By Shumaila Farooqui

Just a week ago , the whole world “religiously” celebrated Valentines Day. Some people were genuinely happy, some stressed out trying to do the right thing & send flowers to their loved ones on time , while some paid a price for forgetting to do anything special for their loved ones, some were disappointed as they did more than they received & some were truly unhappy finding out that the expressions of love they expected went to someone else.

All such scenarios were being played simultaneously throughout the world…….. hence it would’nt be wrong to say that all was not “ROSES” on Valentines day !

Now that all that “hype” has passed, I would like you all to take a moment to reflect on our actions and its importance.

Truly, we Muslims have become such “wanna be’s” that we are ready to copy & adopt all the popular & frivolous traditions of the people of the “developed” world without any thought or reasoning. The question is why are we so impressed that we want to be & act like them?

What we must see & open our minds & eyes to is that what is being portrayed in the west has taken a very frivolous & commercial tone to everything, just like how Christmas is treated, everyone is a victim to such hype & has to participate , which mostly benefits businesses, whereas some mature & sensible people of their own society have really turned their backs to such traditions themselves & are desperately seeking an alternative life style that has some meaning & depth.

The true message & religion of God, Islam is the answer but unfortunately we ourselves have lost pride in our teachings & traditions and are Muslims in name more than actions.

If the Western society was so devoted in love in the true sense with their partner, then there would’nt be so many “broken hearts”, failed marriages & unfaithful relationships, they would still have an intact family unit that they crave for !

Some of you might be thinking right now what outdated & biased views this person is talking about. Whats the harm in celebrating Valentine’s Day & all such occasions?

There is no question about having the best of relations & gestures of love between a husband & wife everyday.

What the point is, that to do something special on “Valentine’s Day”, should not be encouraged.

Firstly, even in Hazoor-e-Pak ‘s time one example of copying traditions comes to mind about the tradition of Jews to keep fast on 10th Moharram ,in respect of the day of victory of Prophet Moosa over Pharoah, our Prophet Sallala-ho-alaihi wassalam considered it a good deed to adopt BUT he still did not want to follow the noble tradition exactly , hence ordered his people to fast for 2 days instead of one, firstly to show even more respect for this blessed day on which many other miraculous events took place on Earth as well as to look & portray differently to the Jews also.

Secondly & more importantly which deals with our (Muslims) behaviour is that , we should not publicly act in such a way that it might hurt someone & I am saying in all aspects of human life, same is the case with celebrating “Mother’s Day” ,in case of Mother’s Day it hurts those who dont have a mother & it hurts those that cannot become a mother !
For those fortunate enough to have a mother should love & care for them everyday, paving the way for heavenly rewards. InshAllah.

I believe there is no harm in celebrating personal milestones such as birthday, anniversary, graduation etc., in a way that does not imitate other beliefs or symbols etc., but to have a “Public” celebration’s day of frivolous traditions is really not “ON”.
That is why in Islam there our only own 2 Public celebrations , one is Eid-ul-Fitr & the other is Eid-ul-Adha.

The Gist of the matter is that if we follow any of the traditions of the “Non -believers” we are giving it power & encouragement, on the other hand making the “Non Believers” more staunch & proud of their false beliefs & religion.
Whereas we as Muslims should h<>ave the best of <>Faith, Practices, Akhlaq & Tolerance that they start doubting themselves & are attracted towards the True path. Unfortunately we Muslims have lost our way ourselves but atleast should not do things unknowingly that does not do any service to bringing people to “light”.

The best practice would be to take 14th February as any other day, if the “Valentines Day” hype all over/ every where else reminds us to convey our love & do something nice for our spouse, then we should plan & do so the next day or on the coming weekend just in order to please Allah & follow our Prophets (SAW) teachings correctly, whilst trying to be good & loving in our married life everyday .

With just this simple Neeyat in our hearts InshAllah we may attract more blessings & rewards in our life !

I hope this makes sense , I am living & working in Australia since years, this analysis of mine is not coming from a narrow minded , intolerant perspective but from a sincere, logical opinion after years of unknowingly doing what “everyone” does.

May Allah Subha-o-Ta’ala, the most Gracious & Merciful, ignore all our small, petty mistakes & make us enlightened, educated & righteous. (Aameen)