Morning Has Broken

Morning Has Broken, was first written back in 1931 by Eleanor Farjeon, but in more recent years the song was popularized by one of the great music artists of the sixties and seventies, singer/songwriter, Cat Stevens and appeared on Steven’s 1971 album titled, the Teaser and the Firecat.

The song has been recorded by several different artists over the years, and is often even sung in Christian churches, as it was written as a hymn, in fact, it was in a book of hymns when Steven's first discovered the song. Cat Steven’s extremely popular rendition of the Christian song made him very famous, especially as it reached number 1 on the US adult contemporary chart in 1972. People who knew it was a hymn associated Stevens with being a Christian.

It’s possible that Cat Stevens was a Christian, recording a Christian Hymn but regardless if that was then, or not, things have remarkably since changed. Cat Stevens isn’t even "Cat Stevens" any longer. Steven Demetre Georgiou gave up his stage name “Cat Stevens” when he converted to Islam and took a new name for himself. His new name is Yusuf Islam, and he is one of the more prominent converts to Islam that the American public has ever witnessed.

Cat Stevens, (now Yusuf Islam) was a musician at an early age. He was famous in the UK music world before he was even eighteen years old for his songs, “ I Love My Dog,” and ‘I’m Gonna get Me a Gun,” (two of his early hits.) When he was nineteen, he was treated for tuberculosis and a collapsed lung, after which point they say his music took a more serious note. The already popular, young and talented musician who had a voice, style and sound that people really liked, attained a lot of fame and fortune fast and at an early age.

His scene was the stereotypical rock star scene and when he had everything fame and fortune had to offer at his disposal, he came face to face with the realization that drinking, partying, drugs and cigarettes were not so spiritually satisfying. Thus he began his own spiritual quest for the meaning of life, which is relected in much of his music.

Stevens was raised by Christian parents and thereby exposed to Christianity as a child and he says that he believed in God, but he says that he never did embrace the Christian faith completely in his heart.

“Religion was constantly making me feel guilty, warning me about immorality and dangers of this fleshly life,” writes Yusuf Islam, (formerly Cat Stevens) on his webpage as he reminisces the events that lead him “to Allah.” He says the world of Christianity he was born into, “produced only guilt” in his life of sin, so he ventured into Transcendental Meditation, Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism, Astrology, I-Ching, and Sufism to find answers. The Institute of Islamic Information and Education writes proudly about Steven’s high profile conversion to Islam at their webpage too. They quote Yusuf Islam as saying, “Guidance was something that eluded me, no matter how hard I tried, until I was shown the Qur'an. Now I realize I can get in direct contact with God, unlike Christianity or any other religion.”

He tried a lot of religions on for size, but it was a brush-with-death experience that Stevens’ had one day when he was swimming in the sea in Malibu CA that he says established his belief in God. He tells the story of how he was swimming in the ocean when a current took him into deep waters and he found himself drowning. Having time to think about his situation and fearing his death would come to pass, he did what came naturally to a spiritually minded, yet drowning man. He pleaded with God, (whoever he was,) for his life, hoping that if there were a God, he would hear him.

“O God, if you save me, I'll work for you!" he says he cried out. Then, he says, “a miraculous thing happened.” He says a wave came from behind him and pushed him forward and he was then able to swim safely to the shore. The thing that haunted him afterwards was, "Which God” was it that answered his plea for help.

‘I tried Zen and Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology.” Yusuf’s testimony reads at the website of the Institute of Islamic Information “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 as a miracle occurred. My brother had visited the mosque in Jerusalem and was greatly impressed that while on the one hand it throbbed with life (unlike the churches and synagogues which were empty), on the other hand, an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity prevailed.”

Yusuf also reports that in the Qur’an he saw, “…many prophets, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad included, being brothers equally teaching the same message of unity to mankind, and all of us being the offspring of Adam and Eve.” He was sold on the Qur’an, and thereby concluded that God, (as an entity named Allah,) had been the one to answer his desperate oceanic prayer.

