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poems, but their value to me is in that they express
some of my innermost feelings and are a confession
of faith." My comment on this modest apology
is that this service of Sir Nizamat Jung stands
on a far higher level than anything else, and is
unique. No other Hyderabad!, no other Indian
Muslim, I should say, has accomplished so much.
His poems are of a high order, but that is not all.
His Islamw, Poems have brought English poetry
to serve the cause of Islam, and he has provided
for Muslims that which will keep alive in
young and old a fervent enthusiasm for Islam
from generation to generation. The effect of
poetry on the minds of children is well-known
and Sir Nizamat Jung himself has told us what
English poetry did for him when he was a child.
The depth of his feeling and sincerity may be
judged from his remarks:
" If a man is what he thinks and feels, I
have hopes that I shall be found in my writings,
j and that Hyderabad will have my relic in them.
I seldom wrote for the sake of writing, but to
. express some thought or feeling and feel myself
in it." Again, " Both in prose and verse it
was my desire to hear the living voice of the
heart, and laboured writing gradually became
distasteful to me. , Tke ring of truth I valued
more than artistic effect"
It is certainly to be regretted that his collect-
ed poems have not yet been published.
After many years of hesitation, he was induced to
agree to the proposal made by an old friend in
7*