{"id":71699,"date":"2020-06-27T21:25:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T01:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=71699"},"modified":"2020-06-27T21:29:41","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T01:29:41","slug":"full-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/full-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Circle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1976, Cat Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, California,<\/p>\n<p>and he shouted, \u201cOh God! If you save me, I will work for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Did it take long to find me? I asked the faithful light<br \/>\nDid it take long to find me? And are you gonna stay the night<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On November 22, 1979, the last cords of <em>Moonshadow<\/em> fluttered from Wembley Stadium,<\/p>\n<p>and Cat Stevens\u2019s life as a musician, singer, and songwriter ended.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We soon discovered the meaning behind his famous song, <em>Moonshadow<\/em>, for<\/p>\n<p>The Quran, 27:62, states,<em> &#8220;Who is it that answers the one in need when he calls out?&#8221; <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As his life flashed before his eyes, Cat Stevens called, and the Lord answered.<\/p>\n<p>Cat Stevens knew he must keep his promise he made that fateful day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Following his conversion to Islam, he abandoned his musical career.<\/p>\n<p>For nearly two decades, Cat Stevens, now known as Yusef Islam, remained faithful to God.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Islam gradually resumed his musical career in the 1990s. His initial recordings had not included<\/p>\n<p>any musical\u00a0instruments other than percussion, and they featured lyrics about Islamic themes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>After I embraced Islam, many people told me to carry on composing and recording, but at the time I was hesitant, for fear that it might be for the wrong reasons. I felt unsure what was right.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I guess it is only now, after all these years, that I&#8217;ve come to fully understand and appreciate what everyone has been asking of me. It&#8217;s as if I&#8217;ve come full circle.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In March 2006, Islam finished recording his first all-new pop album since 1978.<\/p>\n<p>The album,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/An_Other_Cup\">An Other Cup<\/a><\/em>, was released internationally on his own label, Ya Records.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On 15 September 2017, he released his fifteenth studio album,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Laughing_Apple\">The Laughing Apple<\/a><\/em>. The album<\/p>\n<p>is\u00a0credited to\u00a0&#8220;Cat Stevens \/ Yusuf&#8221; &#8211; his first record under the Cat Stevens name since 1978.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1976, Cat Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, California, and he shouted, \u201cOh God! If you save me, I will work for you.\u201d &nbsp; Did it take long to find me? I asked the faithful light Did it take long to find&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1448,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1448"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71699"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71757,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71699\/revisions\/71757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}