Chapter 21 The Prophets (Al-Anbiya)

 

Introduction

Chapter 21, The Prophets, is one of the longer chapters of the Quran.  It contains 112 verses and its title comes from the subject matter from verses 48 to 91, stories, and lessons from the lives of many of the more notable prophets.  This chapter was revealed in Mecca and thus it stresses that Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, was a human being like all the earlier prophets and that his message was the same, the oneness or unity of God.  It also warns, as do many chapters, of the inevitability of the Day of Judgement.

Verses 1 – 9  Accusations and lies

God warns that the Day of Accountability is getting closer, yet many people are heedless.  They ridicule the warnings and warners that come to them and continue to play, their hearts preoccupied with worldly affairs.  In their private conversations, they say that Muhammad is a just human being like themselves, and that he is trying to trick them with witchcraft.  God says to Prophet Muhammad, tell them that I (God) hear everything they think is said in secrecy.  Many accuse Prophet Muhammad of having muddled dreams, or making up false stories, or being a poet.  The disbelievers ask for a sign, but God mentions that all the cities and towns destroyed previously asked for and received signs yet they did not believe.  The disbelievers dispute as to how a human being can be a prophet yet the previous prophets were all mortal men.  God fulfilled His promise to them, they were saved, as were those who believed in them but many were destroyed for their disbelief. 

Verses 10- 24  Falsehood blown away

We (God) have sent you a reminder.  Prior nations were destroyed because of their iniquities.  Other communities were raised up in their place.  They tried to escape when they felt Our (Gods) wrath upon them.  (They were told) Go back to your houses and play.  They admitted their wrongdoing and continued to do so until they were extinguished, just like a fire.  Heaven and earth and all that lies between them were not created to be a playground.  Falsehood is blown away by the truth, so woe to those who have created false gods.  Those who are with God worship and praise him tirelessly.  Do your false deities have the power to raise the dead? There is proof and there is the reminder (the Quran) yet most people do not recognise the truth and turn away.

Verses 25- 47  Every soul will taste death

All the prophets were sent with the same message; there is no deity but God, so worship Him alone.  Despite having received the true message people tell lies against God.  These evil doers are rewarded with Hell.  Do the disbelievers not consider the world around them? The heavens and the earth were once one mass split asunder by God; all living creatures have their origin in water.  The earth is covered with firm mountains and broad pathways and the sky is a canopy.  God created the night and the day; the celestial bodies move in their orbits.  Every soul will taste death.  Everyone is tested and then they will return to God.  The Day will arrive suddenly and the disbelievers will be powerless to turn it away.  The previous messengers were ridiculed but in the end those who ridiculed were overcome by what they mocked.   Invented gods cannot defend themselves so how will they defend the disbelievers? They are warned but refuse to hear, and then if even a breath of punishment touches them they cry to God.  Be warned that on the Day of Judgement the scales will be set up and God will take account.

Verses 48 – 70 Brief stories of the prophets

God says He gave Moses and his brother Aaron the scripture that distinguishes between right and wrong and the Quran is also a blessed message.  God sends it down yet some people continue to deny it.   Long ago right judgment was bestowed upon Abraham.  He questioned his father and his people about their clear idolatry but they answered that they only followed the ways of their ancestors.  Abraham said to them that their true Lord was the Lord of the heavens and the earth that had created them and that he (Abraham) would plot against the idols as soon as he could find the opportunity.  Abraham destroyed all the idols except the largest one.  He left it whole.  When they returned to find the carnage the people remembered Abraham’s threats so they called him and questioned him.  He asked them to question instead the remaining idol, pointing out the absurdity of their beliefs.  At first Abraham’s people admitted their errors but then they were seized with pride and obstinacy.  They threw Abraham into the midst of a fire but God kept the fire cool.   They planned to hurt Abraham but God made them the losers.

Verses 71 – 77 God saves those who believe

Prophet Abraham and his nephew Lot were delivered from harm and sent to a land that God had blessed for the entire world.  Here Abraham was blessed even more with his righteous son Isaac and his grandson Jacob.  They were righteous, doing good deeds, establishing the prayer, giving alms and worshipping in the correct way.  Lot was given sound judgment and knowledge and God saved him from the city of wicked deeds.  Even further back in the past Noah called out to God and God accepted his prayer against the unbelievers.  Prophet Noah and the believers were saved from the great calamity (the flood) but those who had denied the warnings were drowned.

