THE VALENTINE'S DAY, HISTORY OF.....

[mlbash]

It is coming up in four days time!  It is quite regretful how our youths sanctify February 14th, the St. Valentine?s day.  Most of our youths are ignoramuses when it comes to Islamic etiquette.
The most disheartening gesture is how our go in our campuses and to some extent secondary school regard with disdain issues of this sort.
I?m not trying to be scurrilous on the ladies but they are the major cause of chaos in our society.  Mostly they forced the men to dance to their tune when it comes to a relationship.
February 14th, St. Valentine?s Day now serve as an indispensable tool not even in nascent affairs but also on established ones.  But the question is what is this Valentines Day? How did it come to being? And what is It is implication from Islamic point of view as well as our culture?
Here is the insight;
"O ye who believe, fear Allah and believe in His Messenger, and He will bestow on you a double portion of His mercy.
He will provide for you a light be which ye walk.  (Straight in your path) and he will forgive you (your Allah is off. Forgiving, most merciful? Q57: 28.
The origin of the Feb. 14th Celebration of ?St. Valentine?s Day for
Lovers? is as historically controversial as are pervert the practices associated with the day.
15th February, was, in PAGAN Ancient Rome, set aside for the ?Lupercula?   (Lupercaalia) .  This ceremony of rituals consisted of nude young men singing and dancing round the cave of lupercule (1) and stripping their female counterparts.  This they believed enhanced the latter?s fertility; in A.D. 43, England was invaded and annexed by the Romans.  Thus the introduction of the Roman superstition of fertility   into the English Folklore.  More over, the native English also believed that pigeons choose their mates on the night of Feb 14th.






WHO IS THIS VALENTINE?

In the AD. 200s there purportedly lived a character, Valentine, popular among children, who after his death exchanged love messages in his name.  However, during the massacres of 269 AD under Emperor Claudius the Goth, another Valentine, the priest of Terni (2) was allegedly executed for secretly blessing the marriage of Roman soldiers, whom, by imperial decrees were to remain unmarried.  His sympathizers, thereafter, exchanged love, messages in his name.  These were to become the progenitors of val cards and gift.  Some authorities.  However, hold that both apparently separate individuals are one person, or that at least one of them existed.
The Roman Feb, 14th rituals of love-preaching priest valentine of Terni .
Thus, in A.D. 496 Galasius as  page of the Roman Catholic  conferred ?Sainthood? on valentine and declared Feb. 14th the
?Holy day? of St. Valentine for lovers! So it is that the especially hyper-sexed 21st Century youths would maximally exploit the papal blessing of ?His Holiness? on their moral rottenness.  Even with a cursory look, it is clear that.
-Historically, the very personality of valentine is unsettled;
-Morally, practices associated with the day are disgraceful to human sense of shame especially on Campuses of Tertiary Institutions;
Spiritually, to create a pseudo-Sabbath ? to celebrate the Lupercul- valentine?s day is a shameful return to the sophisticated days of ignorance of Ancient Roman Paganism.
Indeed all forms of dark practices are inspired and propagated by Satan (among men morality and refinement, to the very depths of carnal beastism.

Therefore, active or passive participation in the Celebration of Valentine is not only a great sin against the Laws of Allah (SWT), but also a stark demonstration of ignorance and uncivilized shamelessness.  True believers, the really civilized people are not to just shun this uncivilized. Practice, but also to enlighten others, who partake of it .
?And   beware of a turmoil which when descended affect not only the wrong doers (among you)?? Holy Qur?an 8:25
?If a man shall touch (unlawfully) a woman with whom he has no legimatimate relation, same shall hold in his hands an ember of Hell fire on the day of judgment? (Hadith)
As a final note, Allah (SWT) has endowed us with the wisdom and freedom off choice, however, do also remember that a day has been equally set aside to give an account of our deeds, a day when neither friends nor relatives shall avail those who have disobeyed Allah from His severe wrath.  ?But whosoever turns away from my message. Verily for him is a life narrow  down , and we shall rise him up build on the day of judgement , he wil say! O my Lord, why hast thou raised me up blind, while I had ssight (before)? (Allah) will say!  Thus didst thou, when our signs came unto thee, thou forgot them.  So will that day beforgotten??????????..
(Q20:24.27)




REFERENCE:.
(1), (2) All references aare from
*Encyclopeepedia Britaanica
*Eneyclopeddia Americana
*Groelers family Encyclopedia
*World Book of Knowledge
under headings valentine, St, Day, Lupercula, Rome, History of ...................

[mallamt]

Is it me or are you maiking your own story.  I do fundamentally agree with the writer on the issue of the celebration of st valentines day in its present format for africans and especially nigerians.  The whole thing has been commercialised and a level of immorality has been allowed to creep into it.  The beginning may have been noble but today it has been abused.  

Confusion surrounds exactly who St Valentine was. According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, at least three Saint Valentines are mentioned in the early martyrologies under the date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as a Bishop of Interamna (now Terni in Italy) and the other lived and died in Africa.

The Bishop of Interamna is most widely accepted as the basis of the modern saint. He was an early Christian martyr who lived in northern Italy in the third century and was put to death on 14 February around 270AD on the orders of emperor Claudius the Second for flouting the ban on Christianity.

The date of his death is thought to have become linked with romance because it sees the first onset of spring and is said to be when birds select their mates.