Yusuf Islam, commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and musician. He has sold more than 100 million records and has more than two billion streams. His musical style consists of folk, rock, pop, and, later in his career, Islamic music. Following two decades in which he performed only music which met strict religious standards, he returned to making secular music in 2006. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. He has received two honorary doctorates and awards for promoting peace as well as other humanitarian awards.
Religious music is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as a ritual. Religious songs have been described as a source of strength, as well as a means of easing pain, improving one's mood, and assisting in the discovery of meaning in one's suffering. While style and genre vary broadly across traditions, religious groups still share a variety of musical practices and techniques.
The takbīr is the name for the Arabic phrase Allāhu ʾakbar.
The adhan is the Islamic call to prayer, usually recited by a muezzin, traditionally from the minaret of a mosque, shortly before each of the five obligatory daily prayers. The adhan is also the first phrase said in the ear of a newborn baby, and often the first thing recited in a new home.
The Life of the Last Prophet is the first album released by Yusuf Islam. After that time, he recorded only albums with Islamic themes, including recordings for children to learn both the Arabic alphabet and basic tenets of Islam. This album is both an attempt to give praise to Muhammad, which is encouraged as an act of faith in the Qur'an, and an attempt to reach out to young people and those who wish to understand more about Islam, and to explain why such a popular commercial recording artist would leave the business at the height of his career.
In Islam, Friday prayer, or Congregational prayer is a community prayer service held once a week on Fridays. All Muslim men are expected to participate at a mosque with certain exceptions due to distance and situation. Women and children can also participate but do not fall under the same obligation that men do. The service consists of several parts including ritual washing, chants, recitation of scripture and prayer, and sermons.
I Look I See is an album released by Yusuf Islam in 2003 which was aimed at children. It contained nine songs, and each song was followed by a brief spoken word piece which told of the deeds of the Prophets of Islam, the Five Pillars of Islam and other Islamic practices.
{{Infobox religious biography
Dawud Wharnsby is a Canadian Universalist Muslim singer-songwriter, poet, performer, educator and television personality. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his work in the musical/poetic genre of English Language nasheed and spoken word.
Sami Yusuf is a British singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer of Azerbaijani descent. He gained international attention with the release of his debut album, Al-Muʽallim, in 2003. As of 2020, he has released eight studio albums, five live albums and one compilation album. His studio albums were mostly released by Andante Records, with the first two being released by Awakening Records. He has sold over 34 million albums as of 2016.
A is for Allah is the name of a double album created for Muslim children by Yusuf Islam. The album was released on 11 July 2000 by Resurgence UK Records. The title song was written in 1980 upon the birth of Yusuf's first child, a girl named Hasanah. Yusuf wanted his daughter to learn the Arabic language as well as read and understand the Qu'ran. He himself was raised in London, England, the same city where they still lived, and had kept a home there throughout his life. Being a recent convert to the Islamic religion, he was concerned with the difficulties he would face securing a high-quality 'Islamic' education for his children.
Tala al-Badr Alayna is a traditional Islamic nashid that the Ansar Muslims of Medina supposedly sang for the Islamic prophet Muhammad upon his arrival at Medina.
Zain Bhikha is a South African singer-songwriter, vocalist, and drummer who performs Islamic nasheeds. Associated with other Muslim singers, including Yusuf Islam and Dawud Wharnsby, Bhikha has collaborated on albums and also released several solo albums.
The Tashahhud, also known as at-Tahiyyat, is the portion of the Muslim prayer where the person kneels or sits on the ground facing the qibla, glorifies God, and greets Muhammad and the "righteous servants of God" followed by the two testimonials. The recitation is usually followed by an invocation of the blessings and peace upon Muhammad known as Salawat.
Ordinance XX is a legal ordinance of the Government of Pakistan that was promulgated under the regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq on 26 April 1984 and is meant to prohibit the practice of Islam and the usage of Islamic terms and titles for the Ahmadiyya Community. The ordinance bars Ahmadi, who are deemed Non-Muslims under the Pakistani constitution, from publicly practising the Islamic faith and also disallows them from using any Islamic texts for praying purposes. It is in addition to – but separate from – the 1974 Second Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan. While the Second Amendment declared that Ahmadis are non-Muslims, the Ordinance prohibits Ahmadis from identifying themselves as Muslims.
"Dub Yalil" is a world music song performed by Belgian singer Natacha Atlas. The melody and additional lyrics were written by Atlas and produced by Transglobal Underground for the Atlas' debut album Diaspora (1995). It was released as a single in 1994.
This article lists the discography of British-Emirati singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. It also includes the albums he has released since he converted to Islam and adopted the name Yusuf Islam, as well as albums he released since he started being credited as Yusuf / Cat Stevens.
Maher Zain is a Lebanese-Swedish R&B singer, songwriter and music producer. He released his debut album Thank You Allah, an internationally successful album produced by Awakening Records, in 2009. He released his follow-up album Forgive Me in April 2012 under the same production company, and a third album One in 2016.
Al-Ansari or Ansari is an Arab community, found predominantly in the Arab and South Asian countries. They are descended from the Ansar of Madinah. The Ansari are an Urdu-speaking community also called Muhajir, although the Ansari clan of Gujarat have Gujarati as their mother tongue.
I Have No Cannons That Roar is an album dedicated to the memory of Irfan Ljubijankić, who was killed towards the end of the Bosnian War in 1995 when the helicopter he was flying in on a mercy mission was shot down by a Serb rocket. He was returning from a visit to his home town of Bihać, at that time the front line against the attacking forces. A few months earlier in his role as the Foreign Minister of Bosnia he had been in London. He met Yusuf Islam there and gave him a cassette of a song he had written and recorded at home, entitled "Have No Cannons That Roar". His hope was that Yusuf would use it in some way to help the Bosnian cause. The song was subsequently translated into English and combined with other songs famous in Bosnia during the war. Some of the songs are included here without change, others were re-recorded in London and Stuttgart. Two new songs specially written for this project by Yusuf Islam, including "The Little Ones". The album ends with a 50-second spoken word piece by Yusuf Islam expressing hope that Bosnia will recover.
