Every year without fail we will start seeing articles condemning Valentine’s Day a

s a day that should not be celebrated by Muslims in Malaysia. One of the most us
ed and rehashed (they rehashed the article annually since god knows when) story
is St Valentine was a martyr who died helping the Christians took over Cordoba f
rom the Muslims during Queen Isabella’s reign. Because of his sacrifice the day th
at he was buried is celebrated as St Valentine’s Day. Because of this Valentine’s Da
y is "haram" to most Muslims as celebrating it is akin to celebrating the downfa
ll of Muslim empire in Spain. Sounds plausible right? Nope it s WRONG and pure f
iction.

First of all there is no St Valentine in Spain during Queen Isabella lifetime (1

451 –1504 AD). Infact the only Valentine in Spain history was the brother of Saint
Fructus, who died stopping the Moorish advance into Spain in 751AD. This is a d
iscrepancy of 700 years between the supposed “Valentine” who helped defeat the Musli
ms (The Moors) and the St Valentine during Queen Isabella s reign. Saint Fructus
and his brothers sacrifice are remembered every October 24 ,during the St Fruc
tus Feast Day. So clearly this is not the Valentine that we are looking for.

Throughout Christendom there have been 7 recorded and acknowledged St Valentines

and 11 separate Valentine’s Day that occurred on different days throughout the ye
ar. THE first Valentine’s Day was in honour of Valentine of Rome (also known as Va
lentine of Terni) who was a priest who was martyred in 269AD. Not much is known
about this St Valentine other than he was a priest who was buried in Via Flamini
a on the 14th of February. The lack of background story regarding this first St
Valentine leads historians to believe that Valentine’s Day was created to suppress
the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a very ancient, Roman pastoral festival, o
bserved on February 13 through February 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the
city, releasing health and fertility. If you haven t already know, early Roman C
hristians assimilate their pagan celebrations with their Christian beliefs. For
example the pagan celebration of sun worshipping on 25th of December is converte
d into Christmas day despite Jesus actually born on 17th of June! It also should
be noted that the early Valentine’s day had nothing to do with love nor romance.
This brings us to the modern day’s version of Valentine s day.

It is generally accepted that the modern VDay (ah senang sikit nak taip!) celebr
ation started in the 19th century when a woman by the name of Esther Howland sta
rted designing cards for VDays. The celebration started in England before spread
ing around the world like it is today. In the 1950’s lovers started exchanging mor
e than just cards and the commercialisation of VDay as we know it today started.
In the 1980’s DeBeers started linking diamonds with VDays and many men end up bro
ke so that their significant others may have the in vogue diamond VDay gift.

As you can see the modern day VDay is now perverted beyond recognition from it s
Christian (or is it Pagan?) origin. I would say that the modern day VDay is not
even the same VDay as celebrated in 269AD or Rome for that matter. The date and
name might be the same but the one being celebrated now is totally different. S
ort of how Christmas and Easter are now considered “not Christian enough" by funda
mentalist Christians. In America for instance, Easter is now no longer about the
resurrection of Jesus, but about the chocolate Easter bunnies. Christmas in the
other hand is about Santa Claus and gifts instead of the day “Jesus was born”.
Thanks to commercialism, alot of the religious celebration is now no more than a
day for capitalism to make a quick buck out of them. Only in VDay can you see a
man buying roses and chocolates at twice the normal price.

So why do we keep seeing the factually wrong article in MUSLIM OWNED newspaper w
hen VDay is just days away? I guess this is another case of fictional oral histo
ry being passed around for years and years before eventually accepted as fact. T
he fact that it s repeatedly printed in magazines, newspaper and forwarded email
s only reinforce the idea that the story is legit.

"Jang.. Aku baca ni dulu dalam majalah Al Islam dan Berita Harian i. Takkan dia
nak tipu so ni mesti fakta sohih ni! Apa je dia dapat dengan menipu"

"Tapi takkan ko tak nampak banyak lobang dalam cerita ni. Takda fakta langsung c
uma 2-3 cerita disambung jadi satu.Tarkih pun tak ada padanan"

"Ni la kamu ni..... termakan dakyah setan! Pergi la sambut kalau nak masuk nerak
a“

"Kenapa lak aku masuk neraka kalau sambut VDay?”

"Pasal ada hadith - Sesiapa melakukan perbuatan menyerupai sesuatu kaum, maka ia
termasuk bersama golongan itu”

"So you are telling me if I celebrate New Year, World Cup , AIDS day, Diabetes D
ay, Hari Pahlawan, Hari Guru , Hari Persahabatan dan segalanya aku masuk neraka
la yek. Macam tu?”

“Ko ni memandai jak Jang. Hari yang diilhamkan kaum kafir je haram”

"Abis ko ingat hari-hari yang aku listkan tadi tu siapa yang reka? Graduation da
y pun kaum kapir yang start dulu. Yang baling Mortar Board Hat masa graduation t
u kapir yang start dulu! Masuk neraka la kamu nanti!“

See!?

No seriously. Why just Valentine’s Day yang jadi mangsa? Kenapa hari PENCINTA saha
ja yang asyik kena belasah? Why the double standard ? If you really want to stop
muslims from celebrating this lover s day why can t you use actual facts? Why m
ust we perpetuate fiction as facts? Please stop publishing this rehashed crap ye
ar in year out. If you really want to stop muslims from celebrating this day ple
ase use a better story based on facts. Better yet release a fatwa!

Oh in case you are wondering, I never celebrated VDay myself. Besides, I got my
own special date. Hahaha