Zawaya

Valentine's Day: A Creative Outlet for Young People

By: Iqbal Al Gharbi

According to the legend, Saint Valentine was a Roman priest who served under the reign of Emperor Claudius II. At the end of the second century, when the Emperor outlawed marriage so that young men don’t get busy with love affairs and hold back from war and fights, Saint Valentine opposed this inhuman resolution, and continued to secretly perform marriages for lovers in his church. When the Emperor found out, he sentenced the priest to death on February 14.

February 14 became the day of love and lovers. “Saint Valentine’s Day” is an occasion for many people all over the world to celebrate love, and for lovers to express their love to each other by sending Valentines, or offering flowers and candy.

In recent years, this event has begun to acquire its place in the Maghreb communities, and has become an annual tradition for many families. Valentine’s Day is an occasion to rip a lot of money, as traders exploit it through advertising to raise and encourage consumption, hoping to get abundant profits.

Valentine’s Day stirs controversy in the Arab Maghreb every year. Islamists and Seculars are usually on opposing sides of the conflict, as witnessed on websites and Facebook pages, where Fatwas spread, and debates are heated between different groups on the legitimacy of this intrusive occasion that is unrelated to correct religious practice.

Valentine’s Day has even become the main preoccupation of some that proclaim themselves as the guardians of conscience, to the extent of using all their human resources and employing all their intellectual abilities to prevent young people from celebrating this innocent occasion.

This prohibition is based on the Fatwa that emanated from the Standing Committee for Academic Research and Issuing Fatwas in Saudi Arabia, interdicting the celebration of the so-called “Holiday of Love” as one of the pagan holidays. Therefore, it is not permissible for Muslims to celebrate this holiday, or congratulate others for it.

It is worth mentioning in this context that Islam is a religion of love that embraces the instincts of life. The word “love” was mentioned in the Book of Allah more than 83 times, and the Sunnah values kind words, and encourages the expression of joy and happiness.

Celebrating love did not take place in the era of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Therefore, it is considered an innovation; but a good one that spreads affinity and harmony. Unlike what extremists say, not every innovation is a misguidance. There is a Hadith in this context: “The one who innovates a good innovation in Islam has its reward and a reward similar to those who follow him in it without lessening their rewards.”

Prohibiting the celebration of Valentine’s Day, making young people feel guilty for that, and confiscating their feelings and emotions, are all factors that lead to a stifling atmosphere that makes people feel subjected to a conditional freedom, and ultimately lead to a culture of repression and oppression.

This kind of culture glorifies pain and subservience, disparages pleasure and the joys of life, and strengthens sacrifice and the instinct of death.

We all know that excessive suppression of the instincts of life causes neurosis, which makes life monotonous and boring with no creativity, adventure, or self achievement.

Also, lifting all restraints and achieving all desires leads to chaos, and even to madness; because madness is, by definition, the overlap of the principle of pleasure with the principle of reality, making the objective reality an echo of the psychological reality and the fantasies that escape from the mind.