A visit by singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, weeks after the death of his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, has drawn a warm response from Malaysians, many of them thanking the musician for keeping the 101-year-old statesman company in his grief.
Yusuf, better known to a generation of listeners as Cat Stevens, shared news of the visit in a Facebook post and said he had read Al-Fatihah with Dr Mahathir. “They were married for 70 years. He is 101 years old, by God’s grace,” he wrote, in a post carried by NST.
The post carried a photograph of Yusuf seated beside Dr Mahathir, the two men in conversation in what appeared to be a quiet, personal moment at home.
Among the hundreds who responded was Diana Able, who thanked the singer for visiting a man she described as experiencing extreme grief over the loss of his wife. “Sitting beside someone during grief is the greatest gift we can give to them,” she wrote.
Another commenter, Hamzah Mat Isa, described Dr Mahathir as a leader who helped build Malaysia through years of challenges, and said the veteran politician would value the visit. Social media user Zul Daud said the photograph moved him. “I do not know why, but tears welled up in my eyes after writing this post,” he wrote.
One response noted that the visit was a reminder of how much companionship matters to elderly people, particularly those who have lost a partner of many decades. Dr Siti Hasmah died at the National Heart Institute on 28 September at the age of 100, closing a marriage that lasted seven decades and ranked among the country’s most closely followed public partnerships. The couple married in Kuala Lumpur on 4 August 1956, after meeting while studying medicine in Singapore, Malay Mail reported.
The family has also spoken of the public response to her death. Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, the couple’s son, said more than 25,000 people had travelled to her grave in the three weeks since, some from as far as Palembang in Indonesia, and that the crowds had eased his father’s grief.
Dr Siti Hasmah trained as a doctor and spent years treating rural communities, work that former colleagues and patients recalled after her death.
Yusuf, 78, rose to international fame in the 1960s and 1970s under the name Cat Stevens, with hits including “Father and Son”, “Wild World” and “Morning Has Broken”. He embraced Islam and adopted the name Yusuf Islam in 1977, and has performed in Malaysia several times since.
Dr Mahathir, who turns 102 this year, served as prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and again from 2018 to 2020, making him the longest-serving holder of the office.
