Yusof Islam All I have to say is what you know
already, to confirm what you already know…the message of the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allah 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 this 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. It says in the Quran Majeed
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 highlight of show business. I was born in a
Christian home, but we know that every child is born in his ‘original
nature’ (al-Fitra), and 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 and 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 had 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 will help the needy. (It says in the Quran, we make a promise, but when
we make something we want to hold on to 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 the
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 Allah, a chance
to open my eyes, ‘why am I here, why am I in bed’, and I stated
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 alright 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 at a miracle occurred. My
brother had visited the mosque in The
Quran When he came to 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 old age. In the West whoever
wishes to embrace a religion and make it his only was of life is deemed a
fanatic. I was not a fanatic, I was at first confused
between the body and soul. Then I realized that the body and soul are not apart
and you don’t have to go to the mountains to be religious; we must follow
the will of God, then we can rise even 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 that 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 God’s 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 the 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, and see the insignificant size of the earth and vastness of space,
they become very religious, because they have seen the Signs of Allah. When I read the Qur’an
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 Qur’an, and God had sent
it to me and I kept it a secret. But the Qur’an also speaks on different
levels. I began to understand it on another level, where the Qur’an says:
“Those who believe don’t 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 Back in 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, and they use the
idols for this purpose. But Islam removes all these barriers. The only thing
that separates 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 Allah 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
Qur’an first and realized no person is perfect; only Islam is perfect,
and if we imitate the conduct of the Noble Prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) we will be successful. May Allah give us
guidance to follow the path of the Ummah (community) of Muhammad (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him). Ameen! Yusuf Islam |