page_title: Cat Stevens
section_title: 1990s–2006: as Yusuf Islam
hierarchical_section_title: Cat Stevens / Biography and career / Return to music / 1990s–2006: as Yusuf Islam
caption_attribution_description: English: Yusuf Islam_Cat Stevens_Mojo Awards 2009
context_page_description: Yusuf Islam, commonly known by his stage name Cat Stevens, and later Yusuf and eventually Yusuf/Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, in his later career, Islamic music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
  His 1967 debut album and its title song "Matthew and Son" both reached top ten in the UK charts. Stevens' albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat were certified triple platinum in the US. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four spent weeks at the top of several major charts. He earned ASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006 for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", and the song has been a hit for four artists. His other hit songs include "Father and Son", "Wild World", "Moonshadow", "Peace Train", and "Morning Has Broken".
  In December 1977, Stevens converted to Islam and adopted the name Yusuf Islam the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all of his guitars for charity.
context_section_description: Islam gradually resumed his musical career in the 1990s. His initial recordings had not included any musical instruments other than percussion, and they featured lyrics about Islamic themes, some in spoken word or hamd form. He invested in building his own recording studio which he named Mountain of Light Studios in the late 1990s, and he was featured as a guest singer on "God Is the Light", a song on an album of nasheeds by the group Raihan. In addition, he invited and collaborated with other Muslim singers, including Canadian artist Dawud Wharnsby. After Islam's friend, Irfan Ljubijankić, the Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was killed by a Serbian rocket attack, Islam appeared at a 1997 benefit concert in Sarajevo and recorded a benefit album named after a song written by Ljubijankić, I Have No Cannons That Roar.
  Realising there were few educational resources designed to teach children about the Islamic religion, Islam wrote and produced a children's album, A Is for Allah, in 2000 with the assistance of South African singer-songwriter Zain Bhikha. The title song was one Islam had written years before to introduce his first child to both the religion and the Arabic alphabet. He also established his own record label, "Jamal Records", and Mountain of Light Productions, and he donates a percentage of his projects' proceeds to his Small Kindness charity, whose name is taken from the Qur'an.
  On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens albums, Islam explained that he had stopped performing in English due to his misunderstanding of the Islamic faith. "This issue of music in Islam is not as cut-and-dried as I was led to believe ... I relied on heresy  [sic], that was perhaps my mistake." 
  Islam has reflected that his decision to leave the Western pop music business was perhaps too quick with too little communication for his fans. For most, it was a surprise, and even his long-time guitarist, Alun Davies, said in later interviews that he hadn't believed that his friend would actually go through with it, after his many forays into other religions throughout their relationship. Islam himself has said the "cut" between his former life and his life as a Muslim might have been too quick, and too severe, and that more people might have been better informed about Islam, and given an opportunity to better understand it, and himself, if he had simply removed those items that were considered harām, in his performances, allowing him to express himself musically and educate listeners through his music without violating any religious constraints.
  In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim world, Islam once again recorded "Peace Train" for a compilation CD, which also included performances by David Bowie and Paul McCartney. He performed "Wild World" in Nelson Mandela's 46664 concert with his earlier collaborator, Peter Gabriel, the first time he had publicly performed in English in 25 years. In December 2004, he and Ronan Keating released a new version of "Father and Son": the song entered the charts at number two, behind Band Aid 20's  "Do They Know It's Christmas?" They also produced a video of the pair walking between photographs of fathers and sons, while singing the song. The proceeds of "Father and Son" were donated to the Band Aid charity. Keating's former group, Boyzone, had a hit with the song a decade earlier. As he had been persuaded before, Islam contributed to the song, because the proceeds were marked for charity.
  
  On 21 April 2005 Islam gave a short talk before a scheduled musical performance in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the anniversary of the prophet Muhammad's birthday. He said: 
  There is a great deal of ignorance in the world about Islam today, and we hope to communicate with the help of something more refined than lectures and talks. Our recordings are particularly appealing to the young, having used songs as well as Qur'an verses with pleasing sound effects ...
  Islam observed that there are no real guidelines about instruments and no references about the business of mus
caption: Yusuf Islam at the 2009 MOJO Awards in London
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