Valentines Day : How Halaal is it ?

What does celebrating "Valentines Day" really mean?

Where does this fit in a Muslims life?

In fact, does it even fit in it at all?

Looking at the Quraan and Sunnah, one should realize that we should not be celebrating it in the first place, because it is a celebration of the non-Muslims. Whatever we need to celebrate has been prescribed to us by Allaah and His Messenger (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa sallam) and it is prohibited to celebrate anything else.

That is why And Allaah said:
"For every nation We have ordained religious ceremonies which they must follow." [Surah al-Hajj:67]


And the Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa sallam) said: "Every nation has its own Eid (celebration) and this is our Eid (meaning Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha). ’ (al-Bukhaari, Muslim)


Let us see what some of these differences are:


1. Allaah commands us to lower our gaze and not look at the opposite gender.


“Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and protect their private parts....And tell the believing women to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts...” Surah al-Noor :30-31)


But Valentines Day encourages people to deliberately look and stare and seek out the one that you find attractive and pick him/her as your valentine.
2. Allaah orders the Muslim women not to talk unnecessarily or in a soft manner to strange men.

“....then be not soft in speech, lest he in whose heart is a disease (of hypocrisy, or evil desire for adultery) should be moved with desire” (Surah al-Ahzaab :32)


Even for the Sahaabah, Allaah ordered them to screen themselves from the wives of the Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa sallam) when they need to ask them something. Who could be purer than the wives of the Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa sallam) and who could be higher in taqwa than the Sahaabah?
"And when you ask (the Prophets wives) for anything you want, ask them from behind a screen, that is purer for your hearts and for their hearts".
(Surah al-Ahzaab: 53)

Yet, for Valentines Day, you see young men and women who are absolutely not mahram for one another in any way whatsoever, going way beyond this prohibition. Not only are they talking to each other in a soft and flirtatious way, but they are right out expressing their love (in reality, lust) for each other.


3. The Sunnah prohibits a man and a woman from being alone together at any time.

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa sallam) said:
“Whoever believes in Allaah and the Last Day, let him not be alone with a woman who has no mahram present, for the third one present will be the Shaytaan.” (Ahmad -- saheeh by al-Albaani)


But those who celebrate Valentines Day purposely seek to be alone with each other and go out on dates with each other while Allaah says:

“And come not near to unlawful sex. Verily, it is a Faahishah (i.e. anything that transgresses its limits: a great sin, and an evil way that leads one to hell unless Allaah Forgives him)” (al-Isra’ :32)


4. Islaam prohibits a man to even touch a non-mahram woman.

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa sallam) said:
“If one of you were to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle, that would be better for him than his touching a woman who is not permissible for him.” (al-Tabaraani --saheeh by al-Albaani)


But Valentines Day promotes more than just touching. It promotes hugging, kissing, cuddling and much more. May Allaah protect us.


5. Islaam teaches us that real love between a man and a woman, that is acceptable and allowed by Allaah is only that between a husband and his wife.


"And of His signs is that He created for you wives from among yourselves, that you might reside with them, and has put love and mercy between you. Surely, there are signs in this for those who think".
(al-Room: 21)

But Valentines Day endorses haraam relationships between a non-mahram man and woman and encourages illicit love and un-Islaamic affiliations.


6. Islaam tells us that Hayaa (modesty) and bashfulness are a jewel to be treasured.

It is a purity and innocence that is a virtue, regardless for a man or a woman.

The Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa sallam) said:
“Hayaa (modesty) is a branch of faith.” (Bukhaari)

On the other hand, this Valentines day advocates nothing but shamelessness and immodesty. Young men and women who have no hayaa for Allaah, leave alone for each other, openly and shamelessly, ask each other to be their love or be their valentine. Subhaan Allaah!

Conclusion

We, as Muslims, should not be celebrating Valentines day, nor is it allowed for us to do so. Everything that this day revolves around and is associated with is totally against the pure and pristine teachings of Allaah and His Messenger (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa sallam).

Even if this celebration is between a husband and wife, it is not right to do so because it is a celebration of the non-Muslims. And of course, if it is an illicit relationship, then obviously it is haraam.

May Allah guide us and enable us to be true Muslims who submit earnestly and sincerely to Allaah and His Orders.
Ameen.

"O you who believe! Fear Allaah and keep your duty to Him. And let every person look to what he has sent forth for tomorrow, and fear Allaah. Verily, Allaah is All-Aware of what you do."
(Surah al-Hashr:18)

The History of Valentine's Day

The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "christianize" celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman "lottery" system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine's Day — should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap."

