DON'T DO VALENTINE'S DAY, FEAR ALLAH!

By

Ibn 'Abdillah As-sudaisiy Al-Iloori

It is not allowed to celebrate Valentine's Day. It is one of the ways of the kuffar. Muslims celebrate love with their wives, relatives and all manners of people all the time. In a hadith reported by Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه, mentioned in the 'Book of Love' in Riyaadus as- Sooliheen: the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says: 

"By the One in Whose Hand my soul is; you will not believe until you love yourselves..."

At the end of the hadith, he صلى الله عليه وسلم prescribed one of the ways of strengthening love among ourselves as spreading of tasleem with one another. Let us come to think of it, do we do tasleem on yearly basis? No! We are expected to do it all the time even to people we do not know (as mentioned in another narration). But today, there are lots of Muslims who celebrate Valentine's Day, that when you extend tasleem to them, they would never answer. And they don't greet their fellow Muslims by saying the tasleem. There are many Muslim Professors and heads of government offices who don't respond to tasleem. Some people feel too big to first extend tasleem to young children. Extend tasleem and reply tasleem with smiling face, it is from the Sunnah. I can't explain how joyful I feel sharing tasleem with a Muslim with a cheerful face. Don't frown your face while greeting your fellow brethren. The smiling face alone can secure a high rank for you in sight of Allaah.

Part of what spreads love among us is to exchange gifts time from time, not on annual basis. There are many Muslims who are suffering to eat and they are very close to you. You don't care whether they have eaten or not and you are celebrating Valentine's Day. Stop deceiving yourself. Some people have withdrawn from schools because they can't pay. You send your own kids to wherever you like, paying millions and you don't care about other people's children who can't afford to pay a token just to be in a school. I pity you! The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says; exchange gifts, you would love yourselves. Do we do this as we are expected to be doing? 

The above shows that we have our own ways as Muslims, we should not follow the ways of kuffar by celebrating Valentine's Day. The Sunnah is our path, let's stick to it.

To really know how Valentine's Day evolved, try to google it and see the results. I wrote a short note on it some years ago. In sha Allah I will share if I can still find it. The bottom line is that in a hadith; the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that we would later follow the ways of the disbelievers to the extent that when they enter the hole of lizard, we would like to enter it with them. There are many lizard holes Muslims are entering today with the Kuffar and its very unfortunate. The Valentine's Day celebration is one of them. Muslim must protect themselves and their households against this annual virus. 

May Allah guide us aright.