British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, who walked away from international stardom after embracing Islam and adopting the name Yusuf Islam, has revisited his extraordinary spiritual journey in a new autobiography, reflecting on the experiences that led him from the heights of the music industry to a life centred on faith, humanitarian work and the search for a deeper purpose.
In an interview featured by The New York Times, the former rock star discussed his transformation from one of the world’s most celebrated musicians into a Muslim who devoted much of his life to religious education, charitable initiatives and spiritual reflection.
His memoir explores the defining moments of that transformation, including three near-death experiences, his discovery of the Qur’an, his support for Palestine, the personal controversies he encountered and his eventual return to music without abandoning his Islamic convictions.
Three Encounters With Death That Changed His Life
Long before embracing Islam, Stevens experienced three potentially fatal incidents that profoundly influenced his understanding of life and mortality.
The first occurred during his childhood when he slipped and nearly fell from the roof of his family home.
The second came when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 20, just as his musical career was approaching international recognition.
The illness confronted him with the possibility of death at a time when fame and professional success appeared increasingly within reach.
But it was a third experience, in late 1975, when Stevens was 27, that would prove particularly influential in his spiritual journey.
While swimming in the Pacific Ocean, he attempted to return to shore but found himself being dragged away by the current.
Unable to overcome the water’s force, he became overwhelmed by fear and the realisation that he might drown.
In that moment of helplessness, he turned his eyes towards the sky and called upon God, promising that if he survived, he would devote his life to Him.
According to the account, a powerful wave suddenly carried him towards the shore, allowing him to escape.
The experience remained deeply significant to Stevens, who subsequently began searching for a way to fulfil the promise he had made.
His questions about existence, mortality and the purpose of human life led him to explore different spiritual traditions.
He studied Buddhist writings, including a book titled The Secret Path, and practised yoga as he sought answers to what he described as profound questions about the mystery of existence.
Despite these explorations, his search for spiritual certainty continued.
‘Guide Us to the Straight Path’: Discovering the Qur’an
The turning point came when his brother David returned from a visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and gave him a copy of the Qur’an.
As Stevens began reading its opening pages, he felt that he had finally discovered the path through which he could fulfil the promise he had made during his near-death experience in the Pacific Ocean.
The encounter with the Qur’an ultimately changed the direction of his life.
In 1977, Stevens embraced Islam. The following year, he legally changed his name to Yusuf Islam and withdrew from the rock music industry.
He sold most of his musical instruments, distancing himself from the career that had brought him international recognition.
His decision shocked fans and prominent figures throughout the Western music industry, many of whom struggled to understand why an artist at the height of his success would voluntarily abandon the profession.
For Yusuf Islam, however, his spiritual transformation had begun even before his public conversion.
“I used to close the door of my hotel room between performances and read the Qur’an,” he recalled during the interview.
Reflecting on the progression of his spiritual search, he drew a connection between the earlier books he had explored and the message he encountered in Islam.
“The first spiritual book I read was The Secret Path, and in the Qur’an, the first words you read are ‘Guide us to the straight path,'” he said with a laugh, referring to the supplication in Surah Al-Fatihah.
The verse, “Guide us to the straight path” (Qur’an 1:6), took on particular meaning in the context of his years of searching for spiritual direction.
Yusuf Islam reflected on the unpredictable routes that had shaped his life.
“There are certainly some crooked paths in life, but they are all roads leading towards something higher, and I will keep walking,” he said.
His autobiography, titled Cat on the Road to Findout, emerged after approximately 35 years of contemplating whether to document his experiences.
The musician, whose songs were reportedly among the favourites of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, uses the memoir to explore the relationship between his artistic identity and the faith that transformed his understanding of success and purpose.
Yusuf Islam, Gaza and the Palestinian Cause
Beyond his personal spiritual journey, Yusuf Islam has maintained a longstanding commitment to humanitarian and political causes, particularly the Palestinian struggle.