Since Stevens was now convinced that Allah spared his life, he had work to do, and one of the first things he did was to purify his life. The new man's strong Islamic religious conviction cause him to leave the “sinful” American music scene, and his stringed instrument, the guitar, behind. Religious songs sung by Moslems are sung without any musical instruments, (halal) or only with percussion type of instruments. The reason for this is that Muslim scholars and leaders consider music, particularly with certain kinds of instruments (particulalry the ones with strings) to be Haram, which means, forbidden. As a new adherent to the teachings of Mohammed as Prophet of Allah, Stevens (now Yusuf) wanted to be obedient to the teachings of the prophet in this regard. He did not want to taint his life devoted to Allah with forbidden things like guitars.

For people of the Moslem faith who adhere to the Islamic scholars of the Salaf, (meaning the righteous predecessors; the first three generations of Moslems.) it's been determined a long time. Not everyone may agree with what had been practiced for hundreds of years by Moslems, but it's commonly understood that these contemporaries of Mohammed who interpreted his sayings for worshippers of Allah to understand agree with one another that singing with or listening to music, and using musical instruments (except for the drum or tambourine on special occasions) is "sinful" and is to be forbidden.

Freemuse, a forum on music and censorship issues quoted the webpage of a current Moslem scholar, Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid. on this issue of Moslems and their regulation of music. According the post, this Muslim scholar has said, "It is not permissible to use musical tunes for telephones or any other devices, because listening to musical instruments is haram, as is indicated by the evidence of sharee’ah." To Americans this type of censorship may seem extreme, but in the Middle East, there are religious police that enforce such things.

We also see how prohibited music is in the religion of Islam when we look at Moslem countries like West Bengal, India and Somalia. There we see the United Islamic Courts (UIC, which is also known as the “Soldiers of Allah,”) enforcing Islams strict laws related to music by arrests, fines and the corporal punishment of being publicly flogged.

Linda Pressly of the BBC News, reported that Muslim schools in Britain teach their children that music is "un-Islamic." Meanwhile, Britain where these children live is a "free nation." There are no Mattawa (religious police) so Moslems living there may take the liberty to "strain out the disgusting gnats" (things that they believe would make it forbidden) and enjoy the liberty of being a brittish citizen.

Cat Stevens stopped playing music when he converted to Islam. He got rid of his guitar. He also asked the record companies with which he had contracts with to stop selling his albums. However, recently he has changed his tune. He now believes that music is halal, that is, permissible, particularly if it is in praise of Allah; but also if it is used to proselytize the Islamic religion in other countries around the world. With this change of heart about usic, he has recently re-immersed himself in the music world.

To the watching world who witnessed Stevens completely disown his guitar because he had converted to Islam, who watched him repudiate his publi life as the musically talented "Cat," it was almost as if the beloved American folksinger had been resurrected from the dead.

Well, almost. Most assuredly he’s not the same ol’ Cat he used to be. He’s Yusuf Islam.

Yusuf Islam’s return on the music scene began with Islamic texts he recorded in Arabic . It was called The Life of the Last Prophet, (1995.) He then made other recordings including Prayers of the Last Prophet (1999.) and a recording for children titled, A Is for Allah, (2000.) It’s wasn’t until 2006 that he recorded, Footsteps in the Light, a compilation of his own songs, both old and new, sung mostly in English. Then December 19, 2006 Yusuf did something the world never thought they would ever see again, he took the stage in front of a live, invitation only, US audience in Manhatta with a guitar and played some of his old Cat Stevens’ songs such as The Wind, Oh Very Young and Peace Train.

While he used to be more fundamental in his beliefs, the justification he uses for his new outlook on the music scene is the argument that music in Islam is and always has been "controversial." He says that he didn’t know enough about the issue of music when he first converted, but after studying the Qur’an for 20+ years, he has been able to come to his own conclusion on the matter. He has even has posted his position paper on his website, where addresses the issue of music. It's found in a file he titles, “Music: A Question of Faith or Da'wah?” He says that he writes to silence those who would oppose or criticize him for going public with his music. ( see: www.mountainoflight.com.)

In this paper he puts fortht the position that music in Islam is not a clear issue. He also says that people of the Book (Jews and Christians specifically named as those “people”) need to be converted, and as a Moslem, he is required to perform Da’wah, (proselytizing.) So he is donning the justification of being a missionary, he is claiming that music is not a matter of faith, but of understanding, and he essentially says that his return to the music scene is to give the rest of the listening world Allah’s invitation to live according to Allah’s will.

