CAT STEVENS BECAME YUSUF ISLAM AT THE TOP OF FAME & WEALTH
HEND HAROUNI – TUNISIA
Friday 5th February, 2010 - 20 Safar, 1431
Yusuf Islam is the new name of Cat Stevens after he became Muslim by conviction. The prior British pop music celebrity embraced Islam in December 1977. Hereafter are his words regarding his truth quest pathway, the truth that he finally and successfully could find in Islam and nowhere else then has devoted his life to serve Allah and humanity.
By now about 60 million albums is his selling rate. Among Yusuf Islam new album titles are : Bismillah ( I Am a Muslim )/A Is for Allah/ Our Guide Is The Quran /The Messenger /The Seal of the Prophets/ /Prayers Of The Last Prophet/ I Look, I See (Friends & Children)/An Other Cup/Night Of Remembrance / Footsteps In The Light/ Roadsinger/Ramadhan Moon/ Tala'a Al-Badru 'Alayna/ Allah Divine Fate/ Believe In Allah/ Your Mother/ Father And Son/ Months in Islam.
Here Cat Stevens talks about his conversion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcgCdn8I8kU
Alhamdulillah for Cat Stevens guidance to Islam and for all who have been so!.
Wassalamu ‘alaykum.
Hend Harouni-Tunisia
III&E Brochure Series; No. 17
(published by The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (III&E)
and reproduced with permission)
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HOW I CAME TO ISLAM -- YUSUF ISLAM (CAT STEVEN)
All I have to say is all what you know already, to confirm what you already
know, the message of the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) as given by
God - the Religion of Truth. As human beings we are given a consciousness
and a duty that has placed us at the top of creation. Man is created to be
God's deputy on earth, and it is important to realize the obligation to rid
ourselves of all illusions and to make our lives a preparation for the next
life. Anybody who misses this chance is not likely to be given another, to
be brought back again and again, because it says in Qur'an Majeed that when
man is brought to account, he will say, "O Lord, send us back and give us
another chance." The Lord will say, "If I send you back you will do the
same."
MY EARLY RELIGIOUS UPBRINGING
I was brought up in the modern world of all the luxury and the high life of
show business. I was born in a Christian home, but we know that every
child is born in his original nature - it is only his parents that turn him
to this or that religion. I was given this religion (Christianity) and
thought this way. I was taught that God exists, but there was no direct
contact with God, so we had to make contact with Him through Jesus - he was
in fact the door to God. This was more or less accepted by me, but I did
not swallow it all.
I looked at some of the statues of Jesus; they were just stones with no
life. And when they said that God is three, I was puzzled even more but
could not argue. I more or less believed it, because I had to have respect
for the faith of my parents.
POP STAR
Gradually I became alienated from this religious upbringing. I started
making music. I wanted to be a big star. All those things I saw in the
films and on the media took hold of me, and perhaps I thought this was my
God, the goal of making money. I had an uncle who had a beautiful car.
"Well," I said, "he has it made. He has a lot of money." The people
around me influenced me to think that this was it; this world was their
God.
I decided then that this was the life for me; to make a lot of money, have
a 'great life.' Now my examples were the pop stars. I started making
songs, but deep down I had a feeling for humanity, a feeling that if I
became rich I would help the needy. (It says in the Qur'an, we make a
promise, but when we make something, we want to hold onto it and become
greedy.)
So what happened was that I became very famous. I was still a teenager, my
name and photo were splashed in all the media. They made me larger than
life, so I wanted to live larger than life and the only way to do that was
to be intoxicated (with liquor and drugs).
IN HOSPITAL
After a year of financial success and 'high' living, I became very ill,
contracted TB and had to be hospitalized. It was then that I started to
think: What was to happen to me? Was I just a body, and my goal in life
was merely to satisfy this body? I realized now that this calamity was a
blessing given to me by Allah, a chance to open my eyes - "Why am I here?
Why am I in bed?" - and I started looking for some of the answers. At that
time there was great interest in the Eastern mysticism. I began reading,
and the first thing I began to become aware of was death, and that the soul
moves on; it does not stop. I felt I was taking the road to bliss and high
accomplishment. I started meditating and even became a vegetarian. I now
believed in 'peace and flower power,' and this was the general trend. But
what I did believe in particular was that I was not just a body. This
awareness came to me at the hospital.
One day when I was walking and I was caught in the rain, I began running to
the shelter and then I realized, 'Wait a minute, my body is getting wet, my
body is telling me I am getting wet.' This made me think of a saying that
the body is like a donkey, and it has to be trained where it has to go.
Otherwise, the donkey will lead you where it wants to go.
Then I realized I had a will, a God-given gift: follow the will of God. I
was fascinated by the new terminology I was learning in the Eastern
religion. By now I was fed up with Christianity. I started making music
again and this time I started reflecting my own thoughts. I remember the
lyric of one of my songs. It goes like this: "I wish I knew, I wish I
knew what makes the Heaven, what makes the Hell. Do I get to know You in
my bed or some dusty cell while others reach the big hotel?" and I knew I
was on the Path.
