Without You (Sami Yusuf album)

Controversy

Sami Yusuf claimed that this album was released without his prior "blessings nor consent." He stated: "I therefore wish to make it perfectly clear that an album comprised of any such recordings could only be put on to the market against my wishes and without my approval." Yusuf subsequently stated on his website that the album was released without his knowledge or consent, and is a compilation of demos and sketches with a quality inferior to his standards. He has called for fans to boycott it. However, as of April 2009, Awakening Records continues to feature the album prominently on the Sami Yusuf part of its website, saying that the album is "a complete and high quality album" consisting of "11 professionally recorded tracks", and that "Sami Yusuf is signed exclusively to Awakening Records for five albums." The contractual dispute lasting from 2008 to 2009 lead to Yusuf legally separating from Awakening Records, completely disowning this album, and claiming that Wherever You Are released with ETM International is his real third album.

Re-release alterations

Yusuf has edited many of the tracks on this album and re-released them on his latter albums that have been released under his current record label ETM International, this includes the tracks, "Without You" and "He Is There", the latter being relabeled as "In Every Tear, He Is There" for the album Wherever You Are. Also, tracks such as "Sallou" (relabeled as "It's a Game") and "Never Never" (relabeled as "All I Need") were also altered and re-released on the album Salaam. "Forever Palestine" was edited and released as a free download on Yusuf's official website when this album was released in 2009.