{"id":695,"date":"2011-02-14T13:51:23","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T13:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html"},"modified":"2011-02-14T13:51:23","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T13:51:23","slug":"a-valentine-milad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html","title":{"rendered":"a Valentine Milad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This year sees a happy convergence &#8211; it is Valentine&#8217;s Day and also the birthday of the Prophet SAW*. <\/p>\n<p>Sadly, both occasions are burdened by controversy in the muslim world. Valentine&#8217;s Day is seen by some as a Western plot to foment moral decay &#8211; for example <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-pacific-12443104\">in Malaysia various scholars are calling VDay &#8220;a moral trap&#8221;<\/a> and warning muslims to &#8211; ahem &#8211; abstain from observing it. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prokerala.com\/news\/articles\/a201408.html\">Christians in Malaysia object<\/a> to VDay being characterized as a &#8220;Christian observance&#8221; so looks like no one wants Cupid around. <\/p>\n<p>And as for Milad, what better opportunity to express love of our Prophet SAW than on a day dedicated to love? Sadly, many muslims disagree and label the concept of Milad an innovation that should be shunned. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2010\/03\/reflection-on-milad-al-nabi.html\">I wrote about the Milad controversy in detail last year<\/a> and I count myself firmly among those who celebrate Milad &#8211; and my <em>tawhid<\/em> is just fine, thank you very much.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/abde\/4352135116\/\" title=\"Purple Ribbon by abde, on Flickr\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4004\/4352135116_5968f26b8e_t.jpg\" width=\"71\" height=\"100\" alt=\"Purple Ribbon\" \/><\/a>It&#8217;s also worth remembering that we are approaching the two-year anniversary of the horrific <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/nyc-muslim-s-asian-womens-grou.html\">murder of Aasiya Zubair<\/a>. As <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2010\/02\/lets-dedicate-this-valentines-2.html\">we did last year<\/a>, let&#8217;s pause in remembering Aasiya and other victims of domestic violence for whom Valentine&#8217;s Day is ironic in the extreme.<\/p>\n<p>*Technically, it will be Milad after sunset today, according to the Fatimid calendar, though some muslims observed Milad today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year sees a happy convergence &#8211; it is Valentine&#8217;s Day and also the birthday of the Prophet SAW*. Sadly, both occasions are burdened by controversy in the muslim world. Valentine&#8217;s Day is seen by some as a Western plot to foment moral decay &#8211; for example in Malaysia various scholars are calling VDay &#8220;a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,14],"tags":[230,24,386,25,26,385,34],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purple-politics","category-the-gates-of-ijtihad","category-the-pillars-of-faith","tag-domestic-violence","tag-islam","tag-milad","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-valentines-day","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>a Valentine Milad - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"a Valentine Milad - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year sees a happy convergence &#8211; it is Valentine&#8217;s Day and also the birthday of the Prophet SAW*. Sadly, both occasions are burdened by controversy in the muslim world. Valentine&#8217;s Day is seen by some as a Western plot to foment moral decay &#8211; for example in Malaysia various scholars are calling VDay &#8220;a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-14T13:51:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4004\/4352135116_5968f26b8e_t.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"a Valentine Milad - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"a Valentine Milad - City of Brass","og_description":"This year sees a happy convergence &#8211; it is Valentine&#8217;s Day and also the birthday of the Prophet SAW*. Sadly, both occasions are burdened by controversy in the muslim world. Valentine&#8217;s Day is seen by some as a Western plot to foment moral decay &#8211; for example in Malaysia various scholars are calling VDay &#8220;a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2011-02-14T13:51:23+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4004\/4352135116_5968f26b8e_t.jpg"}],"author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html","name":"a Valentine Milad - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4004\/4352135116_5968f26b8e_t.jpg","datePublished":"2011-02-14T13:51:23+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-14T13:51:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4004\/4352135116_5968f26b8e_t.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4004\/4352135116_5968f26b8e_t.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2011\/02\/a-valentine-milad.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"a Valentine Milad"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}