Footsteps in the Light

"For her the Moroccans were backward onlookers standing on the sidelines of the parade of progress; they must be exhorted to join, if necessary pulled by force into the march. Hers was the attitude of the missionary, but whereas the missionary offered a complete if unusable code of thought and behavior, the modernizer offered nothing at all, save a place in the ranks. And the Moslems who with their blind intuitive wisdom had triumphantly withstood the missionaries' cajoleries, now were going to be duped into joining the senseless march of universal brotherhood; for the privilege each man would have to give up only a small part of himself--just enough to make him incomplete, so that instead of looking into his own heart, to Allah, for reassurance, he would have to look to the others. The new world would be a triumph of frustration, where all humanity would be lifting itself by its own bootstraps--the equality of the damned. No wonder the religious leaders of Islam identified Western culture with the works of Satan: they had seen the truth and were expressing it in the simplest of terms." - Paul Bowles, The Spider's House

Mr. Islam

I hadn't given much thought to Yusef Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) since I was about seventeen; that is until recently when I played his records for Clara. We own three Cat Stevens records (Tea for the Tillerman, Catch Bull at Four and Teaser & the Firecat) - bought at garage sales and thrift stores in the time since I stopped thinking about him. They've sat on the shelf un-played for years.

Cat Stevens, by way of the movie Harold and Maude (by way of my youngest aunt) had a huge affect on me as a teenager. I loved how powerful his music seemed yet so simple. His introspective mortality-obsessed lyrics designed for the would-be poets of adolescence.

In his former life, Yusef was all over the map spiritually but he was most definitely spiritual in an I-need-direction way so it's no surprise that he found religion. Back in the day though, he'd record a Christian hymn here (Morning Has Broken), name an album after some Zen teaching there (Catch Bull At Four) - Allah wasn't really in the picture.

Since Clara and I were on a Cat Stevens kick, I thought it only fair to give his recent work a listen. So I downloaded the song collection Footsteps in the Light. Here's the short and dirty review:

Yusef Islam has found life's meaning. That journey is over and, as the saying goes, the quest is its own reward. By that I mean there is not much rewarding for us at journey's end. His new chanting, dogma-driven work is too pious to be anything but pretty and dull (although Clara liked it just the same).

One thing I thought strange - his voice has softened, monk-like. So his career is like the reverse of Tom Waits. He went from raspy, deep and loud to soft and calm.

I do appreciate Yusef Islam's version of the Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer. I spent two years of my youth living in the Middle East. I heard the Adhan many times a day as a kid, called out from the towering minarets in our village at dawn, noon and dusk. It was awesome and as a kid of course I attached no moral judgment to it. I would go out and watch our houseboy roll out his prayer rug and bow earnestly for the duration of the prayer. It simply sounded and looked cool as did the marching bloody self-flagellating Shiites during Muharram. The mosque sound system where I lived was not very good, so I also remember the Adhan as having a fuzzy crackled sound. Actually I looked for the Adhan online and found similar recordings to what I knew as a kid. Yusef Islam's version is the only studio recording I've ever heard (he drops in a wind track for affect).

Here is a translation of the Adhan.

And here is Yusef Islam as the muadhan.