During the interview, he described the devastation in Gaza as a defining moment and a test of the world’s collective conscience.
He argued that the younger generation witnessing the destruction would never forget what it had seen, and that Gaza would leave a lasting imprint on global awareness.
His position reflects decades of public engagement with Palestinian issues, an involvement that has also brought accusations and political controversy.
According to the account, Yusuf Islam was accused in 1988 of supporting Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement.
The allegations were linked in the article to difficulties surrounding his entry visas to the United States, which reportedly continued until 2006.
The article also attributed his deportation from the United States in 2004 to his refusal to meet then-President George W. Bush following the American invasion of Iraq.
These episodes formed part of the wider difficulties he encountered as a prominent Muslim public figure whose religious and political positions attracted scrutiny.
Alongside his advocacy for Palestine, Yusuf Islam devoted substantial efforts to education and charitable work following his conversion.
His initiatives included supporting Muslim children’s education in England and contributing to humanitarian activities connected to the Palestinian cause.
For a musician once associated primarily with international rock stardom, these endeavours became an important part of his public identity.
From Rock Music to Islamic Nasheeds
Following his conversion, Yusuf Islam did not immediately abandon every form of recorded musical expression.
Instead, he adopted a cautious approach, focusing largely on religious material and educational productions for children.
According to the article, his early recordings after embracing Islam relied on percussion, particularly drums, while avoiding the broader instrumentation associated with his previous musical career.
He established a production company called Mountain of Light, through which he released Islamic and English-language nasheeds and religious recordings.
Among his projects was The Life of the Last Prophet, an album exploring the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that gained considerable popularity across the Muslim world.
He also produced I Look, I See, an educational nasheed intended to introduce children to Islamic teachings.
These projects represented a departure from his earlier commercial music career, placing religious education and spiritual expression at the centre of his creative work.
For years, Yusuf Islam appeared content to leave behind the conventional music industry, concentrating instead on his family, religious commitments and charitable activities.
That position would eventually change through an unexpected encounter with an instrument from his past.
The Guitar That Brought Yusuf Islam Back to Music
His gradual return to mainstream music began when his son Muhammad secretly purchased a guitar while studying at university.
When Yusuf Islam discovered the instrument, he picked it up and began writing songs again after an absence of nearly three decades.
The experience reopened a creative path he had long considered closed.
According to the interview, his return was not simply an attempt to recapture the fame or commercial success he had enjoyed as Cat Stevens.
Rather, it reflected an evolving understanding of the relationship between faith and artistic expression.
Yusuf Islam explained that his examination of different Islamic scholarly opinions concerning music had allowed him to identify a religious position through which he could resume singing while remaining committed to his faith.
His decision reflected his engagement with differing jurisprudential interpretations rather than a rejection of the Islamic convictions that had originally led him away from the industry.
He began approaching songwriting from a different spiritual foundation, informed by decades of religious study, personal reflection and humanitarian involvement.
The return also allowed him to reconnect with an audience that had followed his career before his conversion, while introducing his work to listeners who knew him primarily through his Islamic identity.
Finding in Islam What Fame and Music Could Not Provide
Looking back on his life, Yusuf Islam explained that much of his early songwriting had been driven by unanswered questions about human existence and the deeper meaning of life.
Music had provided him with a means of expressing those questions, but it had not necessarily supplied the answers he was seeking.
After embracing Islam, he felt that the spiritual search which had shaped so much of his artistic career had reached a new stage.
He no longer experienced the same need to write large numbers of songs because he believed he had found the answers he had been searching for.
Rather than diminishing his ability to express himself, his faith had given him greater confidence in communicating what he understood to be true.
His journey from Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam was therefore not simply the story of a musician leaving rock music and eventually returning to it.
It was the account of a man whose encounters with mortality, years of spiritual questioning and discovery of the Qur’an fundamentally changed what he considered meaningful in life.
