Q&A with Sami Yusuf

Can You Tell Us about Your Family?

One of the questions I’m most frequently asked is about my family, so I’m taking a moment here to share my thoughts about this.

I can tell you that there have been many false stories in circulation about me and my family. One particularly humorous one that got a lot of traction is that I’m Cat Stevens’ son. Now, I have a lot of love for him, he’s a beautiful guy and obviously an acclaimed musician, but – full disclosure – no – I’m not his son.

You won’t hear me speak about my family first of all because I’m a very private person, and secondly, because it would be disrespectful to them. Privacy to me is precious and it saddens me that it’s become devalued, as people eagerly share details of every aspect of their lives online and feed the social media machine.

But I would tell my young listeners, especially, something that my wise grandmother used to say. “Before you speak, cook your words.” Think about the consequences of what you’re sharing. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. Whatever you put out there about yourself and anyone else will be there forever. Think carefully. Will you or others benefit from it? Do you think it will represent you in five or ten years’ time? You’ll change and grow throughout your life. Valuing your privacy will allow you to have second chances and reinvent yourself without being followed by regrettable things posted online.

To me, questions about my family are absolutely connected to privacy – and privacy is something that I want to protect not only for myself but for those close to me. Because I have a career that has a public face doesn’t mean I have the right to share information about people in my life, nor do I want to. Actually, just the opposite; I believe I have an obligation to protect their privacy. I rarely share personal details about my own life, let alone those of my family. It would be disrespectful to disclose information about them. It would violate boundaries of trust.

I am a composer, a musician, and to the extent that I want to be known, I want to be known for my contributions to the field of music, especially to reviving and continuing the rich legacy of traditional music still existing in this world. Because in the end it’s the work that matters, not the person behind it, as long as that person strives to develop a character worthy of his or her goal.

So, when I see misleading or false statements about myself in various sources, I don’t feel the need to rush out and correct them, thus revealing more about myself and my close ones than we would want and straying into the realm of celebrity. I keep in mind this quote from long before the information age by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with honesty and truth. 

For those who have asked about my family and other personal aspects of my life, I hope you will now understand my reasons for remaining silent when it comes to this.