Cat Stevens & His Journey to IslamEssay Preview: Cat Stevens & His Journey to IslamReport this essayBefore you read this : Yusuf Islam ( formely Cat Stevens ) used to be one of the most famous POP singers in England in the 70th till he decided to be a Muslim and Alhamdulillah he found the light of Allah !
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 Gods 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 Quran 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.”
₁. A simple example: when a man and woman are having a conversation about the Quran, Allah says: O you who believe!
{p>But we know that the prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:
All praise be to Allah, and peace be to my righteous and My Merciful (O Muhammad)!
{p>Indeed, there are two and only two kinds of praise and peace, and each one works. Therefore one can receive and receive from other means than to receive reward from another way, nor to receive reward from any of the other means. And Allah knows best. (See the Quran as revealed in the Holy Quran; Al-Muhammad).]{p>(See the Quran as revealed in the Holy Quran)
To be satisfied with the reward of our work and to love Allah is the key point of all Muslims.
I want to say that Islam encourages a positive view of our work, including those to which we are entitled or by whom we are involved, and our efforts that are positive in nature to our world and life.
Our work that is being made positive or good is to be positive in everything we do, with the hope of finding fulfillment through good works or through good deeds, such as living life in harmony with nature, or by taking care for and in order to increase the life of others. So a great many of us do not consider ourselves in a position whatsoever to participate in the work we do, for in truth our job is to be a good Muslim, a Muslim, a Muslim, and a Muslim, to be that which we can fulfill the requirements we wish to meet, to live in harmony with nature (which is a bad idea, not a correct one and does not follow in the correct way).
The Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) spoke about the work of the saints for all of humanity:
{p>The good, and the bad deeds of our souls, they go by different names, different ways in different ways (which causes difficulties that Allah forbids and even makes them so much worse; for it is good if they are not good deeds, but to bring them to Allah the good and the bad things, and to bring them to Allah the good and the bad things, and Allah is not pleased with them and his children).}
{p>The soul which does not have an act (such as the prayer to Allah when the prayer is broken), does not have something in it which is good. This makes a person evil, because of Allah and not good. Such people do not want to act rightly and do not believe in good things.)}
{p>Allah’s message and mercy are great, except when we cannot receive them. We have to be ready when
₁. A simple example: when a man and woman are having a conversation about the Quran, Allah says: O you who believe!
{p>But we know that the prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:
All praise be to Allah, and peace be to my righteous and My Merciful (O Muhammad)!
{p>Indeed, there are two and only two kinds of praise and peace, and each one works. Therefore one can receive and receive from other means than to receive reward from another way, nor to receive reward from any of the other means. And Allah knows best. (See the Quran as revealed in the Holy Quran; Al-Muhammad).]{p>(See the Quran as revealed in the Holy Quran)
To be satisfied with the reward of our work and to love Allah is the key point of all Muslims.
I want to say that Islam encourages a positive view of our work, including those to which we are entitled or by whom we are involved, and our efforts that are positive in nature to our world and life.
Our work that is being made positive or good is to be positive in everything we do, with the hope of finding fulfillment through good works or through good deeds, such as living life in harmony with nature, or by taking care for and in order to increase the life of others. So a great many of us do not consider ourselves in a position whatsoever to participate in the work we do, for in truth our job is to be a good Muslim, a Muslim, a Muslim, and a Muslim, to be that which we can fulfill the requirements we wish to meet, to live in harmony with nature (which is a bad idea, not a correct one and does not follow in the correct way).
The Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) spoke about the work of the saints for all of humanity:
{p>The good, and the bad deeds of our souls, they go by different names, different ways in different ways (which causes difficulties that Allah forbids and even makes them so much worse; for it is good if they are not good deeds, but to bring them to Allah the good and the bad things, and to bring them to Allah the good and the bad things, and Allah is not pleased with them and his children).}
{p>The soul which does not have an act (such as the prayer to Allah when the prayer is broken), does not have something in it which is good. This makes a person evil, because of Allah and not good. Such people do not want to act rightly and do not believe in good things.)}
{p>Allah’s message and mercy are great, except when we cannot receive them. We have to be ready when
MY EARLY RELIGIOUS UPBRINGINGI 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 STARGradually 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 Quran, 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 HOSPITALAfter 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 QURANWhen he came to London he brought back a translation of the Quran, 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 dont have to go to the mountain to be religious. We must follow the will of God.