Holy rock star One of the biggest names in Muslim music Sami Yusuf, a bearded man wearing a tailored business suit, who sells his album by the million strides as a rock star in the world of music. British singer-song-writer, Sami Yusuf whose second album My 'Ummah: God Is Cool' - a record which sold at least one million legitimate copies but many times that number bootleg versions is well known in the Muslim world. Household name in Turkey, Egypt and Gulf states, where he needs bodyguards and blacked-out windows to protect him from being mobbed by fans. In 2003, he recorded his first album, 'Al-Muallim' (The Teacher). The lyrics are sung mostly in English but also include Arabic, Urdu and Farsi, as well as some Turkish dialects. The album was an instant hit, charting in Turkey, Jordan and Egypt. Born in Tehran, where he lived until he was three, he is an ethnic Azeri. The family arrived in London, in the early 1980s where Sami grew up. Growing up in a musical family - he was taught by his father who was also a composer - Sami eventually studied composition and piano. He also studied Islam and Arabic in Egypt.