A Is for Allah

A Is for Allah is a double album made for Muslim children by the British singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, released on 11 July 2000 together with a large colourful book in which each page shows a letter of the Arabic alphabet, published by Mountain of Light, Yusuf Islam's own imprint. ^{1 2}

He wrote the title song in 1980 at the birth of his first child, his daughter Hasanah, because he wanted her to learn Arabic and to read and understand the Qur'an; a recent convert at the time, he worried about finding a good Islamic education for his children in London, as the article reports from The New York Times Magazine. ¹ He went on to use the song to teach her and other children the twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet, and the album had been in the works since 1994. ¹

Over two discs the album walks through the alphabet letter by letter, each letter with its word: A for Allah, B for Bismillah, T for Taqwa, J for Jannah, H for Hajj, D for Deen, R for Ramadan, Z for Zakah, S for Salat, I for Ilm, F for Fatihah, Q for Qur'an, M for "Muhammad Rasul-Allah", H for Hijrah, W for Wu'du and Y for Yawm ad-Deen. ¹ Between them come songs such as 'Bismillah', 'Salam, Salam', 'Qur'anu Rabbee' and 'Seal of the Prophets', and recitations of Qur'an passages, which the museum points to and never types: the Throne Verse, al-Fatiha, al-Duha, al-Qadr, al-Infitar and the opening of al-Muddaththir. ¹ Other Muslim musicians take part, among them the South African singer Zain Bhikha, who sings on all but one track. ¹

• English Wikipedia, 'A Is for Allah', revision 1313289250 of 25 September 2025, citing The New York Times Magazine of 7 January 2007. ¹
• Wikidata item Q4657473. ²