Valentine’s Day – A Day for the Muslims?
Valentine’s Day – A Day for the Muslims?
By Ebrahim Saifuddin
Another day yet approaches on which Muslims become inane and participate in it with much ebullience. Every 14th of February across the globe, couples give each other gifts as a sign of their love. Most of them do not even know why they are celebrating this day and what the origin of this day is. Apart from other people, across the Muslim world such acts are carried out on this day as well.
Historians link this day to a certain St. Valentine. The Catholic Church identifies some three saints who were martyrs and all three were called Valentine. There are variations in theorigin of this day. Some say that this day originates from a Roman called Valentine who was asked to give up Christianity but refused to do so and thus was killed on 14th February 269 C.E., the day which was also allocated to love lotteries. Another tradition arises from the time of Emperor Claudius II. He came to a conclusion that single men made better soldiers and thus made it illegal for young men to marry. No wives, no families – hence better soldiers. During this time St. Valentine was a priest at the temple and he found the actions of Claudius outrageous and thus defied the emperor. He married off young men in private. When the emperor got to know the actions of Valentine, he sent him to jail and according to certain sources; he was to be put to death. In 496 C.E., the 14th of February was set as a day to honor St. Valentine by Pope Gelasius.
Islam, Muslims and Halloween
Islam, Muslims and Halloween
By Ebrahim Saifuddin
When one traces the history of Halloween, we find its origins in the ancient Celtic (Ireland) festival which marked the end of summer as well as the last day of their calendar. It was referred to by the name of Samhain. “Samhain” is to be pronounced as “sow-ane” where the word “sow” rhymes with the word “cow”. The Celts believed that the night before the end of summer i.e. the night between the last day of October and 1st November, the worlds of the living and the dead kind of merged together. These were purely superstitious beliefs that the Celts believed in.
According to the “Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry” the Celts believed that during this night the ghosts or spirits wandered around the land seeking bodies to possess or inhabit. Now as the people i.e. living people did not want to be hosts for these spirits and ghosts, they dressed up in costumes and would scream loudly in the streets in an attempt to create confusion or scare the spirits away.
