Valentine Day birthdays, and other daze

There is a group of practices that we can consider as the twin sister
of Bid'ah)producing something, theoretical or practical, in matters of
religion which is not part of it(. Like Bid'ah, they flourish on the
twin foundations of ignorance and outsideinfluence. Like Bid'ah, they
entail rituals. But unlike Bid'ah, the rituals have not been given an
Islamic face. They are followed because they are considered an
acceptable cultural practice or the hottest imported "in" thing.
Most of those who indulge in them do not know what they are doing.
They are just blindfollowers of their equally blind cultural leaders.
Little do they realize that what they consider as innocent fun may in
fact be rooted in paganism. That the symbols they embrace may be
symbols of unbelief. That the ideas they borrow may be products of
superstition. That all of these may be a negation of what Islam stands
for.
Consider Valentine's Day, a day that after dying outa well deserved
death in most of Europe )but surviving in Britain and United States(
has suddenly started to emerge across a good swath of Muslim
countries. Who was Valentine? Why is this day observed? Legends
abound, as they do in all such cases, but this much is clear:
Valentine's Day began as a pagan ritual started by Romans in the 4th
century BC to honor the god Lupercus. The main attraction of this
ritual was a lottery held to distribute young women to young men
for"entertainment and pleasure"--until the next year's lottery. Among
other equally despicable practices associated with this day was the
lashing of young women by two young men, clad only in abit of goatskin
and wielding goatskin thongs, who had been smeared with blood of
sacrificial goats and dogs. A lash of the"sacred" thongs by these"holy
men" was believed to make them better ableto bear children.
As usual, Christianity tried, without success, to stop the evil
celebration of Lupercalia. It first replaced the lottery of the names
of women with a lottery of the names of the saints. The idea was that
during the following year, the young men would emulate the life of the
saint whose name they had drawn. )The idea that you can preserve
theappearance of a popular evil and yet somehow turn it to serve the
purpose of virtue, has survived. Look at all those people who are
still trying, helplessly, to use the formats of popular television
entertainments to promote good. They might learn something from this
bit of history. It failed miserably. Christianity ended up doing in
Rome, and elsewhere, as the Romansdid.(
The only success it had was in changing the name from Lupercalia to
St. Valentine's Day. It was done in CE 496 by Pope Gelasius, in honor
of some Saint Valentine. There are as many as 50 different Valentines
in Christian legends. Two of them are more famous, although their
lives and characters are also shrouded in mystery. According to one
legend, and the one more in line with the true nature of this
celebration, St. Valentine was a "lovers'" saint, who had himself
fallen in love with his jailer's daughter.
Due to serious troubles that accompanied such lottery, French
government banned the practice in 1776. In Italy, Austria, Hungary,
and Germany also the ritual vanished over the years. Earlier, it had
been banned in England during the 17th century when the Puritans were
strong. However, in 1660 Charles II revived it. From there it also
reached the New World, where enterprising Yankees spotted a good means
of making money. Esther A. Howland, who produced one of the first
commercial American Valentine's Day cards called- what else-
valentines, in the 1840s, sold $5,000 worth-when$5,000 was a lot of
money-the first year. The valentine industry has been booming ever
since.
It is the same story with Halloween, which has otherwise normal
humanbeings dressing like ghosts and goblins in a reenactment of an
ancient pagan ritual of demon worship. Five star hotels in Muslim
countries arrange Halloween parties so the rich can celebrate the
superstitions of a distant period of ignorance that at one time even
included the shameful practice of human sacrifice. The pagan name for
that event was Samhain )pronounced sow-en(. Just as in case
ofValentine's Day, Christianity changed its name, but not the pagan
moorings.
Christmas is another story. Today Muslim shopkeepers sell and shoppers
buy Christmas symbols in Islamabad or Dubai or Cairo. To engage in a
known religious celebration of another religion is bad enough. What is
worse is the fact that here is another pagan celebration )Saturnalia(
that has been changed inname – and in little else — by Christianity.
Even the celebration considered most innocent might have pagan
foundations. According to one account, in pagan cultures, people
feared evil spirits - especially on their birthdays. It was a common
belief that evil spirits were more dangerous to a person when he or
she experienced a change in their daily life, such as turning a year
older. So family and friends surrounded the person with laughter and
joy on their birthdays in order to protect them from evil.
How can anyone in his right mind think that Islam would be indifferent
to practices seeped in anti-Islamic ideas and beliefs? Islam came to
destroy paganism in all its forms and it cannot tolerate any trace of
it in the lives of its followers.
Further, Islam is very sensitive about maintaining its purity and the
unique identity of its followers. Islamic laws and teachings go to
extra lengths to ensure it.Prayer, for example, is forbidden at the
precise times of sunrise, transition, and sunset to eliminate the
possibility of confusion with the practice of sun worship. To the
voluntary recommended fast on thetenth of Muharram, Muslims are
required to add another day )9th or 11th( to differentiate it from the
then prevalent Jewish practice. Muslims are forbidden to emulatethe
appearance of non-Muslims.
A Muslim is a Muslim for life. During joys and sorrows, during
celebrations and sufferings, we must follow the one straight path -
not many divergent paths. It is a great tragedy that under the
constant barrage of commercial and cultural propaganda from the forces
of globalization and the relentless media machine, Muslims have begun
to embrace the Valentines, the Halloween ghost, and even the Santa
Claus.
Given our terrible and increasing surrender to paganism, the only day
we should be observing is a day of mourning. Better yet, it should be
a day of repentance that could liberate us from all these days. And
all this daze.