Red Heart

It could have been the splash of red or the overabundance of hearts or the young man in a designer jeans that caught his eye, but Sheikh Hamaad stopped under the bold “Valentine’s day Specials” banner, set his shopping basket on the floor and watched the young man battling to select an appropriate gift from the heaps of hearts, teddy bears and chocolates. Like a busy humming bird he flitted from shelf to shelf struggling to choose.

Celebrating Valentine’s Day

Praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds, and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his family and companions.  

Allaah has chosen for us Islam as our religion and He will not accept any other religion from anyone, as He says (interpretation of the meaning):

Celebrating Valentines Day? Valentines Day not for Muslims

Allah has chosen for us Islam as our religion and He will not accept any other religion from anyone, as He Almighty Says (what means):

“And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.” [Quran 3:85]

Prophet Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention )told us that some of his followers would follow non-Muslims in some of their rituals and customs, as in the Hadeeth (Prophetic narration) narrated by Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri may Allaah be pleased with him:

“You will certainly follow the ways of those who came before you, span by span and cubit by cubit, until even if they were to enter a lizard’s hole, you would follow them.”

We (listeners) said, “O Messenger of Allaah, (do you mean) the Jews and Christians?”

He sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention )said: “Then who else?”

[Al-Bukhaari]

What the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) spoke of has indeed come to pass and has become widespread in recent times, in many of the Muslim countries.

Many of the Muslims follow non-Muslims in many of their customs and ways of behaving, and imitate them in some of their rituals and in celebrating their holidays.The matter has been made even worse by the opening up of mass communications between peoples, whereby the rituals and customs of the non-Muslims are now transmitted with the glamorous adornment of sound and image from their countries into the Muslim countries, via satellite TV and the World Wide Web (Internet). Many Muslims have been deceived by their glamour.

In recent years, a new phenomenon has spread among the Muslim youth – males and females alike – which does not bode well. This is manifested in their imitation of non-Muslims in their celebration of the Valentine’s Day, which has led the scholars to explain the rulings of Sharee’ah (Islamic Law) concerning that, out of sincerity towards Allaah, His Messenger sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention )the leaders of the Muslims and their common folk, so that Muslims may have a clear understanding of this issue and so that they will not fall into that which will undermine the ‘Aqeedah (belief) with which Allaah has blessed them.

The story of the Festival of Love (Valentine’s Day)