{"id":421,"date":"2012-07-07T09:05:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T16:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whoismohamed.com\/?p=421"},"modified":"2012-07-07T11:40:56","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T18:40:56","slug":"cat-stevens-when-he-was-a-pop-star-how-he-came-to-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/?p=421","title":{"rendered":"Cat Stevens when he was a pop star How he Came To Islam"},"content":{"rendered":"

All I have to say is all what you know already, to confirm what you already know the message of the Prophet (\u00a0pbuh\u00a0) 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<\/p>\n

\"ysuf<\/a>

ysuf islam cat stevens before<\/p><\/div>\n

God\u2019s deputy on earth, and it is important to realize the obligation to rid us of all illusions and to preparefor the next life. Anybody who misses this chance is not likely to begiven another, to be brought back again and again, because it says in Quran\u00a0Majeed\u00a0\u201cthat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My early religious upbringing<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was brought up in the modern world of all the luxury and the highlight\u00a0of show\u00a0business.\u00a0I was\u00a0born in a Christian home but we know that every child is born in his original nature; parents will manipulate his religious upbringing.Therefore, I was given this religion<\/p>\n

\"cat-stevens\"<\/a>

cat-stevens<\/p><\/div>\n

(Christianity)\u00a0and taught this\u00a0way.\u00a0I was taught that God exists, but there was no direct contact with God, so we had to make contact with Him through Jesus (Peace Be upon him) , he was in fact the door to God.\u00a0This was more or less accepted by me,\u00a0but I did not swallow it all . I looked at some of the statues of Jesus ; they were just stones with no\u00a0life.\u00a0And\u00a0when\u00a0they\u00a0said\u00a0that God is three, I was puzzled evenmore but\u00a0could not\u00a0argue.\u00a0I more\u00a0or\u00a0less believed it, because I had to have respect for the faith of my\u00a0parents.<\/p>\n

Pop Star<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gradually I became alienated from\u00a0this\u00a0religious\u00a0upbringing.\u00a0I started\u00a0making\u00a0music.\u00a0I wanted\u00a0to\u00a0be a big\u00a0star.\u00a0All those things I saw in the films and on the media took\u00a0hold of me, and perhaps I thought this was my God,\u00a0the goal of making money. I had an uncle who had a\u00a0beautiful car \u201cWell\u201d, I said, \u201che has it made\u201d, he had a lot of<\/p>\n

\"cat-stevens<\/a>

cat-stevens pop star<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0great life.\u00a0Now my\u00a0examples were the pop stars. I started making songs, but deep down I had a feeling for humanity, a feeling that if I\u00a0became rich I will help the needy It says in the Quran, (\u00a0we make a\u00a0promise, but when we make\u00a0something we want to hold on to it\u00a0and become greedy\u00a0).<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>So\u00a0what happened was that I became very famous\u00a0was still a teenager, myname and photo were splashed in allthe\u00a0media.\u00a0They\u00a0made\u00a0me\u00a0larger\u00a0than life, so l wanted to live larger\u00a0than life and the only way to do thatwas to be intoxicated (with liquor &drugs) .<\/p>\n

In Hospital<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a year of financial success and \u201chigh\u201d living, I became very ill ,contracted T.B. and had to be hospitalized.\u00a0It\u00a0was\u00a0then\u00a0that\u00a0I started to think: what was to happen to me?\u00a0Was I\u00a0just a\u00a0body and\u00a0my goal in life was merely to satisfy this\u00a0body?\u00a0I\u00a0realized\u00a0now\u00a0that\u00a0this calamity was a blessing given to me\u00a0by Allah (Swt) a chance to open my eyes, \u201cwhy am I here, why am I in\u00a0bed\u201d, and I started looking for some of the\u00a0answers.\u00a0At that\u00a0time,\u00a0there was great interest in the Eastern mysticism. I began reading and the first thing I began to become aware of was of death, and that the soul moves on,\u00a0it does\u00a0not stop.\u00a0I felt Iwas taking the road to bliss and high accomplishment I started meditating and\u00a0even\u00a0became\u00a0a\u00a0vegetarian.\u00a0I now believed in \u201cpeace and flower\u00a0\u00a0power\u201d, and this was the general trend.\u00a0Nevertheless,\u00a0what\u00a0I\u00a0did\u00a0believe in particular was that I was not just a body; this awareness came to me at the hospital. One day when I was walking I was caught in the rain. I began running to the shelter and then I realized, \u201cwait a minute, my body is getting wet, my body is telling me I am\u00a0getting\u00a0wet.\u201d\u00a0This\u00a0made\u00a0me 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, aGod-given gift to \u201cfollow the will of\u00a0God.\u201d I was fascinated by the new terminology I was learning in the Eastern religion.\u00a0By now,\u00a0I was fed up\u00a0with\u00a0Christianity.\u00a0I\u00a0started reflecting\u00a0my\u00a0own\u00a0thoughts.\u00a0I remember the lyric of one of my songs.\u00a0It goes\u00a0like\u00a0this: \u201cI wish\u00a0I 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 \u201d and I knew I was on the Path. I also wrote another song \u201cThe way to find God out.\u201d\u00a0I became\u00a0even 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\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0Truth.\u00a0Then\u00a0I came to a stage where I decided that Buddhism is all right and noble, butI was not ready to leave the world.\u00a0I was too attached to the world and was not prepared to become a monk\u00a0and 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.\u00a0At\u00a0this\u00a0time\u00a0I\u00a0did\u00a0not know anything about Islam and then, what I regarded as a miracle occurred.\u00a0My brother\u00a0had visited\u00a0the 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\u00a0hand, an atmosphere of peace and tranquility prevailed.<\/p>\n

