Mustafa: ‘Everyone should have a doorway to poetry’

Mustafa is a poet, as much as he’s a musician. His songs have a lyricism that is up there with the greats, exploring love, loss and longing, along with all the dull aches and piercing pains that come with them. Like one of his heroes, Sufjan Stevens, his prose is accompanied by beautiful melodies that seduce, soothe and comfort you, communicating to you that the artist you’re listening to you knows pain too.

Mustafa – who appeared on the cover of the spring 2022 issue of Dazed, photographed by Paolo Roversi – is currently on tour and he’s also just released a collection of poems in collaboration with WePresent, titled Nour – A Publication on Ceremony. The book brings together contributions from a wide range of people, including Dev Hynes, Hanif Abdurraqib, Channing Tatum, Fatimah Asghar, Pedro Pascal, and Mustafa himself.

Here, Mustafa tells us more about the book, his relationship with poetry and his faith, which weaves through his music – and poems – like a continuous golden thread.

Can you tell me about the contributors and how you went about selecting them?

Mustafa: Some of the greatest writers in the English language are in this publication, and others are just trying their hand at poetry for the first time. That spectrum is critical for me; everyone should have a doorway to poetry; to me, it’s the genre that belongs to everyone. Of course, it still requires work and work and more work to make clear, and some are undone – but it’s important considering the range of writers.

Is there one poem or one line from the book that really moves you?

Mustafa: So many bars, but today it’s: ‘Your mother said that after they took your body away, all that remained were the pills, spilled along the black carpet, like you had coughed up a series of stars.’ Hanif.

How do you use poetry to process pain, grief and loss?

Mustafa: Hold it up against a thing that would never recognise it outside of the poem. I find great power in that. The loss feels like a wild animal, but in the poem it belongs to everything.

Death is funny, the practices around it strange, and our bodies are glorified costumes – that is as important as any reminder for me. There’s a circus in the doom and gloom

How do you use humour, on the other hand, to do the same thing?

Mustafa: Death is funny, the practices around it strange, and our bodies are glorified costumes – that is as important as any reminder for me. There’s a circus in the doom and gloom.

What advice would you give to someone who is curious about the Islamic faith?

Mustafa: That being a Muslim is the belief in one God and the last prophet, the rest can and will take a lifetime. Beginning with scholars who can contextualise the religion is important: Imam Omar Suleiman or Sheikh Timothy Winter are great beginnings.

Where would you suggest beginning with the Qur’an?

Mustafa: Al Ikhlas, it’s the one of the shortest chapters of the Qur’an and it’s the declaration of God’s oneness. It’s considered one-third of the Qur’an. Hearing it in Arabic is important.

Could you tell us about a recent challenge you’ve had and how your faith helped you through it?

Mustafa: I was feeling low about someone no longer here, and I remembered the verse, ‘Think not of those slain in the way of Allah as dead. Indeed they are living, and with their Lord they have their sustenance.’ From the chapter of Imran. Remembering that true success is not in this life is the most energising for me.

At your shows, you have an amazing connection with your audience. Could you tell us about a recent interaction you’ve had with a fan that has been particularly special or memorable to you?

Mustafa: I had a fan fly to three different cities to keep seeing the show. She said each one was its own magic, which moved me, but also concerned me – three funerals in a week.

Nour – A Publication on Ceremony now available for free download exclusively on WeTransfer https://we.tl/nour