Verses 78 – 88 …And those who cry to Him in distress

God blessed Prophet David and Solomon with wisdom.  God was watching them when they were trying to judge a case about sheep straying a night and He made Solomon understand the case in a better way.  However both were given wisdom in abundance.  It was God who made the mountains and the birds sing His (God’s) praises with David and it was also God who taught David to make coats of armour for protection in battle.  God harnessed the wind for Solomon and made some of the jinn subservient to him.   God asks us to remember Job, who cried to his Lord when he was afflicted.  God heard his cry and removed his suffering.  And remember Ishmael, Idris, and Dhu’l- Kifl.  They were all steadfast and were admitted into God’s mercy.  And remember the man in the whale? He was angry but admitted his wrong and God saved him from his distress.  God saves the faithful.

Verses 89 – 112  Great news for the believers

God blessed Zachariah and accepted his prayer for a child.  He was given John (the Baptist).  Remember the one who guarded her chastity (Mary, mother of Jesus).   God made her and her son a sign for all people.  God calls all the prophets a single community and says worship Me alone.  If a believer does righteous deeds the angels will record it.  Towards the end of time the people of Gog and Magog will be let loose to swarm across the land.  On the Day of Judgement the eyes of the disbelievers will stare in horror and say, "We were wrong".  But the people destined for Paradise will be kept far away from Hell; they will not even hear a sound of it.  This day of great terror will not grieve them and the angels will greet them.  Surely this is great news for the believers.  My (God’s) righteous servants will inherit the earth.

Muhammad has been sent as a blessing for all the worlds and was told to warn them (humankind) asking them to affirm their belief that God is one.   - islamreligion.com

First Chapter of the Quran

 

“I begin with the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

All praise is to God, Lord of all the worlds

Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Master of the Day of Judgment

You Alone do we worship and You Alone do we ask for help

Guide us to the straight path

The Path of those on whom You bestowed Your bounties

Not the path of those who incurred Your wrath or those who went astray.” (Quran 1:1-7)

Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, told us, that this chapter in the Quran is unlike any other. Nothing like it was revealed in any previous scripture. When one recites this chapter sincerely they would be professing their belief as a true Muslim.

All praise is to God

When you state that all praise is due to God alone, you are in fact acknowledging that only He has all the attributes of perfection and that only He is the bestower of all the bounties that any of His creation enjoys.  And since gratefulness is the essence of worship, you are also acknowledging that He is the only one who deserves to be worshipped.

Lord of all the worlds

The Arabic word for Lord, Rubb, conveys a number of meanings that are not accurately captured by the English word Lord. It means that He is the one who owns, who creates, who sustains and who looks after all that exists.  The only relationship between Him and all creation is that He is the creator of all that exists.  He cannot therefore be the father of anyone in any real sense! To say that He is the Creator and yet the father of some of His creation is a contradiction in terms.  You don’t create your child, you beget him.  It is because of this that the Quran keeps reminding those who claim that God has children (the Arabs who used to say that the angels are the daughters of God, the Christians who say that Jesus is the son of God, and a Jewish sect who used to believe that Ezra is the son of God) that God is the Creator and Owner of everything.    

Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The two Arabic words, Rahman and Raheem, for which these English phrases stand, are two intensive forms of a root word which conveys the meaning of mercy.  Rahman is more intensive than Raheem, and refers to God’s all-encompassing mercy, His mercy to all His creation in this life and the life to come.  Raheem refers to His special mercy to the faithful.  No created being can therefore be Rahman, but created beings can be described as Raheem in a limited and special sense of the word. 

Master of the Day of Judgment

God is the Master of all days and all things, but while some people can have some limited mastership or even falsely claim to have it, no one can be, or claim to be master in any sense on the Day of Reckoning.  On that Day God will ask all of His creation: “To whom is sovereignty today?” And the answer will be “To God, the One who holds absolute sway over all that exists”.  This reminds us of the fact that this world is only a transient station on the road to the final abode where we shall either be rewarded or punished for what we do here. 