The Quran<\/strong><\/p>\n

When he came to London, he\u00a0brought back a translation of the Quran, which\u00a0he gave to me.\u00a0He did not become a Muslim, but he felt something in this religion, andt hought I might find something in it also. Moreover, when I received the\u00a0book<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The holly quaran<\/p><\/div>\n

, (a guidance that would\u00a0explain everything\u00a0to me:\u00a0who I was?\u00a0What was the\u00a0purpose of\u00a0life?\u00a0What was the reality and what would be the reality,\u00a0and where I\u00a0came\u00a0from?\u00a0I realized that this was the true religion – religion not in the sense the West understands it , not the type for only\u00a0your old\u00a0age.\u00a0In the\u00a0West whoever wishes to embrace a religion and make it his only way of\u00a0life is deemed a fanatic.\u00a0I was not a fanatic; I was at first confused\u00a0between the body and the soul .Then I realized that the body and soul are not a part and you don’t have to go to the mountain to be religious ; we must follow the will of God,\u00a0then we can rise even higher than the angels.\u00a0The first thing\u00a0I wanted to do now was to be a Muslim. I realized that everything\u00a0belongs to God, that slumber does not\u00a0overtake\u00a0Him.\u00a0He\u00a0created everything .\u00a0At this\u00a0point I\u00a0began to lose the pride in me, because heretoI had thought the reason l was there was because of my own greatness. However, I realized that I did not create myself, and the whole\u00a0purpose of my being here was to submit to the teaching that has been\u00a0perfected by the religion we know as Al-Islam.\u00a0At\u00a0this\u00a0point ,\u00a0I\u00a0started discovering my faith ; I felt that I was Muslim\u00a0on\u00a0reading\u00a0the\u00a0Quran.\u00a0I now realized that all the Prophets sent by God brought the same message.\u00a0Why then were\u00a0the Jews and\u00a0Christians\u00a0different?\u00a0I\u00a0knew now how the Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and that they had changed His Word . Even the Christians misunderstand God\u2019s Word and called Jesus the son of\u00a0God .\u00a0Every\u00a0thing\u00a0made\u00a0so\u00a0much sense.\u00a0This\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0beauty\u00a0of\u00a0the Quran; it asks you to reflect and reason and not to worship the sun or\u00a0the moon but the One who has created everything .The Quran asks man to reflect upon the sun, moon ,and God\u2019s creation\u00a0in general.\u00a0Do you realize how different the sun is from the moon?\u00a0They are at varying distances from the earth, yet appear\u00a0the 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 (swt). When I read the Quran further, it talked about prayer, kindness, and charity.\u00a0I was not a\u00a0Muslim yet,\u00a0but I felt that the only answer for me was the Quran, and God had sent it to me and, I kept it a secret .\u00a0Nevertheless, the Quran also speaks on\u00a0different\u00a0levels.\u00a0I\u00a0began\u00a0to understand it on another level, where the Quran says ”\u00a0Those who believe don’t take disbelievers\u00a0for friends and the believers are brothers\u00a0.\u201dThus, at this point I wished to meet my Muslim brothers.<\/p>\n

Conversion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then I decided to journey to Jerusalem (as my brother had done) At Jerusalem, I went to the mosque and\u00a0sat\u00a0down.\u00a0A man asked me what I\u00a0wanted.\u00a0I told\u00a0him I\u00a0was a Muslim.\u00a0He\u00a0asked\u00a0what\u00a0was\u00a0my name; I\u00a0told him \u201cStevens.\u201d\u00a0He was confused.\u00a0I then joined\u00a0the\u00a0prayer\u00a0though not so\u00a0successfully.\u00a0Back in London, I met a sister called Nafisa. I told her I wanted to embrace Islam and she directed me to the New Regent\u00a0Mosque.\u00a0This was in\u00a01977, about 1 1\/2 years after I received the Quran.\u00a0Now I\u00a0realized\u00a0that I\u00a0must get rid of my pride, get rid of\u00a0Iblis\u00a0(devil) and\u00a0face one\u00a0direction.\u00a0So ona Friday, after\u00a0Jummah\u00a0I went to the Imam and declared my faith (the\u00a0Kalima\u00a0) at his hands.<\/p>\n

You have\u00a0before you someone who had achieved fame and fortune.However, guidance was something that eluded me, no matter how hard I tried until I was shown the Quran.\u00a0Now I realize, I can get direct\u00a0contact with God, unlike Christianity or any other religion . As one Hindu woman told me, \u201cYoudo not understand the Hindus, we\u00a0believe in one God, we use these objects (idols) to merely concentrate. \u201d\u00a0What\u00a0she was\u00a0saying was that in order to reach God one has to create associates that are idols for the purpose. However, Islam removes all these barriers, the only thing that moves the believers fromthe disbelievers is the\u00a0salat<\/p>\n

\"cat<\/a>

cat stevens<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the process of purification. Finally, I wish to say that everything I do is for the pleasure of Allah and\u00a0pray that you gain some inspirations from\u00a0my\u00a0experiences.\u00a0Furthermore, I would like to stress that I was not exposed to any Muslim before I embraced\u00a0Islam. \u00a0I read\u00a0the\u00a0Quran first and realized no person is\u00a0perfect, Islam is perfect, and if we imitate the conduct of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) we will be successful . May Allah (swt) give us guidance to follow the path of the\u00a0Ummah\u00a0of Muhammad (pbuh) . Ammeen .<\/p>\n

Your Brother in IslamYusuf Islam \/(Cat Stevens before)<\/p>\n

source :\u00a0http:\/\/www.scribd.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All I have to say is all what you know already, to confirm what you already know the message of the Prophet (\u00a0pbuh\u00a0) as given by God -the Religion of Truth. As human beings, we are given a consciousness and … Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whoismohamed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}