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Cat Stevens



Surrounded by the fascinating world of wealth and fame, Cat Stevens
started his life. He lived an affluent childhood with his Christian
parents and Christianity was the only religion he was taught from the
early beginning of his life.

As a Christian, Cat believed in the presence of God, but he was taught
that there is no way to contact Him directly. It is only through Jesus
(the Christ) that one can have and maintain such a link.

Cat, really, confesses that he was not completely convinced that this
is the right belief, but he had to respect his father's teachings!

Moreover, he had doubts regarding the idea of trinity and it worried
him a lot, but, he used to keep silent and did not argue. He believed
partially in these ideas though his mind rejected them completely!

Bit by bit, he started to go away from his religious beliefs and
directed all his attention to the world of music. He wanted to become
a famous pop singer who possesses a huge wealth and devoted his life
to achieve this aim. His new orientation, indeed, was part of a
general one that spread widely in England and in Europe as a whole,
where people sought their materialistic needs and ignored the
spiritual aspects of this life. Also, viewing his uncle as his role
model, with his huge wealth, encouraged him to go on this way to be as
rich as he was.

He started to follow the world famous pop singers to know everything
about their lives, learn how they achieved what he dreamt of and
considered the best thing in life and accordingly attempt to be a copy
of them and probably a more successful one.

Cat, amazingly, achieved this in a very short time. He introduced a
lot of successful songs and started to have his own fans. He became
the target of media coverage and mass media focused on his news so
that it became familiar to see him, personally or through his photos,
every now and then.

They made a legendary pop singer out of him through this intensified
coverage and propaganda. Cat recalls that in spite of all of this,
still, he had a humane sense inside him, as he felt sympathy towards
the poor and tended to help them.

But, as a normal human being he was greedy and wanted to possess more
and pay less! Also, as a normal human being he did not fulfill all his
promises and thus usually he ignored the humane sense just mentioned
above and went on his way to collect more money and achieve more
success without thinking about anyone except himself!

To overcome the barriers of time and the limited humane capabilities,
he used drugs and wine as a source of acquiring extraordinary power.

He indulged in the world of music and drugs and life went on with no
change until he fell ill with tuberculosis and was taken to hospital.

There, Cat started a new phase in his life. He admits that it was the
first time that he thought about the purpose of life. He wondered why
he was stuck to bed like that and started to ask himself whether he
was just a "body" and all what he should do in life is to gratify the
desires of that body and make it as happy as possible...

Many questions aroused in his mind and he thought a lot about death.
Thus, he got interested in the beliefs of south Asia as they gave him
the spiritual dose he needed much at that time. Accordingly, his life
style changed a lot. He spent a lot of time in meditation and became
vegetarian in order to achieve spiritual highness and internal purity.
The best thing that he acquired in this stage was, from Cat's point of
view, that he started behaving on a new basis and according to a deep
belief that man is not a mere body. Man has a strong determination
that should drive this body to the direction that he wants and not the
opposite. He should not be driven by his body, its desires and needs.

In this stage, Cat got bored with Christianity. After his recovery, he
introduced new songs which reflected his new orientation.

One of these songs was called "I wish":

I wish I knew, I wish I knew

what makes me, me, and what makes you, you.

It's just another point of view, ooo.

A state of mind I'm going through, yes.

So what I see is never true, .

I wish I could tell, I wish I could tell

what makes a heaven what makes a hell.

And do I get to ring my bell, ooo.

Or land up in some dusty cell, no.

While others reach the big hotel, yeah.

I wish I had, I wish I had

the secret of good, and the secret of bad.

Why does this question drive me mad? Ahhh.

'Cause I was taught when but a lad, yes,

That bad was good and good was bad, ahhh.

I wish I knew the mystery of

that thing called hate, and that thing called love.

What makes the in-between so rough? ahhh.

Why is it always push and shove? ahhh

I guess I just don't know enough, yes.

Cat believed that Buddhism is so noble, but still, he liked his
glittering life and was not ready to abandon his career and devote all
his time to worship and meditation. Buddhism requires total isolation
and would not suit the fame of a pop singer.....

Cat became more famous and successful than before and this caused him
much trouble as he sought the truth and being in the spot light
hindered his efforts to find it.

That was why Cat preferred not to embrace Buddhism and converted his
attention at that time to horoscopes and numbers and other ideologies
that never convinced him.

