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Yusuf Islam (1948– )
Heart-throb pop star Cat Stevens gave up fame and its attractive
trappings to become Yusuf Islam. He was very successful while still a
young man, with a string of hits and plenty of money, and he fully enjoyed
the high life. In 1968, aged 19, he suffered a bout of TB, which brought
him to a halt. It was a time of reflection and he became more spiritually
aware. Many of his songs written after this period reflected his search for
meaning in life. Despite a Christian upbringing, he felt that was not his
path and when his brother gave him a Qur’an, he was very taken with the
teachings.
However, it was in 1975 that his life changed. He almost drowned in
Malibu and vowed ‘Oh God, if you save me I’ll work for you.’ It was a
promise he took seriously and he converted to Islam in 1977, taking the
name Yusuf Islam the following year, when he gave up music as incom-
patible with his faith. He spent the following years engaged in altruistic
work.
It was the tragedy of 9.11 which brought him back into the limelight.
He spoke out against the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York,
making it clear that the Qur’an did not condone murder and sang ‘Peace
Train’ in public for the first time in 20 years. This heralded a return to
music-making, but he chooses carefully, playing in concerts for Nelson
Mandela, for the Tsunami victims and the Adopt-A-Minefield Gala.
His is a life which reflects his beliefs.
Eric Clapton (1945– )
Once hailed as ‘God’ in graffiti for his legendary guitar playing, Eric
Clapton fought a lifelong battle with drink and drugs. When he decided
to write his autobiography he admitted to having to look himself up on
the web, to find out when he had been where, so many of his memories
having been wiped out through substance abuse. Unsuccessful attempts at
‘detox’ and ‘rehab’ had failed and his life was spiralling out of control.
In 1987 he went back into treatment, admitting that he was ‘a mess’.
After a month, with the period drawing to a close, Clapton realized that
he needed to change within, but had not. In his autobiography Clapton
describes how in his despair, he fell on his knees and surrendered.
I was absolutely terrified, in complete despair. At that moment, almost
of their own accord, my legs gave way and I fell to my knees. In the
privacy of my room I begged for help. I had no notion who I thought
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I was talking to, I just knew that I had come to the end of my tether.
I had nothing left to fight with. Then I remembered what I had heard
about surrender, something I thought I could never do – my pride just
wouldn’t allow it – but I knew that on my own, I wasn’t going to make
it, so I asked for help and, getting down on my knees, I surrendered.
Within a few days I realised that something had happened for me.
An atheist would probably say it was just a change of attitude, and
to a certain extent, that’s true, but there was much more to it than that.
I had found a place to turn to, a place that I’d always known was there,
but never really wanted, or needed, to believe in. From that day until
this, I have never failed to pray in the morning, on my knees, asking for
help, and at night to express gratitude for my life and most of all for my
sobriety. I choose to kneel because I feel I need to humble myself when
I pray, and with my ego, this is the most I can do. If you were to ask why
I do all this, I will tell you . . . because it works, as simple as that.
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Years later, Eric decided that smoking also had to go. He had smoked
since his twenty-first birthday party and by then he was smoking at least
40, sometimes 60 cigarettes a day. He went to a hypnotherapist and
stopped, and has not missed it since. He says,
I really believe it is about spiritual application, no matter how poverty-
stricken I feel my application may be.
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Here the transformative effect of spiritual experience has been seen in an
enormously varied group of people, whose names have become well-
known and whose influence continues to this day. It has also been seen
that worldly fame and fortune have not been enough to satisfy the spirit.
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