CRIMINAL RECORDS

 Spent records
Criminal records are not purged regardless of time or seriousness of the case . However, under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Ordinance (HK Laws. Chap 297), a criminal record is considered 'spent' if it was the first criminal offence, sentenced to less than 3 months in jail or fined less than $10,000 and a period of 3 years has elapsed since conviction and no new conviction is registered against the said person. Spent records are recorded as such with the exception to:

• Attempting to be licensed as a barrister, solicitor , accountant or insurance broker
• Applying to become a trustee or controller for Mandatory Provident Fund or a bank controller, executive or employee
• Disciplinary proceedings against any judicial officer, members of disciplined services, probation officer, employees of Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (insurance officers) and Securities and Futures Commission (executive grade only)
• Disciplinary proceedings against government officials who are paid on any Directorate or Directorate (Judicial/Legal Group) Pay Scale and those above point 27 on the Master Pay Scale

All Hong Kong residents who plan to adopt children or travel/emigrate to another country can request for a Certificate of No Criminal Conviction - a document that is issued directly to the Consulate and/or government agencies and not to the requester.

 United Kingdom

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In the United Kingdom, criminal records are maintained by the Criminal Records Bureau (England and Wales), Disclosure Scotland (Scotland) and Access Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland), which have partial access to the Police National Computer (PNC). (It is important to stress that a PNC record is not the same thing as a criminal record.)
These records are not publicly accessible, and cannot be viewed without the subject's consent (though an employer may make such consent a condition of employment). Information supplied depends on the level of disclosure. Low-level disclosures give only unspent convictions (i.e. convictions which have not yet been expunged under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act), while enhanced disclosures ideally include all convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings. An enhanced criminal record certificate may contain relevant information that need not relate solely to criminal matters.
Arrests which do not lead to an official finding of guilt (e.g. a conviction or the acceptance of a caution) are not considered part of a person's criminal record, and are not typically disclosed to the appropriate body. However, an enhanced disclosure may include such additional information, supplied at the Chief Police Officer's discretion. Enhanced disclosures are typically used to screen applicants for positions such as police officer and social worker which involve contact with vulnerable groups.

 United States

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In the United States, criminal records are compiled and updated on local, state, and federal levels by various law enforcement agencies. Their primary goal is to present a comprehensive criminal history. They may be used for many purposes mostly for background checks including identification, employment, security clearance, adoption, immigration/international travel/visa, licensing, assistance in developing suspects in an ongoing criminal investigation, and for enhanced sentencing in criminal prosecutions. In the United States, these compilations are unlikely to be admissible in court as proof of arrest or conviction. Criminal histories are maintained by law enforcement agencies in all levels of government. Local police departments, sheriffs’ offices, and specialty police agencies may maintain their own internal databases. On the state level, state police, troopers, highway patrol, correctional agencies, and other law enforcement agencies also maintain separate databases. Laws enforcement agencies often share this information with other similar enforcement agencies and this information is usually made available to the public. Registered sex offenders have information about their crimes or misdemeanors readily available, and Department of Correctional Services in many states disseminate criminal records to the public, through media such as the Internet.Usually, the only group in society that is not subject to dissemination of any criminal records is juveniles. Some adults can also be eligible for non-disclosure of their records through the process of Record sealing or Expungement. Some states have official "statewide repositories" that contain criminal history information contributed by the various county and municipal courts within the state. These state repositories are usually accurate so long as the state requires and supervises the uploading of data from the local courts. Some states make reporting to the repository voluntary. The information obtained from these repositories can be incomplete and the use of this information has associated risks. The federal government maintains extensive criminal histories and acts as a central repository for all agencies to report their own data. NCIC (National Crime Information Center) is one such database. Generally, and with a very few exceptions, the records compiled by the federal government are not made available to the private sector. Some private re-sellers claim to offer an NCIC record search. In most cases these claims are fraudulent. Though NCIC records may not be available to private sector companies, they still may hold very accurate criminal records bought from other reporting agencies.

Federal records

Department of Justice

National Crime Information Center

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) manages the official national criminal history database through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The NCIC stores information regarding open arrest warrants, arrests, stolen property, missing persons, and dispositions regarding felonies and misdemeanors. The FBI's compilation of an individual's criminal identification, arrest, conviction, and incarceration information is known as the Interstate Identification Index, or "Triple-I" for short. This is basically the FBI's rap sheet (Record of Arrest and Prosecution). It contains information voluntarily reported by law enforcement agencies across the country, as well as information provided by other federal agencies. It contains information on felonies and misdemeanors, and may also contain municipal and traffic offenses if reported by the individual agencies. Each individual who has an entry in the Interstate Identification Index has a unique "FBI number" that is used to identify a specific individual. It compensates for the fact that an individual may provide several false names, or aliases, to a law enforcement agency when he or she is booked. An individual may also lie about his or her date of birth or social security number as well, making an independent, unique identification key necessary. It is important to note that the information provided by the Interstate Information Index may come from the agency who "booked" the individual and not necessarily the agency who arrested the individual. Therefore, there may be discrepancies between the arrest date, location, and arresting agency listed in the database and the actual date, location, and agency who made the arrest. The Interstate Information Index may also contain incarceration information as well, listing each time an inmate is transferred from one correctional institution to another as a separate "arrest." The Interstate Information Index is only as accurate as the information reported to it by individual agencies, and frequently lacks comprehensive information on the dispositions of the various arrests it lists. It is best used as a guide on where to find more comprehensive information on the individual.

