Answer
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
As Muslims, we should love one another and wish and inculcate love among people regardless of their color, race, religion, or identity. However, this does not mean dissolving our identity or blindly copying and imitating others’ traditions and practices.
In her response to your question about Muslims celebrating Valentine’s Day, the Muslim scholar and da`iyah, Zeinab Mostafa, states:
It is unfortunate that many Muslims tend to copy and imitate others without understanding the backgrounds. Muslims must not dissolve the marked features of their identity.
Islam goes against celebrating Valentine’s Day because commemorating that day is an innovation or bidah that has no religious backing, let alone the unlawful practices done during it that Muslims should not take part in.
Muslims are only allowed to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha. Adding other days to the importance of Eid is completely unacceptable and a blind imitation to un-Islamic traditions.
We are cautioned against blindly following others. We should copy people in doing what is good and right, without compromising our faith. We should feel proud of our Islamic way of life.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.