Mustafa Aziz in the Underworld.

 
MUSTAFA AZIZ IN THE UNDERWORLD 
 
   And as I have told you, Omar Khayyam, 
   my guide and mentor, spirited me to this cruel place 
   where blessed Allah casts down flawed souls, 
 
   And I saw such hideous wonders of suffering, 
   cruel Iskandar, Attila, vile Plantagenet, 
   blood-lusting Hitler, as Shaitan's alternate masks. 
 
   And venerable, scholarly Khayyam, that holy man, 
   raised his hand, begging me to harken to the sound 
   of rustling leaves, soughing zephyrs--my heart leapt, 
 
   Strongly longing for an oasis in the dread underworld, 
   but disappointed to see dull shrubs, attended 
   by women wringing hands, moaning hideous lament. 
 
   Great Omar beckoned and I, mistaken, saw that 
   each shrub was a bloody collage of stinking flesh, 
   fragments, hanging manshape, like tree leaves 
 
   Clustered about tormented, pained pairs of eyes. 
   These of the damned are suicide bombers, said my guide. 
   They took life, heedless of the Almighty's strictures 
 
   Putting no-one to the question, and indeed, 
   murdering godly and ungodly alike, without pity, 
  ...