You Alone do we worship and You Alone do we ask for help

The foregoing verses were like an introduction to this one.  It is as if you are saying: because we acknowledge the fact that all praise is to You, that You are the Lord of all the worlds, that You are Most Gracious and Most Merciful, and that You Alone are the Master of the Day of Judgment, we hereby declare that we worship none but You and seek help from none except You.   This verse emphasizes the fact that what is important is not only that You worship God, but that you worship none besides Him, because none except Him deserves to be worshipped.  Worship in the broader sense of the word includes that you obey none but Him in any absolute sense, love no one as or more than you love Him and pray to no one except Him. It also includes that you seek help from none but God; this doesn’t mean that you don’t extend or accept any help from any of God’s created beings in matters in which they have the power to help.  It only means that you believe that even when you give or receive such help that it is ultimately coming from God because nothing in this world happens without His will and power.  So it is from Him alone that you are ultimately turning for help, and it is on Him that you ultimately and absolutely depend. 

Guide us to the Straight path

Having acknowledged all those truths about God, and having declared to Him that it is He Alone that we worship and ask for help, we now go on to ask Him to grant us the thing that we need most: knowing and taking the shortest path that leads to Him.  Having known who God is we are convinced that such guidance must come from Him, that it must be available to all who want to follow it, and that there must be no doubt about the fact that it is from Him.  That guidance, we know, is no where to be found in any complete way except in God’s words, the words that He revealed to His chosen Prophets like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, may God praise them all.  But we also know for sure that none of the books that contain that guidance is now at our disposal except one - the Quran.  It is to this Divine book that we must turn for a detailed description of the Straight Path that leads to our Lord.  This path is an absolute path that was given to each Prophet and Messenger of God and it does not change over the passage of time.

The Path of those on whom You bestowed Your bounties

The straight path described in the Quran is not a theoretical path; it is an actual path that some people before us have taken.  As Muslims, we believe every Prophet and Messenger of God preached the belief in the Oneness of God and that all worship was to be dedicated to Him alone.

Not the path of those who incurred Your wrath or those who went astray

Just as the Straight Path is described above in a positive way, the paths of those who deviated from it are described in a negative manner. We always ask our Lord to keep us away from the paths taken by two kinds of deviant people: those who knew the truth about religion and yet refused to act according to it, and there brought upon themselves the wrath of God. The second group of people were those who made their religion suit their whims and desires and are thus went astray.  The Quran tells us in some detail about their main deviations, among the greatest of which is that they have no great respect for God or His words: they ascribe to Him imperfect, even insulting attributes; they distort His words at will to make them suit their own wishes or preferences and they commit immoralities in the name of religion. - islamreligion.com

All of You Are Misguided Except Those Whom I Guide : What is a Hadith Qudsi?

This week we are going to begin a short series of articles about one of the traditional sayings of Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.  In the second part we will focus on the great need humankind has for God, while, acknowledging that God has no need for us, our prayers or our remembrance of Him.  He is All Powerful, All Mighty.  However before we can understand this infallible truth we must be clear about the sources of knowledge in Islam and understand them.  This understanding means we are able to discuss immense and important topics in a comprehensive way.  Knowledge in Islam is derived from the Quran and from the authentic traditions of Prophet Muhammad, known as the Sunnah.

The Quran sometimes called the Holy Quran or the Noble Quran is the divine scripture or sacred text of the religion of Islam.  Muslims believe it is the literal word of God as revealed to God’s final messenger, Muhammad.  This web site contains several articles about the Quran for those who would like more in-depth information.  The Sunnah refers to three things; the actions, statements and tacit approvals of Prophet Muhammad..  It is derived from the oral traditions, known as hadith.

Amongst all the thousands of hadith, are some that belong in a special category.  They are known as Hadith Qudsi.  They are sayings that Prophet Muhammad attributes to God.  They are God’s message to humankind but in the words of Prophet Muhammad.  There are more than 100 Hadith Qudsi and they usually deal with spiritual or ethical subjects.  One of the most beautiful and comprehensive of the hadith Qudsi is the following saying.  Transmitted to us from God to Prophet Muhammad and then down through the generations by an authentic and reliable chain of narrators.