National Instant Criminal Background Check System

Mandated by the Brady Bill, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is used by the FBI to screen potential firearms buyers. Citizens who are currently ineligible to own a firearm under current laws may have the opportunity to have their firearms rights restored. Eligibility largely depends on state laws. In addition to searching the NCIC databases, NICS maintains its own index to search for additional disqualifiers from gun ownership. Private companies are not allowed access to this system for background checks.

Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System

The FBI maintains the largest biometric database in the world with the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Criminal submissions from arrests and civil submissions from authorized background checks are stored in IAFIS. Currently, IAFIS has more than 47 million submissions in its repository.

Combined DNA Index System

The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) stores DNA profiles for both convicted felons in the Offender Index as well as unidentified DNA found at crime scenes in the Forensic Index. CODIS was originally piloted in 1990 as a project among 14 states. Currently, all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the United States Government participate in CODIS.

Department of Transportation

National Driver Register

While not officially a criminal history repository, the National Driver Register (NDR), operated by the Department of Transportation, maintains information on drivers regarding suspended licenses. The NDR maintains a database of information posted by individual states as mandated by federal law. All drivers who have had their licenses suspended for any reason (including suspensions resulting from several successive minor traffic violations, i.e., Massachusetts suspends for three separate speeding tickets over a six month period) have that information posted by state Registry of Motor Vehicles offices to the NDR . Also, the NDR records information concerning convictions of driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances, failing to render aid at an accident involving death or injury, and knowingly making a false affidavit or committing perjury to officials about an activity governed by a law or regulation on the operation of a motor vehicle. Additionally, the NDR contains information on traffic violations resulting from a fatal automobile collision, reckless driving, or racing on the highways. Under federal law, states are required to obtain information collected and stored by the NDR to review records of licensees identified as possible "matches." If a match is obtained, often states will take action to call the match to a hearing to prove that they are not "the same person," placing the burden of proof on the suspected "match" to prove the distinction. Increasingly, state licensees find themselves caught in a Catch-22 situation where the transmission of information causes them to fail to be alerted to the fact that their drivers record has been combined with that of another driver, often to their unique disadvantage. This has led to a growing number of false arrests, citations, and actions being taken by officers against drivers who are, in the end, victims of mistaken identity.

Secure Flight

Secure Flight, operated by the Transportation Security Administration, screens United States airline passengers to see if they are on terrorism watch lists. Unlike the predecessors Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) & CAPPS II, Secure Flight does not scan passengers for outstanding warrants nor does Secure Flight use computer algorithms to search for links to flagged terrorists.

Obtaining copies of Federal criminal records

It is possible to obtain copies of criminal records maintained by Federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act. In general, you may only obtain records concerning yourself, deceased individuals, or living individuals who have given you their permission to obtain their records.

Interstate records

Most states have a statewide agency who acts as a clearinghouse for all statewide arrest information. These so-called "state rap sheets" are usually much more detailed than the Interstate Identification Index; usually listing not only the arrest information, but the subsequent court action following that arrest.

National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System

The National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS) is an interface to search each state's criminal and driver records as well as the License Plate Reader (LPR) records going back one year maintained by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Thus through NLETS, a law enforcement agency in one state could search for someone's criminal and driver records in another state. NLETS potentially serves as a better tool to search for minor misdemeanors and traffic violations that would not be in the NCIC.

Expungement of criminal records

In the United States, criminal records may be expunged, though laws vary by state. Many types of offenses may be expunged, ranging from parking fines to felonies. In general, once sealed or expunged, all records of an arrest and/or subsequent court case are removed from the public record, and the individual may legally deny or fail to acknowledge ever having been arrested for or charged with any crime which has been expunged. However, when applying for a state professional license or job that is considered a public office or high security (e.g. security guard, law enforcement, or related to national security), you must confess that you have an expunged conviction or else be denied clearance by the DOJ. There is no post-conviction relief available in the Federal system, other than a Presidential Pardon.