He was born Steven Demetre Georgiou, in London, 21st July 1948. His mother was Swedish and his father was a Greek Cypriot restaurant owner, they lived in the centre of London and Steven went to Roman Catholic Primary School. Having left school at the age of 16 with an (A) grade O-Level in Art, he entered Hammersmith Art Colleges and the following year, 1966, as (Cat Stevens), he recorded his first single. From then right up to 1977 Cat Stevens composed and sang many hit records including (Mathew and Son), (Here Comes My Baby), (Wild World), (Morning Has Broken and (Moonshadow), selling approximately 40 million long playing records throughout the world.

Following a bout of TB during his career, Cat Stevens undertook an ongoing search for peace and ultimate spiritual truth. This yearning often expressed in his songs and reflected through his investigations into eastern faiths such as Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Astrology, resulted in this embracing the Islamic faith in December 1977. (Cat Stevens) became Yusuf Islam.

Since embracing Islam, Yusuf Islam has married and now has five children.

He is a leading and active member of the Muslim community in Britain and is principally involved in three areas: Education of Muslim children, Da)wah to non-Muslim and Humanitarian Relief work.