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There is a group of practices
that we can consider as the twin sister of bid'ah.
Like bid'ah they flourish on the twin foundations of
ignorance and outside influence. Like bid'ah they
entail rituals. But unlike bid'ah the rituals have
not been given an Islamic face. They are followed
because they are considered an acceptable cultural
practice or the hottest imported "in" thing.
Most of those who indulge in them
do not know what they are doing. They are just blind
followers of their equally blind cultural leaders.
Little do they realize that what they consider as
innocent fun may in fact be rooted in paganism. That
the symbols they embrace may be symbols of unbelief.
That the ideas they borrow may be products of
superstition. That all of these may be a negation of
what Islam stands for.
Consider Valentine's Day, a day
that after dying out a well deserved death in most
of Europe (but surviving in Britain and United
States) has suddenly started to emerge across a good
swath of Muslim countries. Who was Valentine? Why is
this day observed? Legends abound, as they do in all
such cases, but this much is clear: Valentine's Day
began as a pagan ritual started by Romans in the 4th
century BCE to honor the god Lupercus. The main
attraction of this ritual was a lottery held to
distribute young women to young men for
"entertainment and pleasure"--until the next year's
lottery. Among other equally despicable practices
associated with this day was the lashing of young
women by two young men, clad only in a bit of
goatskin and wielding goatskin thongs, who had been
smeared with blood of sacrificial goats and dogs. A
lash of the "sacred" thongs by these "holy men" was
believed to make them better able to bear children.
As usual, Christianity tried,
without success, to stop the evil celebration of
Lupercalia. It first replaced the lottery of the
names of women with a lottery of the names of the
saints. The idea was that during the following year
the young men would emulate the life of the saint
whose name they had drawn. (The idea that you can
preserve the appearance of a popular evil and yet
somehow turn it to serve the purpose of virtue, has
survived. Look at all those people who are still
trying, helplessly, to use the formats of popular
television entertainments to promote good. They
might learn something from this bit of history. It
failed miserably) Christianity ended up doing in
Rome, and elsewhere, as the Romans did.
The only success it had was in
changing the name from Lupercalia to St. Valentine's
Day. It was done in CE 496 by Pope Gelasius, in
honor of some Saint Valentine. There are as many as
50 different Valentines in Christian legends. Two of
them are more famous, although their lives and
characters are also shrouded in mystery. According
to one legend, and the one more in line with the
true nature of this celebration, St. Valentine was a
"lovers'" saint, who had himself fallen in love with
his jailer's daughter.
Due to serious troubles that
accompanied such lottery, French government banned
the practice in 1776. In Italy, Austria, Hungry, and
Germany also the ritual vanished over the years.
Earlier, it had been banned in England during the
17th century when the Puritans were strong. However
in 1660 Charles II revived it. From there it also
reached the New World, where enterprising Yankees
spotted a good means of making money. Esther A.
Howland, who produced one of the first commercial
American Valentine's Day cards called--- what
else--- valentines, in the 1840s, sold $5,000
worth--when $5,000 was a lot of money--the first
year. The valentine industry has been booming ever
since.
It is the same story with
Halloween, which has otherwise normal human beings
dressing like ghosts and goblins in a reenactment of
an ancient pagan ritual of demon worship. Five star
hotels in Muslim countries arrange Halloween parties
so the rich can celebrate the superstitions of a
distant period of ignorance that at one time even
included the shameful practice of human sacrifice.
The pagan name for that event was Samhain
(pronounced sow-en). Just as in case of Valentine's
Day, Christianity changed its name, but not the
pagan moorings.
Christmas is another story. Today
Muslim shopkeepers sell and shoppers buy Christmas
symbols in Islamabad or Dubai or Cairo. To engage in
a known religious celebration of another religion is
bad enough. What is worse is the fact that here is
another pagan celebration (Saturnalia) that has been
changed in name ---and in little else--- by
Christianity.
Even the celebration considered
most innocent might have pagan foundations.
According to one account, in pagan cultures, people
feared evil spirits - especially on their birthdays.
It was a common belief that evil spirits were more
dangerous to a person when he or she experienced a
change in their daily life, such as turning a year
older. So family and friends surrounded the person
with laughter and joy on their birthdays in order to
protect them from evil.
How can anyone in his right mind
think that Islam would be indifferent to practices
seeped in anti-Islamic ideas and beliefs? Islam came
to destroy paganism in all its forms and it cannot
tolerate any trace of it in the lives of its
followers.
Further, Islam is very sensitive
about maintaining its purity and the unique identity
of its followers. Islamic laws and teachings go to
extra lengths to ensure it. Salat is forbidden at
the precise times of sunrise, transition, and sunset
to eliminate the possibility of confusion with the
practice of sun worship. To the voluntary
recommended fast on the tenth of Muharram, Muslims
are required to add another day (9th or 11th) to
differentiate it from the then prevalent Jewish
practice. Muslims are forbidden to emulate the
appearance of non-Muslims.
A Muslim is a Muslim for life.
During joys and sorrows, during celebrations and
sufferings, we must follow the one straight path ---
not many divergent paths. It is a great tragedy that
under the constant barrage of commercial and
cultural propaganda from the forces of globalization
and the relentless media machine, Muslims have begun
to embrace the Valentines, the Halloween ghost, and
even the Santa Claus. Given our terrible and
increasing surrender to paganism the only day we
should be observing is a day of mourning. Better yet
it should be a day of repentance that could liberate
us from all these days. And all this daze. |