Besides playing and producing his own revived hit music of the sixties and seventies, he has been mingleing and mixing it up with music “greats,” people from the fame and fortune partying scene he left behind. Yusuf has recorded with famous artists like Dolly Parton, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and George Michael.

To a lot of people it appears that Yusuf is contridicting all the things he once said that he stood for. In a January 7, 2007 NewYork Times magazine article, interviewer Deborah Solomon asked Yusuf Islam bluntly about his return to the music industry, this particularly in light of his previously publicized religious beliefs. His response: “I never actually committed myself to stating or believing that musical instruments were prohibited by Islam. It was just a gray area, so I stayed out in order to avoid conflict.”

Yusuf also preferred to avoid conflict when in 1989, the Ayatollah Khomeini, (an Islamic leader) made the fatwah, (a legal edict for a death sentence to be carried out) against novelist Salman Rushdie over his fourth novel, Satanic Verses. Yusuf’s silence on the fatwah issue was so loudly proclaimed that major radio stations in America to stop playing old Cat Steven’s music. One station, WNEW FM in New York, even offered free copies of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses to listeners who sent in their old Cat Stevens records in order to make a statement about freedom and freedom of speech. (Rushdie, accused of blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed because of the book he published was marked to die. The reasoning is, “if someone defames the Prophet, then he must die.”)

Proclaiming that someone deserves to die is no small matter.

The book by Rushdie was banned in India and South Africa and bookstores that carried them were set on fire around the world to make a point about the fatwah. Yusuf Islam remained silent on the matter as a million-dollar reward for Rushdie's death was offered by a top Muslim official. He was silent as Ayatollah Khomeini called for zealous Muslims to execute the publishers of the book as well. He is singing and playing his guitar but on the Rushdie issue he remains silent.

Britain was not silent and even offered Rushdie asylum where he took up residence and since received many prestigious awards for his work as a writer. He was even pronounced a Knight Bachelor for "services to literature", by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007. Needless to say, this was considered to be "an insult to Islam" and Islamic protesters in Multan, Karachi and Lahore set fire to British flags and effigies protesting and chanting “Death to Britain!” “Death to Rushdie!”

Ayman al-Zawahir, known as one of the world’s “most wanted” terrorist, was quoted saying that Al-Qaeda was planning "a very precise response" against this action of the Queen. Islamic Minister, Ijaz-ul-Haq, told an assembly in Islamabad that the award given to Rushdie excused suicide bombing. He said, “If somebody has to attack by strapping bombs to his body to protect the honor of the Prophet then it is justified.”

It was July 2000 when BBC and ABC News headlines reported that Yusuf Islam was denied entry to Israel. He was deported with allegations that he had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Islamic terrorist group, Hamas. The connection was believed to have come through a charitable organization based in Canada that he supported at the time, then called the Jerusalem Fund for Human Services. Yusuf Islam claimed to have never heard of terrorist groups like Hamas and he stands firm when saying that his money goes to “charities, not terrorists.”

When he was questioned about his saying that he didn’t know about Hamas. He said, "At the time I was reported to have done it, I didn't know such a group existed. Some people give a political interpretation to charity. We were horrified at how people were suffering in the Holy Land."and “I never knowingly gave any terrorist group money.” He also said, “I’ve helped to buy ambulances in the Holy Land. Obviously quite clear and supportable aims.”

Yusuf may be thinking “charitably” about giving aid to needy people, but he remained suspicious to authorities. In 2004 a plane he was on was denied entry into the US and he was forced to return to London.

Yusuf still claims he is not a terrorist or a terrorist supporter, insisting always that as a Moslem he is a man of peace. In fact he was the recipient of the “Man of Peace” award for 2004, a prestigious award that was presented to him in Rome by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and a committee of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Gorbechev, also touted as a “man of peace,” stated that the award was given to Yusuf Islam "for having dedicated the most part of his life in the promotion of peace and reconciliation among peoples and for having condemned terrorism."

Gorbachev praised Yusuf Islam for condemning terrorism, but to condemn something means to pronounce judgment upon, or disapprove of. A person does not "condemn," or (denounce, criticize, or rebuke) anything by remaining silent. Condemnation of something infers that some sort of pronouncement has been made. It is not possible to “condemn terror” and "acts of violence" by remaining silent, undecided, or ignorant about such issues.

There is one thing that Yusuf is not silent about, Islam.