Songfacts®:

• When in April 2009, he was asked by Jools Holland on the BBC TV Later program what had inspired him to write this song, Yusuf would say only that it was a story and that it would soon become clear. "The Rain" was no April shower but the Biblical Flood.
  
  Cat Stevens converted to Islam and gave up music; 28 years later he returned as Yusuf Islam; his second album - as Yusuf - followed relatively quickly, and without proselytizing he managed to combine his music and his religion. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England