Re.Valentine day

[bamalli]

Question
In recent days, many Muslims celebrate the Valentine day especially the girls. What is the rule of Sharia about this practice?
Fatwa
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

To love is a natural instinct and Islam is the religion of love, and brotherhood. It always insists on good relations among the members of society. Allah will provide shelter for those who love one another in His Shadow when there would be no Shadow other than His. Allah's Apostle said: "Verily Allah would say on the Day Resurrection: Where are those who have mutual love for My sake only? Today I shall shelter them in My Shadow when there is no other shadow but Mine". [Reported by Imam Muslim].
Moreover the true love of the Believers is a reason to enter the Paradise as the Prophet said: "You shall not enter paradise so long as you do not affirm belief (in all those things which are the articles of faith), and you will not believe as long as you do not love one another. Should I not direct you to a thing which, if you do, will foster love amongst you: (i.e.) give currency to (the practice of paying salutation to one another by saying) as-salamu alaykum".
The Muslims who celebrate valentine day are not aware of their religion and follow the footsteps of Kuffars. We would like to bring to the attention of all Muslims the origin of this celebration so everyone can easily see the ruling of Shariah concerning the celebration of valentine day.
The Romans had a festival named Lupercalia and they used to celebrate it on the 15th February of every year. On that day they offered sacrifices to their supposed god named Lurks to protect their cattle and the like from being killed by wolves. They celebrated this festival during the spring holidays according to their calculations. During the thirteenth century the day of this festival was changed to February 14th. There was an incident that led to this change in the day for this celebration. In the thirteenth century a Roman Emperor Claudius II, forbade his soldiers to marry because marriage would involve them in family life and cause them to lose interest in fighting.
A catholic priest named Valentine revolted against this emperor's order and performed weddings for the soldiers secretly. After a while his disobedience was discovered and he was imprisoned. While in prison he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. On February 14th he was executed. After his death people believed that he had sacrificed himself for the sake of Christianity and to save lovers.Subsequently the church elevated him to Sainthood and February 14th came to be observed as Saint Valentine's Day.
In this day young girls and boys send love letters, love cards, gifts, etc. to each other. They are celebrating this day by engaging in such practices.
Based on the above details we conclude that celebrating this day and any other Holidays of non-Muslims is forbidden in Sharia. Aisha [May Allah be pleased with her] reported:" Abu Bakr came to my house while two small Ansari girls were singing beside me the stories of the Ansar concerning the Day of Buath. And they were not singers. Abu Bakr said protestingly, "Musical instruments of Satan in the house of Allah's Apostle !" It happened on the 'Id day and Allah's Apostle said, "O Abu Bakr! There is an 'Id for every nation and this is our ' Id. "
. [Reported by Bukhari and Muslim].
In fact, celebrating some days and festivals is part of the religion. Imam Ibn Taymiyah said: 'Feasts are a part of Sharia and of the rituals of Islam Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {For every nation We have ordained religious ceremonies which they must follow;}[22: 67]. The feasts are Islamic rituals just like facing the Qiblah and fasting. There is no difference in participating in their feasts or in their whole religion because approving their feast means approving this Kufr since the feasts are the special symbols of religions.
The Prophet did not approve the feast of Jahiliyyah (pre Islamic period).
Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that "the Prophet came to Madinah with two days they played in. The Prophet asked, 'What are these two days?' They said, 'These are two days we used to play in, in our Jahiliyyah'. The Prophet said, 'Allah has replaced them with two better days: Eid Al Adha and Eid Al Fitr".
One of the most distinguished qualities of the slaves of al-Rahman (i.e. good Muslims) is that they do not attend false practices. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {And those who do not witness falsehood, and if they pass by some evil play or evil talk, they pass by it with dignity.}[25: 72]
In the light of these details we know clearly that the valentine's day is not a feast of Muslims, it is rather a Christian polytheistic feast.
We ask Allah to lead the Muslims to the right path and cause them to follow the Truth.
Allah knows best.
Answerer:     Fatwa center supervised by Dr. Abdullah Al-faqih