He Who Burns is an exploration through dance, text and music of the figure of Iblis, Satan, as understood in some Sufi traditions. Through this lens, the dance-theater piece explores the nature of humanity's relationship with the divine, the eternal quest for unity and the illusion of duality in the human experience.

Staged as a trio, He Who Burns takes us on a journey from the time before time, through the suffering of Iblis in his separation from his Beloved and his quest for the same, through to his ecstatic annihilation. The performance at once parallels the Sufi quest, as outlined in the great Sufi text, “Conference of the Birds,” and the structure of the Bharata Natyam performance. The text, from the Persian, Arabic and Urdu of Al-Hallaj, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Mohammed Iqbal, Farid ud-din Attar, Hafiz and Maulana Jelaluddin Rumi, is performed in Urdu, English

The performance will be preceded by a short lecture to introduce the audience to key narrative elements.

He Who Burns is presented at Harvard by the Harvard College Pakistani Students Association and the Harvard Pakistani Students Group.