Cat Stevens

I never knew that Cat Steven became a Muslim until two nights ago when I borrowed a video of an interview with him from library. He started with explaining about recording of “The life of the last Prophet” like a typical Muslim clergyman with very long beard and short straight hair taking the shortest path directly to his forehead. First I was amazed at his perfect British accent, being confident that he is an Arab. Being the only of such a case I have ever seen or heard of in my life, I was immensely surprised to find out that he once was Cat Steven, a very famous western pop star that I always was so fond of his music, converting to Islam by his own free will. He then explains what happened that caused him to convert to Islam, which can be summarized as studying Koran. He says that he found Koran quite the opposite of how it is depicted in West and very similar to Christian beliefs in essence, and that in the middle of chapter called “Yusuf”, he starts to cry, convinced that this cannot be the words of a man.He also says that the moment he became Muslim, he felt the peace he was always looking for. Later he changes his name to Yusuf Islam. Its unbelievable to know that he abandons his music life, to the extent that he never plays guitar again and doesn’t even own one. I started downloading his recent recitations of Koran or other Islamic songs, and it was so interesting to see how beautifully he pronounces Arabic words, rendering the fact that he is not an Arab incredible.
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Sunday, June 08, 2003 |