January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Unconditional love nothing to do with Valentine's
Unconditional love nothing to do with Valentine's
First of all, who the heck is Valentine? So begins my quest to find out just what all this 'Valentine' stuff means.
Are you ready for my findings? The first thing I learned was that it definitely had pre-Christian origins (right away that makes me suspicious - to my mind meaning something to do with "godlessness" and that in itself is dangerous, to me).
It all began in ancient Rome, where the 13, 14 and 15 February were celebrated as Lupercalia, a pagan fertility festival.
See, what did I say, 'pagan'. And we all know what pagan means.
Anyhow, on these dates in ancient Rome young men would strip naked and use goat or dog skin whips to spank the backsides of young women in order to improve their fertility (barbaric is my opinion).
It appears that Valentine was a kindly cleric who was against the pagan actions of early Rome and rebelled, especially against the order that no marriages should be performed in ancient Rome as young men were sent off to be soldiers rather than get caught up in love and family values.
Because of Valentine's reluctance to follow the orders, he was eventually captured, imprisoned and finally executed.
However, in history a slew of untimely events are supposed to have happened on this date; but one thing is for sure, that Valentine's Day is an event cloaked in myth and legend.
I would venture to say that commercialism has logged in and has a grip on one of the biggest commercial ploys in today's world.
Why, just look around you and you'll see what I mean. Flowers, jewellery, chocolates, hotel bookings are all doing very well this Valentine's Day.
We as people should not be so gullible as to be guided by every event that comes along that encourages us to show our love.
We should never have to be coerced to show our 'love'. And what type of love do we show, a love of 'give me, give me, never get"? No, the love we need to show is the unharnessed love of loving and giving unconditionally, all day and every day.
The love that we need to display is the love for human rights, justice and dignity to all mankind. The love that causes us to come to our brother's aid, such as we did, and continue to do for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
But in reality, we should have shown this love before this horrible earthquake had to awaken our sleeping consciousness. We have to be ever vigilant to what is going on at home and abroad so that we can be showing our love, real love all the time.
Allah (swt) says in Sura 3:103 "And hold fast, all together, by the Rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah's favour on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the Pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus doth Allah make His Signs clear to you: That ye may be guided."
No doubt, many people are fooled on Valentine's Day just because they received a gift or card - fooled into thinking someone really loves them, but it could be all a ploy for trickery for one's own selfish gains, reducing the celebration to lies and moral decline.
Yes, it could be said that it's all in fun, but it's not fun for the poor guy who can't afford the lavish gifts his 'love' thinks she should get on Valentine's Day, and it's no joke when the BELCO or worst still, the rent, can't be paid, because poor guy lavished out on Valentine's Day ... and get this .. all in the name of love!
On a light note, Islam does recognise special occasions that bring people closer to one another and helps to add some spark to their lives, however, we cannot blindly follow every occasion without knowing its true origins, especially when it has no religious backing; there are other ways that showing love in a true sense could be displayed.
Islam requires us to love one another all the time - don't you agree? May Allah bless us with His love, and the love of those who love Him. May Allah fill our hearts with love - all the time. Ameen.
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