[20] The family lived above the Moulin Rouge, a restaurant his parents operated on the north end of Shaftesbury Avenue, a short walk from Piccadilly Circus in the Soho theatre district of London.

[28] With interests in both art and music, he and his mother moved to Gävle, Sweden, where he attended primary school (Solängsskolan) and started developing his drawing skills after being influenced by his uncle Hugo Wickman, a painter.

The combination of Stevens' new folk rock style and accessible lyrics, which spoke of everyday situations and problems, mixed with the beginning of spiritual questions about life, remained in his music from then on.

However, almost 20 years later, in 1997, the film Rushmore received his permission to use his songs "Here Comes My Baby" and "The Wind"; this showed a new willingness on his part to release music from his Western "pop star" days.

It differed in several respects: it was entirely written by Stevens; he dropped his band; and, with the exception of some guitar on the title track and "100 I Dream",[68] he produced the record without the assistance of Samwell-Smith, who had played a large role in catapulting him to fame.

[73] Izitso included his last chart hit, "(Remember the Days of the) Old Schoolyard", an early synthpop song[71] that used a polyphonic synthesiser; it was a duet with fellow UK singer Elkie Brooks.

[78] During the time he was studying the Qur'an, Stevens began to identify more and more with the story of Joseph, a man bought and sold in the market place, which is how he said he had increasingly felt within the music business.

Appearing with his hair freshly shorn and an untrimmed beard, he headlined a charity concert on 22 November 1979 in Wembley Stadium to benefit UNICEF's International Year of the Child.

He is also the founder and chairman of the Small Kindness charity, which initially assisted famine victims in Africa and now supports thousands of orphans and families in the Balkans, Indonesia, and Iraq.

We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims of this sorrowful moment.

[99][100]He appeared on videotape on a VH1 pre-show for the October 2001 Concert for New York City, condemning the attacks and singing his song "Peace Train" for the first time in public in more than 20 years, as an a cappella version.

[101] During the same year, he dedicated time and effort in joining the Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism, an organisation that worked towards battling misconceptions and acts against others because of their religious beliefs or their racial identity (or both), after many Muslims reported a backlash against them due in part to the grief caused by the events in the United States on 11 September.

[67] On 21 September 2004, Islam was on a United Airlines flight from London to Washington, travelling to a meeting with American entertainer Dolly Parton, who had recorded "Peace Train" several years earlier and was planning to include another Cat Stevens song on an upcoming album.

However, The Sunday Times managing editor Richard Caseby said that while there was an "agreed settlement", they "always denied liability" and "disagreed with Cat Stevens' lawyers interpretation", but took a "pragmatic view" of the lawsuit.

[114] On 18 July 2008, Islam received substantial undisclosed damages from the World Entertainment News Network following their publication of a story which claimed that the singer refused to speak to unveiled women.

[115] The allegations first surfaced in the German newspaper BZ after Islam's trip to Berlin in March 2007 to collect the Echo music award for "life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures".

[121] On the occasion of the 2000 re-release of his Cat Stevens albums, at the urging of his label rep Sujata, Islam agreed to interviews with the media to tell his story and reconnect with his fans.

[124] In 2003, after repeated encouragement from within the Muslim world,[125] Islam once again recorded "Peace Train" for a compilation CD, which also included performances by David Bowie and Paul McCartney.

On 21 April 2005, Islam gave a short talk before a scheduled musical performance in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the anniversary of the prophet Muhammad's birthday.

With this performance, Islam began slowly to integrate instruments into both older material from his Cat Stevens era (some with slight lyrical changes) and new songs, both those known to the Muslim communities around the world and some that have the same Western flair from before with a focus on new topics and another generation of listeners.

Islam attended as part of an honorary committee which also included George Martin, Richard Branson, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Klaus Voormann, Christopher Lee and others.

He also gave a concert in New York City that month as a Jazz at Lincoln Center event, recorded and broadcast by KCRW-FM radio, along with an interview by Nic Harcourt.

"[135] Originally, he began to return only to his acoustic guitar as he had in the past, but his son encouraged him to "experiment", which resulted in the purchase of a Stevie Ray Vaughan Fender Stratocaster[136] in 2007.

[137] In July 2007, he performed at a concert in Bochum, Germany, in benefit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Peace Centre in South Africa and the Milagro Foundation of Deborah and Carlos Santana.

He later appeared as the final act in the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg performing some classic Cat Stevens songs and more recent compositions reflecting his concern for peace and child welfare.

In January 2009, Yusuf released a single in aid of children in Gaza, a rendition of the George Harrison song "The Day the World Gets Round", along with the German bassist Klaus Voormann, who had formerly collaborated with The Beatles.

[145] On 30 October 2010, Yusuf appeared at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's spoof Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, DC, singing alongside Ozzy Osbourne.

The ten-date tour visited Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg, Oberhausen, Berlin, Munich, Rotterdam, Paris, Mannheim, Vienna and Brussels.

[19] In keeping with his spirit of humanitarianism,[166] he would be donating a portion of the revenue from each ticket sale towards his charity Small Kindness, as well as UNICEF and the International Rescue Committee[167] in an effort to assist children affected by the current Syrian refugee crisis.

[177] Artists who have cited Stevens as a musical influence and lauded the quality of his music include Paul McCartney of The Beatles, Dolly Parton, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Peter Gabriel, Nile Rodgers of CHIC, Carly Simon, Rick Wakeman, Paul Rodgers of the bands Free and Bad Company, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Dale Crover of The Melvins, James Morrison, and Ville Valo of HIM.