meals a day and a roof to live under for my wife. None of this waste of money 1000 dollar necklaces and flowers.. You want flowers, you can go buy them at the grocery store. Here is 10 dollars. Salamalekam.

its a tradition of the kuffar and we shoudlnt follow therefore its harram along with birthdays and other thousands of festivals they have.

celebrating bdays is haram?

Uh-Oh the famed Eid Milad Un Nabi question is coming up - watch this space.....

Some guy at Uni had me in stitches when he said

"Buying flowers for Valentines day is pointless when you can pick them up for free at a cemetary"

!!! Spoken like a true student - s k i n t !!!

my brother did that once, not for valentines though

exactly - when he said the first bit i thought he was gonna go on a capitalist rant but instead

Wonder if non students can use this trick ? Hmmm, wheres the nearest cemetary in Bahrain ?...

a word of advice, make sure there is no card attached otherwise you may be sleeping on the street

MIG, it also depends on how closely you want to follow the religion. As far as I can recall, even indulging in idle talk (these forums) is discouraged.

Regarding Valentine's day, I dont see why it should be a problem celebrating it with your wife for instance.

No way! I refuse to give in to the system!

Thats the spirit Neville

thst is th height of optimism.

read the whole thing, chapar ganjoo.

i did , bubloo

bur let me tell ya, that fantasy aint comin true

it does if ur as "endowed" as I am.

I have no date for today

no problem nafa.. its 14th.

man who the hell are these idiots? umm...what does the history have to do with it? they keep going on and on about how it's from the pagans so its haram...these people have no intelligence whatsoever...um...the calendar is from the pagans so i guess that must be haram...the names of the days monday tuesday are from pagans so those must be haram...oh ya roads are a pagan invention so those must be haram...many mathematical and scientific and architectural and social developments are from pagan societies so oh ya using them is haram...and some people owe their lineage to pagan people...so i guess its haram for them to live...stupid idiots...it's all about what the crap means NOW! because that is when we're freaking living! and rite NOW it doesn't really mean a dang thing! it means NOTHING...some people use it as an excuse to buy/sell flowers and candy but what does it essentially mean? NOTHING!

it's people like these who have turned our religion into the butt of all jokes for outsiders...

Alrite, time to give the books some loving !!

Slugger has a good point there. If Valentine's Day is labelled haram due to it being a paganistic practice then so is adhering to the Gregorian calendar.

Couples run to avoid Saint Valentine’s fate

By Aayan Ali

LAHORE: Young couples’ dates were ruined and they ran to save their lives as hooligans attacked and burnt popular restaurants in Tuesday’s violence.

Couples in Lawrence Gardens, Lahore Zoo and restaurants on The Mall had to cut their dates short and many scheduled parties were cancelled because of violence. Rehmat, a young student paid his bill hurriedly at a restaurant in Gulberg. “My father called me to tell me the protest had turned violent and I should go home while it’s safe.” Although the mob did not damage property in affluent localities like Model Town, Defence and Gulberg, many shop and restaurant owners had to pull their shutters down after hearing the news of violence, urging young people celebrating Valentine’s Day to ‘retreat’.

Lahore’s parks were deserted on Tuesday afternoon and the city was dull and empty after the riots. “We have cancelled our date and are going home,” said a couple at Lawrence Gardens. “Traffic police is diverting traffic away from The Mall,” another couple said. The mob had blocked several main roads of Lahore.

Large hotels on and around The Mall said they had been affected by the violence and the number of customers was significantly low compared to the last few years. Hoodlums threw stones at several hotels, forcing their customers to flee in fear.

Islooites paint the town red on Valentine’s

By Hassan Shehzad and Zahid Hameed

ISLAMABAD: Valentine’s Day in the capital was overshadowed by the anti-cartoons protests held on Tuesday.

However, people still managed to keep the tradition of Valentine alive as gift and flower shops, balloon vendors and restaurants enjoyed an increase in sales expected at this time of the year.

Muhammad Anis, a student, told Daily Times he spent Rs 1000 on chocolates and roses for his girlfriend. Anis was also taking his girlfriend to a romantic dinner.

A married couple, shopping in the Super Market, said that they usually exchanged gifts on valentines but this year they had planned a candle-lit dinner.

A newly married journalist said that although he was fond of Valentine’s, he did not celebrate it this year because of Muharram.

Sajid Ali Naqvi, a resident of Islamabad, said that it was not appropriate to celebrate Valentine’s Day in Muharram.

Hotels and restaurants in the capital had made special arrangements for Valentine’s. Holiday Inn said that more bookings had been made this year as compared to the previous year. “We are not allowed to give the exact figures, but it seems that Muharram and the earthquake did not dampen the festivities,” the hotel staff said. Brendy Pauer, an American guest at the hotel, said that she was surprised to see Valentine’s Day being celebrated in Pakistan. “I had to place an extra order for red roses this year,” owner of a flower shop said. He said that he earned more that Rs 2,000 on Valentine’s Day.

People said that they had to wait for hours for the shops to open, which remain closed until 5pm to protest the derogatory cartoons. “I had to wait for an hour for the shops to open to buy chocolates,” Nafeesa, a teenager, said.

Mian Aslam, a member of the National Assembly, told Daily Times that Valentines’ Day was the West’s creation, adding that he was opposed to the current wave of westernisation in the country.

no it doesn't

what u gonna do when its numbed by teh siight of ur valentine

Well said, akhi, brilliant post!

Yes.

Besides I don't see why one would want to celebrate one getting older, doesn' that just mean you are closer to your destined death?

But, that's what I believe, not everyone does.

I don't mind wishing someone A happy B-Day, but personally I don't celebrate my own.

I dont know if Birthdays are haraam or not but i think they are bo11ox - nobody remembered my birthday last year (probably since it was eid)) and i was glad - they are rubbish and i dont partake in birthday celebrations and dont ever plan on doing so

celebrating birthdays is another scam... load of crap.