With God in his heart and the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh at his side, British-born singing sensation Sami Yusuf is taking the world by storm — and even has non-Muslims humming his tunes — but don’t make the mistake of calling the widely acclaimed ‘King of Islamic Pop’ a preacher.

By Hadia Mostafa

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In just about every interview that Yusuf has ever given, he talks about his father as one of the greatest influences on his life and talent, yet never mentions his name. “That’s the way I’d like to keep it,” smiles Yusuf. “He has been very influential in my life, but I am a very private person by nature so I don’t like to put my family in the limelight.” Yusuf does, however, proudly tell me that he has been very happily married for the past 10 months. His wife, Mariam, comes from Bavaria, one of the most Christian and conservative areas in Germany, but embraced Islam five years ago.

“We have been very blessed, but again I like to keep that part of my life as private as possible. To this day, the public does not know what my wife looks like because she hasn’t been photographed, even though we do spend a lot of time together,” says Yusuf. With all the negative images that Islam has to contend with today, Yusuf’s constant influence on peace is refreshing. “There is nothing new about the message that Islam is peace, that has always been the rhetoric, but we can’t just keep on saying that while we walk around with an attitude that is the complete opposite. There’s a lot of aggression and that has to change. We have to go back to our history and look at the Prophet (PBUH) with his merciful attitude.”

Yusuf believes that only a revival of art will put the Muslim world on the same page as the Western world. “The artistic, literary and creative horizons are so huge right now because there is a vacuum in terms of art, music and film. I think artists and creative-minded people, the composers, journalists and poets of the Muslim world, have to seize this opportunity to revive a civilization that has been lost.

“It cannot be the Islamic scholars who are specialized in issues of fiqh alone who will do the job,” says Yusuf.
While many have embraced Yusuf’s message of peace and tolerance, a vocal minority has been highly critical of his music and message. Mixing music with stories of the Prophet (PBUH) is taboo among fundamentalists who believe that music is in and of itself haram.

“These people do exist, they are a minority — but a very loud minority,” says Yusuf. “The vast majority of Muslims and the vast majority of human beings are very civilized. They just want to get along with their lives. But if you want to take the fiqh perspective, there is a school of thought that says music is haram. I obviously don’t prescribe to that view. I have gotten some criticism, but it has been very minimal. “What we need today in the Islamic world is more balance. It’s a pity that people are either becoming more conservative or more liberal. A balanced person in my view is someone who can sit with someone who is a Wahhabi and someone who is the most secular person in the world and not only listen to them, but also respect their opinion. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many people today who can do that.”

My Ummah is a departure of sorts from the simple melodies and heavy reliance on the anasheed-style music popular with Sufi traditions on his debut, Al-Mu’allim. The new album is much more musically complex, deploying a range of musical styles and featuring lyrics that tackle hot issues in the Muslim world.

“Muhammad,” for example, is dedicated to the schoolchildren who died in the Russian town of Beslan after Chechen Islamist terrorists took their school hostage.

It condemns violence in the name of Islam with a chorus that goes: “Mohammed, the light of my eyes; About you they spread many lies; If only they came to realize; Bloodshed you despise.” “Free” is about a Muslim woman’s right to wear the veil and was inspired by the ordeal that Muslim girls went through when France banned hijab in public schools. “Try not to Cry” is a rap song performed with the Danish trio Outlandish, which has two Muslim and one Christian member.

“They are doing a great job, particularly with their latest album, which is very spiritual. They asked me to feature on their album, and I asked them to feature on mine,” explains Yusuf, who writes most of his own lyrics in collaboration with Bara Kherigi, one of his closest friends in the UK.

“This one is a little deep,” says Yusuf of his latest release. “We really put a lot of work into it, and I think it’s deep in the sense that there are a lot of variables in the music. I didn’t want to make another Al-Mu’allim because I like experimenting.

I wanted to do something creative, and insha’Allah it will turn out well.”
Yusuf expects that it will be another year to a year-and-a-half before he can start working on his next project. In the meantime, he’s debating new video clips, having already succeeded on that front with both Al-Mu’allim and My Ummah. “I am indebted to a great team with great passion,” says Yusuf. Egyptian director Hani Osama directs all his videos; the two videos supporting My Ummah to date are Hasbi Rabbi, shot on location in England, India, Turkey and Egypt, and Mother, filmed exclusively in Egypt.

“For the Mother clip, Osama asked me to provide him with pictures of myself as a child, and sobhan’Allah he found models who looked just like me when I was five or six. My mother cried when she saw the clip and started a whole deluge, with my nephew, sister and sister-in-law following suit. It was crazy.”

Muslim communities worldwide have embraced Yusuf’s music. Last month, he was among the 150 US and Muslim leaders and opinion-makers invited to participate in the Brookings Institute’s third annual US-Islamic World Forum held in Doha, Qatar, which aims to narrow the growing gap between the US and the Islamic world. Yusuf has performed in sold-out concerts in the US and is planning a five-city concert tour there this coming summer.

Yusuf speaks highly of Amr Khaled, who is not a sheikh but a sometimes controversial — and highly popular — self-proclaimed preacher now in a form of self-imposed exile in London. “Amr Khaled is an amazing person and a dear friend of mine. He supports what I’m doing and I support him. Regardless of what some people say, he is a very sincere person. I can see it in his eyes and face. I know that what he speaks he speaks from the heart. He has no hidden agenda; he just wants Islam to rise up to the challenge and revive those values and morals that we hold dear to our heart.”

As for Yusuf’s goals? “I’ll shock you,” he laughs. “I want to see myself on MTV one day. I want to pick up an award, a Grammy maybe, and walk on stage in front of the whole world and say ‘Salam Alaykum, peace be upon you, thank you very much, this is Islam.’ “That’s my professional goal, but my personal goal is very simple: It all boils down to is what kind of person you are.

I’m not interested in just the art or the material contribution. I’m interested in humanity. I want to be a good husband to my wife, a good friend to my friends and a good Muslim. Actually, when I say ‘good Muslim,’ everything else will just come with it.
“It’s as simple as that.”

© Egypt Today 2006

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