I also wrote another song, "The Way to Find God Out." I became even more
famous in the world of music. I really had a difficult time because I was
getting rich and famous, and at the same time, I was sincerely searching
for the Truth. Then I came to a stage where I decided that Buddhism is all
right and noble, but I was not ready to leave the world. I was too
attached to the world and was not prepared to become a monk and to isolate
myself from society.
I tried Zen and Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology. I tried to
look back into the Bible and could not find anything. At this time I did
not know anything about Islam, and then, what I regarded as a miracle
occurred. My brother had visited the mosque in Jerusalem and was greatly
impressed that while on the one hand it throbbed with life (unlike the
churches and synagogues which were empty), on the other hand, an atmosphere
of peace and tranquillity prevailed.
THE QUR'AN
When he came to London he brought back a translation of the Qur'an, which
he gave to me. He did not become a Muslim, but he felt something in this
religion, and thought I might find something in it also.
And when I received the book, a guidance that would explain everything to
me - who I was; what was the purpose of life; what was the reality and what
would be the reality; and where I came from - I realized that this was the
true religion; religion not in the sense the West understands it, not the
type for only your old age. In the West, whoever wishes to embrace a
religion and make it his only way of life is deemed a fanatic. I was not a
fanatic, I was at first confused between the body and the soul. Then I
realized that the body and soul are not apart and you don't have to go to
the mountain to be religious. We must follow the will of God. Then we can
rise higher than the angels. The first thing I wanted to do now was to be
a Muslim.
I realized that everything belongs to God, that slumber does not overtake
Him. He created everything. At this point I began to lose the pride in
me, because hereto I had thought the reason I was here was because of my
own greatness. But I realized that I did not create myself, and the whole
purpose of my being here was to submit to the teaching that has been
perfected by the religion we know as Al-Islam. At this point I started
discovering my faith. I felt I was a Muslim. On reading the Qur'an, I now
realized that all the Prophets sent by God brought the same message. Why
then were the Jews and Christians different? I know now how the Jews did
not accept Jesus as the Messiah and that they had changed His Word. Even
the Christians misunderstand God's Word and called Jesus the son of God.
Everything made so much sense. This is the beauty of the Qur'an; it asks
you to reflect and reason, and not to worship the sun or moon but the One
Who has created everything. The Qur'an asks man to reflect upon the sun
and moon and God's creation in general. Do you realize how different the
sun is from the moon? They are at varying distances from the earth, yet
appear the same size to us; at times one seems to overlap the other.
Even when many of the astronauts go to space, they see the insignificant
size of the earth and vastness of space. They become very religious,
because they have seen the Signs of Allah.
When I read the Qur'an further, it talked about prayer, kindness and
charity. I was not a Muslim yet, but I felt that the only answer for me
was the Qur'an, and God had sent it to me, and I kept it a secret. But the
Qur'an also speaks on different levels. I began to understand it on
another level, where the Qur'an says, "Those who believe do not take
disbelievers for friends and the believers are brothers." Thus at this
point I wished to meet my Muslim brothers.
CONVERSION
Then I decided to journey to Jerusalem (as my brother had done). At
Jerusalem, I went to the mosque and sat down. A man asked me what I
wanted. I told him I was a Muslim. He asked what was my name. I told
him, "Stevens." He was confused. I then joined the prayer, though not so
successfully. Back in London, I met a sister called Nafisa. I told her I
wanted to embrace Islam and she directed me to the New Regent Mosque. This
was in 1977, about one and a half years after I received the Qur'an. Now I
realized that I must get rid of my pride, get rid of Iblis, and face one
direction. So on a Friday, after Jumma' I went to the Imam and declared my
faith (the Kalima) at this hands. You have before you someone who had
achieved fame and fortune. But guidance was something that eluded me, no
matter how hard I tried, until I was shown the Qur'an. Now I realize I can
get in direct contact with God, unlike Christianity or any other religion.
As one Hindu lady told me, "You don't understand the Hindus. We believe in
one God; we use these objects (idols) to merely concentrate." What she was
saying was that in order to reach God, one has to create associates, that
are idols for the purpose. But Islam removes all these barriers. The only
thing that moves the believers from the disbelievers is the salat. This is
the process of purification.
Finally I wish to say that everything I do is for the pleasure of Allah and
pray that you gain some inspirations from my experiences. Furthermore, I
would like to stress that I did not come into contact with any Muslim
before I embraced Islam. I read the Qur'an first and realized that no
person is perfect. Islam is perfect, and if we imitate the conduct of the
Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) we will be successful. May
Allah give us guidance to follow the path of the ummah of Muhammad
(Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam). Ameen!
-- Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)
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