But fortunately, his brother traveled to Jerusalem where he was so
impressed by Al-Aqsa mosque which was all the time crowded.

He found it different from churches and temples which are most of the
time empty!! From Jerusalem, Cat's brother brought him "Al-Aqsa"
version of the Holy Quran. Although Cat's brother did not embrace
Islam, he felt that the Quran is unique and different and expected
that it would help his brother find the truth he had been searching
for since a long time.

Cat read the Quran and through its verses came to know the answers to
all his perplexing questions. He knew a lot about Allah and why he
created us. He realized that man is body and soul and that he can not
ignore the needs of any of them. He found a practical religion that
suits his life and does not order him to abandon people and live in
isolated caves to become a devoted person! He knew that Islam means
complete submission to Allah and His will. It means that there is no
god but Allah and no mediators, only a direct life-long relation that
one maintains with Allah and puts on the top of his priorities. He
realized that Allah sent all His messengers for the same mission and
with the same teachings of worshipping Him and abiding with His
orders.

They were sent to guide human beings to the right path, but those who
benefited from corruption fought against those honest messengers and
their call. Moreover, these enemies distorted the previous holy books
and turned the teachings upside down to cope with their interests.
Allah sent Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, to reveal the truth
that had been deliberately hidden all that time and purify the true
religion once again. Cat found that the Quran encourages man to look
around him and think, to learn about the sun, the moon and all other
natural phenomena. As this will help him believe in the presence of
Allah and His incomparable might.

To sum up, Cat found the truth he had been seeking and felt as if the
Quran had been sent especially for his sake!! At first, he did not
reveal his new feelings, but deep inside him he became a Muslim
person.

A year and a half after that incident, Cat wanted to announce his
decision to embrace Islam. He met a Muslim woman who advised him to go
to "new regent" mosque and there Cat met the (Imam) and uttered the
testimony in front of him. Cat Stevens converted to "Yusuf Islam", the
new name he chose for himself after embracing Islam. He asserts that
his decision was a direct result of studying Quran and that no body
affected him. He wanted to have a direct relation with God and he did
not find this in any other religion. He wanted a perfect belief and
Islam is the only perfect religion. He says that if human beings
abided by Islam's orders and followed its teachings the whole world
would change and would enjoy a better life. Now, Yusuf's efforts are
all for Allah's sake and the call for His religion.Now, he has really
found the best thing in life

[Peter Larsen[_2_]]

wrote:

As a Christian, Cat believed in the presence of God, but he was taught
that there is no way to contact Him directly. It is only through Jesus
(the Christ) that one can have and maintain such a link.

Nonsense. The Lords Prayer is addressed to God, from which follows that you
are proven false. Mann merkt die Absicht und wird verstimmt. Which is what
was said about the Nazi propaganda 70 years ago.

It is known and described in the literature that it is OK in your religion
to tell lies to advance its cause. But that does not make it OK in absolute
terms, because it still constitutes bearing false witness.

It is also quite obvious that Cat Stevens is back pedaling with regards to
his conversion, so it is about time to register bets with bookies to the
effect that he will end up getting re-baptized as a born again Christian.

And then there is the Dafur issue .... it is only the infidels that get
killed there, so it doesn't matter, does it? - that too is not OK in
absolute terms. And it is an example of what is described in

http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/loot.html

prior to Dafur I thought the guy to be an extremist, he is certainly not
unbiased and it is no doubt wise to check whether what he writes is true.

Kind regards

Peter Larsen

[jimz]

I'll sum up for you :
He's a nut !

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Don't hate Cat Steven for any of that. Hate him for spewing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g7JCKLyb-E

[Dave]

Don't hate Cat Steven for any of that. Hate him for spewing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g7JCKLyb-E

I believe this is covered in fact both in the Bible and the Torah "thou
shalt
not be a lounge singer, lest thy look ridiculous and gay before the lord -
not that there shall be anything that is wrong with this". In the Koran
it's goes like this: "...the infidel shall appear as a lounge singing act,
who
shall spew forth sounds not fitting to the sight of The Prophet, much less
the Ears of The Prophet, and thus the infidel shall be smited"

So it really DOES tie into the thread, actually.

[Geoff]

wrote:
Cat Stevens

Ain't he the dude who swapped one fairytale for another ?

geoff