"'O My slaves, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another. O My slaves, all of you are astray except for those I have guided, so seek guidance of Me and I shall guide you. O My slaves, all of you are hungry except for those I have fed, so seek food of Me and I shall feed you. O My slaves, all of you are naked except for those I have clothed, so seek clothing of Me and I shall clothe you. O My slaves, you sin by night and by day, and I forgive all sins, so seek forgiveness of Me and I shall forgive you. O My slaves, you will not harm Me nor will you  benefit Me. O My slaves, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as pious as the most pious heart of any one man of you, that would not increase My kingdom in anything. O My slaves, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be as wicked as the most wicked heart of any one man of you, that would not decrease My kingdom in anything. O My slaves, were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to rise up in one place and make a request of Me, and were I to give everyone what he requested, that would not decrease what I have, any more than a needle decreases the sea if put into it. O My slaves, it is but your deeds that I reckon up for you and then recompense you for, so let him who finds good praise Allah and let him who finds other than that blame no one but himself.'"[1]

God emphasizes justice, and Islam condemns and prohibits all forms of injustice and oppression.  God, the Almighty, is the Most Just; it is from Him that all justice emanates.  God has made oppression unlawful for Himself and His promise is true: many verses in Quran testify to this.

"Your Lord is not unjust at all to His slaves." (Quran 41:46)

"And God wills no injustice to the world." (Quran 3:108)

"Surely God wrongs not even of the weight of an atom." (Quran 4:40)

God has also made oppression of any kind unlawful for humankind.  Islam tells us that there are three kinds of oppression or injustice.  The first is injustice towards God that is associating partners with Him.  The second is injustice towards ourselves, that is committing sins and the third is being unjust towards others (humankind or other creatures).  Islam is more than a religion it is a code of practice.  Following Islam means that the rights bestowed on humankind by God are respected and upheld.  Islam seeks justice for all creatures, great, and small. 

"We sent Our Messengers with clear signs and sent down with them the Book and the Measure in order to establish justice among the people…" (Quran 57:25)

In this Hadith Qudsi God begins by stressing the importance of justice.  He condemns oppression and makes it quite clear that oppression is not from the tenants of Islam nor is it tolerated by the believers.  However, He does not stop there, He then goes on to say that all of humankind are misguided except for those whom He (God) has chosen to guide.  He asks that whenever we seek guidance we seek it from Him, for it can be obtained from no other place.

Without guidance, we are lost, continually searching for solace.  It is God’s most precious gift.  Knowing this and understanding the concepts of justice and forgiveness inherent in Islam enriches and completes us.  Knowing that our purpose is to worship God liberates us.  Guidance enables a person to accept and be grateful for the blessings that God bestows every second of every day.  Humankind depends on God; God however has no need for humankind.  This comprehensive hadith gives us a clear understanding of our need for God.  Next week we will discuss this topic and learn that nothing happens except by the permission of God.

- islamreligion.com

---

Footnotes:

[1]Saheeh Muslim, Ibn Majah & At Tirmidhi

The human being was created weak

 God says: "God would make the burden light for you, for the human being was created weak." (Quran 4:28)

In a state of weakness we were first created, and in a state of weakness we end our lives.  During the intervening years, we face one state of weakness after another, in both body and spirit. 

Our bodies suffer from sickness.  Even those of us who are blessed with robust health must ultimately succumb to the weakness of old age.  Our spirits are plagued with heedlessness.  Our minds can be touched with insanity.  We can see how weakness surrounds our existence from all sides.  Our own incapacity causes us to appreciate the greatness and the might of our Creator all the more. 

There is one form of weakness that we cannot hope to conceal.  It makes our deficiency and dependency all too obvious.  It is sickness – that state of being that strikes a person’s body and brings it down.  It takes its toll on the spirit as well, cutting down its arrogance and excessive pride.  All a person’s imagined power is knocked right off its foundations, causing a person to return to his original state of being, that state that is so much denied and pushed out of mind by our hubris and pride, and by our false notion of our own strength.  Sickness makes us get a taste of our weak origins all over again. 

Sickness is debilitating.  It exhausts the body.  Yet, for some people, it is a source of strength, fortifying their faith in God, restoring them to the natural relationship that they should have with their Lord.  Sickness is a wakeup call for some people, dispelling vanity and false desire from the heart, pushing aside vain passions and lusts. 

