How I Came to Islam (Part 2)

In hospital:

After a year of financial success and ‘high’ living, I became very ill, contracted T.B 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 started 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 thought. 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 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 to isolate myself from society.

I tried Zen and ching, numerology, treat 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 as 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 tranquility prevailed.

By Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)

Source: al-shia.org