Why Cats Steven becomes
Yusuf Islam ?
All I have to say is all what
you know already, to confirm what you already know, the message of the Prophet
[may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him] 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… 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 the Glorious
Quran 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.’”
My Early Religious Upbringing
I 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 Star
Gradually 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 Hospital
After 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
God, 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 tranquility prevailed.
The
Quran
When 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 don’t have to go to the mountain to be religious. We must follow the
will of God. Then we can rise higher than the angels. The first
thing I wanted to do now was to be a Muslim.
I realized that everything belongs to God,
that slumber does not overtake Him. He created everything. At this
point I began to lose the pride in me, because hereto I had thought the reason
I was here was because of my own greatness. But I realized that I did not
create myself, and the whole purpose of my being here was to submit to the
teaching that has been perfected by the religion we know as Al-Islam. At
this point, I started discovering my faith. I felt I was a Muslim.
On reading the Quran, I now realized that all the Prophets sent by God brought
the same message. Why then were the Jews and Christians different?
I know now how the Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and that they had
changed His Word. Even the Christians misunderstand God’s Word and called
Jesus the son of God. Everything made so much sense. This is the
beauty of the Quran; it asks you to reflect and reason, and not to worship the
sun or moon but the One Who has created everything. The Quran asks man to
reflect upon the sun and moon and God’s creation in general. Do you
realize how different the sun is from the moon? They are at varying
distances from the earth, yet appear the 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 God.
When I read the Quran further, it talked about
prayer, kindness and charity. I was not a Muslim yet, but I felt that the
only answer for me was the Quran, and God had sent it to me, and I kept it a
secret. But the Quran also speaks on different levels. I began to
understand it on another level, where the Quran says, “Those who believe do not
take disbelievers for friends and the believers are brothers.” Thus at
this point I wished to meet my Muslim brothers.
Conversion
Then I decided to journey to Jerusalem (as my
brother had done). At Jerusalem, I went to the mosque and sat down.
A man asked me what I wanted. I told him I was a Muslim. He asked
what was my name. I told him, “Stevens.” He was confused. I
then joined the prayer, though not so successfully. Back in London, I met
a sister called Nafisa. I told her I wanted to embrace Islam, and she
directed me to the New Regent Mosque. This was in 1977, about one and a
half years after I received the Quran. Now I realized that I must get rid
of my pride, get rid of Satan, and face one direction. So on a Friday,
after the Friday congrational prayer service, I went to the Imam (Prayer
Leader) and declared my faith (the Shahaadah) at this hands. You have
before you someone who had achieved fame and fortune. But guidance was
something that eluded me, no matter how hard I tried, until I was shown the
Quran. Now I realize I can get in direct contact with God, unlike
Christianity or any other religion. As one Hindu lady told me, “You don’t
understand the Hindus. We believe in one God; we use these objects
(idols) to merely concentrate.” What she was saying was that in order to
reach God, one has to create associates, that are idols for the purpose.
But Islam removes all these barriers. The only thing that moves the
believers from the disbelievers is the salat (prayer). This is the
process of purification.
Finally, I wish to say that everything I do is
for the pleasure of God and pray that you gain some inspirations from my
experiences. Furthermore, I would like to stress that I did not come into
contact with any Muslim before I embraced Islam. I read the Quran first and
realized that no person is perfect. Islam is perfect, and if we imitate
the conduct of the Prophet we will be successful.
May God give us guidance to follow the path of
the nation of Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.
Ameen!
.
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