Sickness causes their hearts to become penitent, hastening to seek forgiveness.  They rush to the door of God’s mercy, that door which forever remains open, but which we are so prone to lose sight of during our years of health and prosperity.  Sickness can make those who used to shun that door most haughtily become the most ardent petitioners at its steps. 

It is no shame for a worshipper to expose his weakness at times of illness and submit himself humbly to God, beseeching God for his needs.  This is something that God loves from His servants. 

What is shameful is for that same person - who had so humbly petitioned his Lord at his time of weakness and need - to then shrug aside all of that humility once he is restored to health and deny the blessings of God.  It is a shame for him to return to his former haughtiness as if sickness had never touched him and as if he had never supplicated to his Lord for relief.  Such a person is indeed shameful and despicable. 

God says: "And when affliction touches a person, he calls on Us, whether lying on his side or sitting or standing; but when We remove his affliction from him, he passes on as though he had never called on Us on account of an affliction that touched him; thus that which they do is made fair-seeming to the extravagant." (Quran 10:12)

Few are those who recall at times of strength that there have been and will be times of weakness, times of incapacity.  A few short hours of prosperity is all that it takes to make us forget.  It takes just a bit of wealth to make us haughty. 

When misfortune falls, it is so fast that a person becomes desperate and dismayed, suddenly returning to earnest supplication and impatient for a return to prosperity.  Then, when God answers his prayer, he just as quickly turns his back and returns to his former state of heedlessness and disregard. 

Some people advocate false ideas, and push those ideas with such force that we cannot doubt the strength of their convictions for the falsehoods that they espouse.  Often, it is revealed how flimsy their convictions really are, how much they were based on personal desire and self-deception. 

We see this when that person is stricken with a fearful illness, his heart turns hard to those false ideas and seeks to return to its pure, natural state of faith in God and belief in His message.  All his false arguments and sophistries fall straight away. 

History attests to this fact.  There are many examples of people who were not mere followers of false ideologies, but leading proponents of those ideas, philosophers and intellectuals.  Their intelligence and sophistication had misguided them and cast them into confusion.  However, being touched by a frightful illness dispelled from their minds the vagaries of falsehood, and turned their hearts to God and to His mercy. 

Guidance in affliction is better than misguidance in prosperity. - islamreligion.com

Death in the Context of Faith

 

In the old days, when a woman saw in a dream a man extinguish the lantern in the house, or when she saw that a great house has collapsed on its foundations, she would be told by a dream interpreter that the man of the house was going to die!

One person said: "I saw in a dream that I was walking with crutches in the morning, and an hour later I was informed that my father had passed away."

The Arabs of old thought the crow was an evil omen.  This was all superstition stemming from the days of ignorance before Islam. 

Prophet Muhammad said in a sermon: "God gave a servant of his a choice between being given the flower of the Earth and between what He had in store for him, and he chose what He had in store for him." The people were bewildered, but Abu Bakr began to weep, understanding that the Prophet was telling the people his life was coming to an end."[1]

A little girl was asked: How many children are in your family?"

She replied: "We are seven."

He asked: "Where are they?"

She said: "Five of us are here, and two of us are beneath the tree over there."

He looked in the direction she was pointing and saw two small gravestones under the tree. 

"You are five, then." "No," she said, "We are seven."

Death is neither obliteration nor is it the end.  It is a transition from one state of being to another.  It is being born anew into another world.  Though it looks like the plug has been pulled on an electrical appliance, it is a fleeting, transitory state.  We say to children that the deceased "has gone to their Lord".  It is a good way to describe it.  It is a positive way of looking at it and it accords well with our faith. 

The Meaning of Life

Albert Camus, the French existential philosopher, said that since we all must die, nothing has any meaning. 

Much earlier, al-Khayyam said: "This glass was made in this exquisite form, so why must it succumb to destruction?"

These are destructive, nihilistic thoughts.  In contrast, Prophet Muhammad said: "be in this world as a stranger or a wayfarer."

Ibn Umar used to say: "When you go to sleep at night, do not await the dawn, and when you wake up, do not wait for night to come.  Take advantage your health for your times of sickness and take advantage of your life before your death."[2]

Life is like an airport; it is merely a preparation for the long journey to come. 

