Yusuf Islam – once known as Cat Stevens and born Steven Demetre Georgiou – penned his debut book, “Why I Still Carry a Guitar”, that aims to explain to a portion of his Muslim fans why he made his musical comeback. His sold-out tours have shown that he still has the knack, but he received a great deal of hate mail that described his decision to return to music as un-Islamic.
His book is a message to conservative Muslims. It doesn’t touch at other issues such as how his Greek father, Swedish father and brother all dealt with his conversion to Islam, but it does describe his own “spiritual journey” from his conversion in 1977 as well as his decision to return to music regardless of the fact that many conservative Muslims shun the arts because they feel it misconstrues their faith.
Reviewing the proofs of his book
The performer, however, believes that the arts can be therapeutic for Muslims and act as a bridge. The 100-page book, printed in Arabic and English, is comprised of 15 short paragraphs and doesn’t delve deeply into his own decision to convert. His style is poetic and reflective and at times highly scholarly, especially in the sections where the musician points to passages in the Quran and Hadiths where music isn’t expressly banned. “There was not enough undisputed evidence in Islam’s original scriptural sources of divine knowledge to support the complete banning of music from human life and its objectives,” he says.
After years of silence, he returned to music and released an album and a book
Rather than focus on why he decided to make a return to the music scene after two decades aren’t dealt with as much as music’s role in the Muslim faith. The book does show that the performer’s major career decisions from quitting music to setting up his office in Dubai were done mainly for the purpose of furthering his faith.
Yusuf Islam, his wife Fawzia Ali, with whom he entered an arranged marriage and their family
His book was purely to put the rumors in their place and explain that his return to music hadn’t meant that he had left Islam. He explains that he wants to use music as a powerful means of change.
The peace train –
Yusuf Islam talks about his father –
