There’s an Old Persian saying that Satan is repelled by hard edges. These hard edges are being destroyed or melted down in the name of freedom and love (certainly these are wrong notions of two of the fundamental determinants of human life). The absence of reference to Satan by moderns is the biggest proof of his prevalence. Revival of these hard edges is the only way to ensure continuous spiritual and moral excellence. Muslims, after getting hit by the mighty force of colonization, have lost their bearings, seemingly. Priority number one of this post-colonial being is to be up-to-date with all fashions coming from West. Being “a passive civilization at the receiving ends of waves (coming from West)” it has started to lose its cultural distinctions too. Any opposition to the cultural invasion of West is dealt with contempt, even if the opposition is on purely non-religious basis (although nothing in an Islamic world is divorced from revealed Principles, as such).
Any speech against Valentine’s Day suffers from two stigmas attached to it by the lovers of the ‘zahir’ and of all things Western: a) “Oh, why can’t you let people have fun? why do you’ve to be enemy of love?”; b) “Why do you keep repeating the same old arguments? You’ve nothing but clichés to rely on.” Such fundamentalist support for Valentine’s Day, despite its obvious breaches of bashfulness, is just a symptom of a deeper problem. The problem consists of two major errors: a) an erroneous notion of love (they’ve no idea what real love is, romantic/non-romantic); b) irrational hatred of repetition, and the love for novelty (it doesn’t matter if things ‘conform to some aspect of Truth’ – it just has to be new with a hook).
The whole issue revolves around the centrality of family, bashfulness, legitimate romantic relationships, gender relations, and above all public morality in Islam which is pretty much shunned by the secular Harm Principle (which states that whatever doesn’t physically or psychologically hurt the other person should not be suppressed by any agent, state or non-state).
The primary problem is the objectification of female and its commercial exploitation. Modern world after having denied all higher realities and after stripping off sense of Sacred (and hence beauty) from God’s creation has still one underlying “good” thing left about it: its ‘worship’ of female beauty. However, this worship is totally sensual and often illicit, and driven far away from the metaphysical, intellectual or spiritual. The biggest beneficiaries of this day are the firms; the corporate mafia, which commercially exploits the Sacredness of love which we all respect.
A critique can even be made from the feminist perspective which protests against the objectification of women by men. On this day, youth especially is encouraged to lose their tight morals and follow their lust. Visual theft of females takes place, and privacy may be breached with a red rose in her face; or vice versa with men. The best response by females would be to wear hijab even if they did not previously. “… Many very secular women who demonstrated against the Shah in the 1970s wore [hijab]for this reason, as an almost aggressive flag of defiance,” writes Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad.
Moreover, celebration of this day is just another symptom of Occidentosis/Westoxification, which stems from inferiority complex many of us feel towards the modern West. It is true not only in cultural matters but also in intellectual ones. At one level, one might say that we’d have been proud of Valentine’s Day had it been a product of our own culture. And, this is exactly what’s wrong with it. It comes not only from a foreign and dominant civilization, but also from an extremely anti-religious and profane one. Most likely, such a celebration of love would not have been as corrupt as it currently is, had it been fueled in the real sense of what love is: love of God, Prophet, saints, parents, humanity, families, etc
People can find 101 reasons to defend the current practice of Valentine’s Day despite its obvious breaches of bashfulness and public morality. People can also find 101 reasons to condemn it. Reasons will never end for anyone who is willing to take a position; it only matters where the heart lies. If it lies with Allah, outcomes will be different. We do not mean to say that saying Valentine to your parents or mothers is haram, for we’re neither in the capacity to pass such judgment nor is it our concern to be judgmental. But, we have to stand united against it to preserve public morality and independence of Islamic identity and rituals from all foreign and imported ideas, even if it makes us look “uncool” or “backward,” as such labels have meaningless and irrational.
Discussion7 Comments
Just a pile of anti western diatribe that has no basis in truth…perhaps the biggest difference is that western people enjoy celebrating Love and life…while Muslims like to celebrate hate and death…
eddied you’re full of shit as usual. ignoring the fact that you have, as always, completely ignored the whole premise of the article (why am i not surprised?), even your claim is bogus. It’s especially hilarious considering the fact that a movie celebrating hatred and death of innocent Muslims was released not too long ago in the US. Of course I fully expect you to ignore these inconvenient truths. After all when have facts ever gotten in your way of telling a good lie?
Anyways, other than extremists – and I can find extremists in every society – no one “celebrates” hate and death. This is especially true for Muslims considering that the west has and is continuing to put Muslims through hell.
I have not ignored any facts…parts of Islam promote killing of the infidel which can be any non Muslim or even some Muslims from a different sect…ISIS is the embodiment of the wahabi ideology that promotes killing of kafirs…yes some Muslims say they love death more than westerners love life…and they say that proudly…if you want to hear hate celebrated just go to a radical mosque…if you want to see death celebrated…go to Libya or Syria or Iraq…it is you who is in denial,of these facts…
It’s a good thing this article popped up again or I wouldn’t have seen this retarded reply. As usual your lack of reading comprehension has failed you. How do you even go on in life when you clearly can’t read. You belong in an elementary school not in a comments section arguing with smart and sensible individuals. Killing “infidels” is only allowed for very specific reasons, e.g. war, self-defense. No respectable scholar says non-muslims should be killed just b/c they’re not muslim. So yes my comment still stands. Other than extremists no one advocates for hate and death. Your comment doesn’t even prove otherwise anyways.
An excellent read,sadly the forces of materialism in the form of Corporations are in the lead promoting this day in order to reap profits even if it causes the moral degeneration of entire nations!
Dear writer, you’ve truly expressed the true demented value, nature, trending and the old boggy yet extremist aims of such a lowest, slothful and ugly cluster of the apian land’s run of the mill production – the valentine’s celebration-day culture that is rodomont, set up primly up-against Islam, effecting and threatening Islamic way of life styles globally.
Being Musliman in an Islamic states, we all must reject and detest such cultural-hits on us, whether it is from the western side or the eastern side-indian cultures that is growing with the speed light in Pakistan with the ever growing help of Pakistan’s sell-outs of the political, judicial, religious and media hit-mens, curtails and mafias.
Dear Writer,
My salute to you for this excellent column as a wake up call for true believer of Islam. People who are offended and form a strong opinion with this are indulge with “mange tange ka culture” in the name of modernism. This lead us to the consideration of an allied social problem, which “Sir Iqbal” disapproves in number of his verses.
ہو فکر اگر خام تو آزادئ افکار
انسان کو حیوان بنانے کا طریقہ
[Liberalism of thought brings destruction to those
who do not possess originality of thought.
It is a way to turn men into beasts
if it is immature.]
If you don’t design your own life plan with value of Islamic teaching, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you?
Asrar ul Haq