Allah has chosen for us Islam as our religion and He will not accept any other religion from anyone, as He Almighty Says (what means): {And whoever desires other than Islam as religion – never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers} [Quran 3:85]

Prophet Muhammad told us that some of his followers would follow non-Muslims in some of their rituals and customs, as in the Hadeeth (Prophetic narration) narrated by Abu Sa‘eed Al-Khudri : “You will certainly follow the ways of those who came before you, span by span and cubit by cubit, until even if they were to enter a lizard’s hole, you would follow them.” We (listeners) said, “O Messenger of Allah, (do you mean) the Jews and Christians?” He said: “Then who else?” [Imam Al-Bukhari]

What the Prophet spoke of has indeed come to pass and has become widespread in recent times, in many of the Muslim countries. Many of the Muslims follow non-Muslims in many of their customs and ways of behaving, and imitate them in some of their rituals and in celebrating their holidays.

The matter has been made even worse by the opening up of mass communications between peoples, whereby the rituals and customs of the non-Muslims are now transmitted with the glamorous adornment of sound and image from their countries into the Muslim countries, via satellite TV and the World Wide Web (Internet). Many Muslims have been deceived by their glamour.

In recent years, a new phenomenon has spread among the Muslim youth – males and females alike – which does not bode well. This is manifested in their imitation of non-Muslims in their celebration of the Valentine’s Day, which has led the scholars to explain the rulings of Sharee’ah (Islamic Law) concerning that, out of sincerity towards Allah, His Messenger the leaders of the Muslims and their common folk, so that Muslims may have a clear understanding of this issue and so that they will not fall into that which will undermine the ‘Aqeedah (belief) with which Allah has blessed them.