![\"Cat](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Cat-Stevens-Musician-1970s-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ IMDB<\/p>\n
Sat 25 July 2026 21:30, UK <\/p>\n
When Cat Stevens<\/a> ditched music in 1977, he said it was because he \u201cneeded to get real\u201d. Converting to Islam, for him, was a chance to pursue that which actually made sense and give him a greater sense of purpose. But the decision didn\u2019t just come from nowhere.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re already famous for being a world-class singer-songwriter with songs that resonate across all eras and generations, not everyone is going to understand a sudden decision to step back from it all. But while countless others found their own paths to self-discovery through Stevens\u2019 words, a series of events ultimately led him to take a journey of his own, away from the chaos of the industry.<\/p>\n This journey actually began in the 1960s, when Stevens, as delinquent and curious about the world as any other youth in London, started climbing around on rooftops. One evening, however, he slipped while jumping between rooftops, leaving him hanging on \u201cby his fingertips\u201d. His friend was able to pull him back and save him from \u201cthe dark abyss\u201d, but it didn\u2019t stop all the morbid rumination that came after. <\/p>\n \u201cI already considered myself as a thinker by then and, as such, you can\u2019t help thinking that one day you won\u2019t be here,\u201d Stevens pondered in his memoir, Cat on the Road to Findout. \u201cWhether it\u2019s through an accident or illness or by dying in your sleep, it\u2019s all one thing. You leave this world.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the singer would\u2019ve probably liked his brush with death to have stopped there, he then contracted tuberculosis in his teens. At the London Clinic, where he would recover for months, he endured a \u201chellish three-month defensive battle for my earthly future\u201d\u2026 Then, a handful of years later, Stevens was once again faced with the pesky reality of mortality when he nearly drowned swimming off the coast of Malibu.<\/p>\n Stevens later recalled how, at the time, he was so desperate for survival that he promised god he would work for him if he saved his life\u2026 Call it fate, karma, or an act of divine intervention itself<\/a>, he was then saved by a sudden wave that helped carry him towards land \u2013 this, along with receiving a copy of the Quran from his brother, led to Stevens retiring from music and converting to Islam.<\/p>\n \u201cI would never have picked up a Quran,\u201d the singer mused to Desert Island Disks. \u201cBut it became the gateway. After a year, I could not hold myself back. I had to bow down.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n Granted, it wasn\u2019t easy leaving music behind. In fact, Stevens battled with what most musicians would face if they decided to hang up their hats, but with the additional challenge of the world\u2019s hostility about a decision they couldn\u2019t understand. Western audiences, in particular, didn\u2019t let him go easy, and he felt a \u201cresponsibility\u201d to satisfy his fans. But, at the same time, he had to \u201cstart taking action with what I now believed\u201d. <\/p>\n And while he sort of naively thought that people would get it, a lot of them argued that he should continue making music. But it wasn\u2019t like Stevens would ditch it forever \u2013 he merely needed an escape to figure out his own path in life before it felt right to pick up his guitar once more<\/a>. And when he finally did, he was \u201cflowing with ideas\u201d. <\/p>\n Music, to Stevens, was always his greatest outlet, and so taking time away only strengthened that connection\u2026 What\u2019s more, it allowed him to fall in love with the art all over again, realising why he pursued it in the first place: to feel closer to his real purpose \u2013 as he put it, \u201cI didn\u2019t know where I was going, but music helped me to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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