CAT STEVENS BECAME YUSUF ISLAM AT THE TOP OF FAME & WEALTH: HEND HAROUNI

 

 

CAT STEVENS BECAME YUSUF ISLAM AT THE TOP OF FAME & WEALTH

HEND HAROUNI – TUNISIA

Friday 5th February, 2010 - 20 Safar, 1431

Yusuf Islamisthe new name ofCat 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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