God says: "He it is who created death and life to test you as to which of you are best in deeds." (Quran 67:2)

This is a positive way of looking at it.  Instead of being seen as a cessation of activity, this inevitable event is seen as a catalyst for activity.  We need to get things done and make our mark while we still can. 

When we appreciate that life is short, it will help us to be more forgiving people.  We will be willing to set personal grudges aside, knowing that our time with others is limited. 

We are forced to ask ourselves three crucial questions:

1.    How can we live happy, productive lives?

2.    What will people say after we are gone?  What inspiration will they find in our life stories?

3.    What will our good deeds be like when we move on to the Hereafter?  

One of the Pious Predecessors said: "There are people who are doing so many good deeds, that if they knew they were going to die tomorrow, they would not be able to increase what they are doing."

Ali ibn Abi Talib said: "With every breath, a person’s comes that much closer to death." He also said: "Work in this world as if you are going to live forever, but work for the Hereafter as if you are going to die tomorrow."

Steve Jobs gave a commencement address where he described how he used to have to sleep on the floor in friend’s rooms, how he had to walk for miles to get a free meal, how his young mother had to struggle to find people to adopt him when he was born, how he was so easily pushed out of the company he established, and how he felt when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He then said: "if you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right."

How to Look at Death Positively

1.    It is enough to think of it as a journey to a place without oppression or injustice.  On the Day of Judgment, it will be said: "Today, each soul will be recompensed according to what it has earned.  There is no injustice today." (Quran 40:17)

2.    It is a reunion with our loved ones who have passed away.  Right before he died, Muadh ibn Jabal said: "Tomorrow, I will meet with those I love, Muhammad and his Companions."

3.    It is liberation from the prison of material existence.  The Prophet said: "The world is the believer’s prison."[3]

4.    It is a mercy for those whose lives are strained by debilitating illness, deprivation or incapacity or when a person’s mind deteriorates so much that they can no longer interact with their loved ones.

5.    Death is akin to sleep.  Both are a change in our state of existence.  One is a permanent move to another life, and the other foreshadows it.

6.    Knowing that we are going to die one day helps us to hold on to our values when facing the tribulations of life, and makes it easy for us to make the right decisions when we are confronted with unethical but appealing choices.

- islamreligion.com

---

Footnotes:

[1]Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim

[2]Saheeh Al-Bukhari

[3]Saheeh Muslim

How Do Muslims Treat the Elderly?

 

In the Islamic world, one rarely finds “old people’s homes.”  The strain of caring for one’s parents in this most difficult time of their lives is considered an honor and a blessing and an opportunity for great spiritual growth.  In Islam, it is not enough that we only pray for our parents, but we should act with limitless compassion, remembering that when we were helpless children, they preferred us to themselves.  Mothers are particularly honored.  When Muslim parents reach old age, they are treated mercifully, with kindness and selflessness.

In Islam, serving one’s parents is a duty second to prayer, and it is their right to expect it.  It is considered despicable to express any irritation when, through no fault of their own, the old become difficult.

God has said:

“Your Lord has commanded that you worship none but Him, and that you be kind to your parents.  If one of them or both of them reach old age with you, do not say to them a word of disrespect, or scold them, but say a generous word to them.  And act humbly to them in mercy, and say, ‘My Lord, have mercy on them, since they cared for me when I was small.’” (Quran 17:23-24)

- islamreligion.com

Real Happiness and Inner Peace

 

Real happiness and peace can be found in submitting to the commands of the Creator and the Sustainer of this world.  God has said in the Quran:

"Truly, in remembering God do hearts find rest." (Quran 13:28)

On the other hand, the one who turns away from the Quran will have a life of hardship in this world.  God has said:

"But whoever turns away from the Quran,[1]  he will have a hard life, and We will raise him up blind on the Day of Judgment." (Quran 20:124)

This may explain why some people commit suicide while they enjoy the material comfort money can buy.  For example, look at Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam), formerly a famous pop singer who used to earn sometimes more than $150,000 a night.  After he converted to Islam, he found true happiness and peace, which he had not found in material success.[2]

- islamreligion.com

---

Footnotes:

[1]i.e. neither believes in the Quran nor acts on its orders.

[2]The present mailing address of Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), in case you would like to ask him about his feelings after he converted to Islam, is: 2 Digswell Street, London N7 8JX, United Kingdom.