tour in 2014.В He will perform in Nashville for the first time in 40 years on Tuesday, as his вЂњA CatвЂ™s AtticвЂќ tour comes to the Ryman Auditorium. Since 2006, he has released several new studio albums, and embarked on a new U.S.

But after a hiatus that spanned four decades, Yusuf has returned to the spotlight. Soon after he converted to Islam in 1977, the musician essentially vanished from the popular music landscape as he embracedВ his new faith. It was obviously money well spent!'ДЇor his millions of fans, hearing from YusufВ in the late 1970s would have seemed miraculous, too. 'I visited the centre yesterday and found a great openness to share message of unity, love and peace which I had discovered,' Yusuf said in an email to the Tennessean Monday.В вЂњI am proud that the Centre in Nashville has become a beacon for understanding and sharing spiritual values. On SundayВ -В almost 40 years laterВ -В Yusuf paid a visit to the centerВ he helped establish. View Gallery: Nashville Muslims find a home thanks to Cat Stevens AKM Fakhruddin, a founding member of the mosque. The group combined the singerвЂ™s donation of nearly $2,000 with the rest of the cash they managed to scrape together and paid $29,000 for a modest house on 12th Avenue South, said Dr. вЂњI was thinking, 'What a miracle,'вЂќ said Elberry, who was a Vanderbilt University graduate student from Egypt at the time. They had no idea word of their efforts to start the Islamic Center of Nashville had reached Yusuf Islam, the famous British musician and Muslim convert also known as Cat Stevens, until his check arrived in the mail. So the small group behind one of NashvilleвЂ™s first mosques rented a PO Box and mailed invitations to every Muslim-sounding name in the phone book and hoped for the best, Elberry said. Trying to build a congregation and raise money for a new Islamic center in the pre-Internet age of the late 1970s required some ingenuity.

Zainab Elberry remembers the day the check came. Watch Video: Cat Stevens to tour US for first time in more than 35 years

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