56
which perhaps appeared somewhat haughty,
did not encourage them—and he may have
been a little stern sometimes in repulsing
the advances of self-seekers and sycophants.
Simple and unassuming, he abhorred being treat-
ed as a hero and paid court to ; and it may be said
to his credit that he never held weekly levees for
receiving homage when he was in power.
After his retirement from office in 1930, another
side of his nature began to come into clearer light.
His study of the Qur'an and his several pilgri-
mages to the Holy places strengthened and made
vocal those tendencies which had been in him
from the beginning; and then he became more
communicative with his own people. His
Western education helped him to recognise in the
Qur'an his supreme guide to life, and he often told
his listeners how he had found his way to Arabia
via Europe. If he had surprised and delighted
his English friends with his knowledge of their his-
tory and literature, and with occasional quota-
tions fromJLatin- poets, he could now edify his
Indian friends with quotations from the Qur'an
and entertain them with chosen passages from
his favourite JPersian goets. In this way his own
people got to know him better. Then came the
j^uman-e-Ilm-o-Amal. (revived by him in 1936)
to train people in righteous living; and this and
Ms occasional contributions to local papers on
matters of^ei^and^jcnoraJ interest, helped to
bring about a still better understanding of him
in Hyderabad.