Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam, commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, humanitarian, and education philanthropist. His 1967 debut album reached the top 10 in the UK, and the album's title song "Matthew and Son" charted at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. His albums Tea for the Tillermanand Teaser and the Firecatwere both certified triple platinum in the US by the RIAA. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and Islamic music...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth21 July 1948
CityLondon, England
The latest horror to hit the U.S. looks to have been caused by people of Middle Eastern origin, bearing Muslim names. Again, shame. This fuels more hatred for a religion and a people who have nothing to do with these events.
Peace Train is a song I wrote, the message of which continues to breeze thunderously through the hearts of millions of human beings.
They have hijacked my religion.
Music can be healing, and with my history and my knowledge of both sides of what looks like a gigantic divide in the world, I feel I can point a way forward to our common humanity again.
Take your time, think a lot, Why, think of everything you've got. For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not. From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen. Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away. I know I have to go.
I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one. And I believe it could be someday it's going to come.
If you want to be free be free
Life is a journey, you know; and a lot of journeys, you go out, you come back.
I found a religion that blended scientific reason with spiritual reality in a unifying faith far removed from the headlines of violence, destruction and terrorism.
Everything made so much sense. This is the beauty of the Qur'an; it asks you to reflect and reason....When I read the Qur'an further, it talked about prayer, kindness and charity. I was not a Muslim yet, but I felt the only answer for me was the Qur'an and God had sent it to me.
If you want to sing out, sing out, and if you want to be free, be free, cause there's a million ways to be, you know that there are.
The very first lesson that I learnt from the Qur'an was the message of unity and peace.
I did not come into contact with any Muslim before I embraced Islam. I read the Qur'an first and realized no person is perfect, Islam is perfect, and if we imitate the conduct of the Holy Prophet... we will be successful.
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.