London born Steven Demetre Georgiou became famous in the 1970s for his unique folk-rock sound and was later recognised by many as the father of the 70’s singer-songwriter popularity. As Cat Stevens he was a powerful, respected, and much loved folk musician with hits like “Peace Train”, “Morning Has Broken”, and “Trouble”.
After a near fatal accident in 1975 Stevens vowed to dedicate his life to God. For years Stevens had been on a quest for spiritual truth. After being given a copy of the Qur’an, Stevens’ seemingly ceaseless spiritual quest came to an end. He found the peace, love, and truth he was looking for in Islam.
Stevens turned his back on his music — some in the Muslim faith believe that it is prohibited to sing or use musical instruments — and changed his name to Yusuf Islam when he converted to Islam in 1977. Always a spiritual man, interested in peace and improving the human condition, he instead turned his vast creative energy to improving life for his fellow human beings. Yusuf went on to found several Muslim Schools in London, channelling all royalties from his Cat Stevens work to charitable causes, including donating all royalties from the Cat Stevens Box Set released in October 2001 to charity – half went to The September 11th Fund. In 1999 he founded the U.N. Registered charity Small Kindness which provides humanitarian aid to orphans and families in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Darfur, Kashmir, and many other war torn areas of the world.
In 2004 Yusuf was awarded the prestigious “Man for Peace” award; which was created in 1999 to recognise those who had served humanity at large by giving “an outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace”. Created by Mikhail Gorbachev — a winner of the Noble Peace Prize — and sponsored by the Gorbachev Foundation.
But Yusuf hasn’t been immune to controversy and criticism. In early 1989 he was drawn into the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie and the fatwa against him. (Although there seems to be a lot of “he said, she said” and much of what was reported to have been said by Yusuf may be inaccurate reporting on the part of some members of the media.) About the incident Yusuf had this to say (as reported in Rolling Stone Magazine):
I had nothing to do with the issue other than what the media created. I was innocently drawn into the whole controversy. So, after many years, I’m glad at least now that I have been given the opportunity to explain to the public and fans my side of the story in my own words. At a lecture, back in 1989, I was asked a question about blasphemy according to Islamic Law, I simply repeated the legal view according to my limited knowledge of the Scriptural texts, based directly on historical commentaries of the Qur’an. The next day the newspaper headlines read, “Cat Says, Kill Rushdie.” I was abhorred, but what could I do? I was a new Muslim. If you ask a Bible student to quote the legal punishment of a person who commits blasphemy in the Bible, he would be dishonest if he didn’t mention Leviticus 24:16.
However Yusuf did say, in an interview with the Christian Science
Monitor, that Rushdie’s novel was “as good as stabbing Muslims in the heart” suggesting that Rushdie should repent writing the book. Yusuf added that if Rushdie was never found and punished according to Islamic law he would still have to “face God on the day of judgment.”
And although he has been branded by some as a supporter of terrorism he did speak out vehemently against the September 11 attacks. Immediately following the attacks Yusuf said (quoted by Andrew Dansby in Rolling Stone, September 17, 2001):
I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday. While it is still not clear who carried out the attack, it must be stated that no right thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action: The Qur’an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of the whole of humanity. We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims of this sorrowful moment.
He then appeared on a VH-1 pre-show for the Concert for New York City in October 2001, again condemning the attacks and singing an a cappella version of “Peace Train” live for the first time in more than 20 years. And that seems to have been the pebble that started the landslide. Yusuf Islam had released recordings, on his own label Mountain Of Light most of which had Islamic themes and only basic percussion instruments for accompaniment. But recently has he decided to re-enter the world of pop music, releasing the gentle and sincere, album An Other Cup
Why now? Yusuf has said that “When I picked up the guitar again it was like a floodgate. Ideas and melodies floated in without effort. The novelty of the whole process, searching for forgotten chords, inspired me; it made it feel the simple joy of being back as an amateur, with nothing much to lose.”
And when listening to An Other Cup you can hear it, the undeniable, unmistakable sounds of Cat Stevens, older, wiser but still peaceful, melodic and beautiful. His life has been a remarkable journey, sometimes controversial but always spiritual and everything that he has learned can be heard in the rich lyrical tapestry of An Other Cup. His strong, warm voice and gift for melody have not changed and you would be forgiven for thinking he has picked up right where he left off.
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