The Genius of Evil, originally published under the title The Madness of God, hinges on a conversation between a 5th century monk and Lucifer. Lucifer's fall, and his subsequent indictment of God for "leading me astray," become the foundation upon which the author asks and answers questions about the possibility of free will in the face of God's omnipotence. After all, if God is all-powerful and if nothing occurs without "His explicit command," how are men to blamed for their faults? As Lucifer declares in his own defense, "Hath not the Potter power enough over the pot?" If so, Iblis reasons, then the horrors and injustices of the world are God's fault. If not, then God cannot be all-powerful. The author illustrates his story, and the conversation between the monk Bahira and Lucifer that forms the central portion of this work, with his own exegesis and synthesis of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scripture, legend, and apocrypha.