THE DEVIL’S CONFERENCE
IBLIS

This ancient game of elements, this base
world!
The frustration of the longings of the great
Empyrean’s dwellers.
Upon its destruction is bent to‐day that
Fashioner of things,
Who gave it the name, “The world of Be it
so.”
I inspired in the European the dream of
Imperialism:
I broke the spell of the Mosque, the
Temple and the Church.
I taught the destitute to believe in Destiny:
I infused into the wealthy the craze for
Capitalism.
Who dare extinguish the blazing fire in
him,
Whose tumults are stimulated by the
inherent passion of Satan?
Who could summon the courage to bend
down the old tree,
Whose branches their height to our
watering owe?
FIRST COUNCILOR
Stable is the Satanic system, no doubt there
is!
                                                          
It has further strengthened in the
commoners their slavishness indeed.
Since the dawn of Time have these
helpless mortals been ordained to
prostration:
Prayer devoid of the posture of standing
erect is their nature’s constant urge.
In their heart no desire can in fact take its
birth:
But if it does, perchance, it dies or is left
unripe.
What wonders have our hard, persistent
endeavours wrought!
To‐day finds the mystics and the priests all
as subjects of Imperialism.
Suited to the disposition of the East was
this opium indeed:
Otherwise Ilm‐i‐Kalam is no less self‐
effacing than qawwali in effect.
What matters it, if the tumult of the
pilgrimage and tawaf abides?
For, rendered blunt, lies unused the
unsheathed sword of the Faithful.
Whose despair does this latest Ordinance
prove:
“To the Muslim in this age is forbidden
fighting in Lord’s name”?
SECOND COUNCILOR
Is the clamour for “Government by the
people” evil or good?
Art thou unaware of the fresh mischiefs of
the world?

FIRST COUNCILOR
Aware am I! but tells me my cosmic
foresight:
No danger from what is but a masquerade
for imperialism.
We ourselves have dressed imperialism in
the garb of democracy
When man has grown to be a little self‐
conscious and self‐observant.
The true nature of the system of
imperialism lies elsewhere:
It depends not on the existence of an
individual leader of a king.
Be it a national assembly of the court of
Parviz,
Whoever casts a covetous eye on other’s
harvest is a king.
Hast thou not observed the democratic
system of the West?
With a brilliant exterior, its interior is
darker than Genghis’s.
THIRD COUNCILOR
No cause for anxiety then, if the spirit of
imperialism be preserved:
But what counter‐measure to the mischief
wrought by that Jew have you?
That Moses without Light, that Jesus
without the Cross:
No prophet is he, yet with him a book he
carries.
I can hardly explain what significance does
the infidel penetrating vision possess:
It is, methinks, the day of reckoning for the
peoples of the East and the West.
No greater corruption of human nature
than this would be:
Slaves have broken asunder the ropes of
the masters’ tents.
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