VALENTINE: LOVE OR LUST?
BY
SANNI KAY YUSUF
The man, St Valentine – in one account of the conflicting stories of his life – was said to have been beheaded by one Roman emperor whose order barring soldiers from marriage (to keep them physically fit for wars) was flouted by the priest. Mr Valentine would secretly conduct marriages for the warriors holding that those young men needed not only physical but emotional stability to sail through territorial battles.
Mr Emperor got to know of the priest’s disloyalty and was arrested for treasonable felony which landed him in prison. Salt was added to Mr Valentine’s injury when the Emperor’s daughter was said to have fallen in love for him, and would secretly feed him with delectable delicacies therein. Mr Emperor could not hold himself back when the relationship got to his knowledge. He was so angered that he could not but expressly rule that the saint be ceased of breath. The day the excommunication was carried out was said to be February 14th and was later earmarked as a special day to celebrate love.
The other accounts to the story, though differently chronicled, had one thing in common: that St Valentine was killed (beheaded or hung) for love, hence the yearly celebration – Valentine’s Day. The day was therefore symbolized with red flowers, and in later years (till now) would be accompanied with greeting cards worded with affectionate, thrilling expressions.
Valentine – a day the girl’s life is irreparably damaged, and her future irredeemably dashed. Val – a day the girl is voluntarily robbed of her dignity with no window for a second chance. Val – a day womanhood is unremorsefully rendered worthless.
Valentine – a day parents unknowingly lose their children to ‘valentinous’ vanity, and in old age are still nursing them as though they were grandbabies. Val – a day teenagers rush to take dinner at dawn, not minding the hunger that will later befall them as repercussion. Val – a day the boy and/or the man is susceptible to STDs with a very high chance of transmissibility to family and friends.
Valentine – a day the noble turn ignoble within a twinkling of an eye, and the ignoble remain unstable almost forever.
Indisputably, the most suitable appellative for the messy happenings on the annual Valentine’s Day is nothing but Losers’ Day – not Lovers’ Day.
Africans are black not because our brains are dark, nor because our reasoning is stark. The blackness of our complexion is just a thing of nature. Allah wanted it as such and He made it as such.
The white man isn’t light because his brain is right, nor because his reasoning has might. The whiteness of his colour is just a mere natural phenomenon as unquestionably willed and ultimately decreed by Allah. Therefore, man – generally – is human, irrespective of colour. No superiority, no inferiority!
Why then would the black take anything from the white hook, line and sinker – without questions as to its reasonability? I have no doubt that if what had led to the commemoration of Valentine’s Day every February 14th had happened to an African on the African soil, the white man wouldn’t have considered it worthy of celebration.
Must we take anything from the white man? Even if anyone would, a Muslim shouldn’t. A muslim would only take the ones that are in tandem with the Islamic manual – the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Anyone that is contravening, such as Val Day, should be rejected outright.
The idea of fixing one day to express love defies logic and should be eschewed with immediate alacrity.
Some people do claim that love on this ‘auspicious’ day may be friend to friend, parant to child, neighbour to neighbour, teacher to student, super-ordinate to subordinate etc. So I ask: which was St Valentine’s that saw to his beheading as chastisement for treason against the Roman empire? Was the daughter of the Emperor he fell in love with his sister, mother, neighbour or subordinate? Mcheeeeew! People know how to easily rationalise when their actions are considered heretic. They have the mastery of how to abracadabrically turn black into white. And the gullible, the dogmas will surely not see the former but the latter. For Islam, black is black, and white is white, no matter the packaging.
Islam being a religion of peace, is founded upon love, which is to be expressed on a secondly, minutely, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, not annually basis.
Beware of valentine, so that you don’t get quarantined into the nest of sins.ξ
English 
