With Syedna Taher Saifuddin Saheb’s raza, I went to study in England in 1955, returning in 1958. Once back, I decided that it would be better to settle down in England and what I remember is Huzurala’s open-ended “Taney pachhi jaavoo chhey key yahaan rahi ja…” It was an interesting use of words. He didn’t say “No, don’t go to England”. He only quietly suggested …

Four years later, I made up my mind that I would like to go back to England once and for all. I went to Huzurala in Surat for the customary raza mubarak. Since Mazoon-ud-Dawat (now Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb) had just returned from Yemen, there were a number of celebratory programmes in Surat. Huzurala asked me to stay in Surat for a while, after which he simply said “Mumbai aav”. So off I went to Bombay hoping that in a couple of days the raza would be granted and I would be on my way.

Curiously, he would call me to Saifee Mahal in the morning, I would perform qadambosi and he would ask me to return in the evening. When I would go in the evening,he would ask me to come the following morning. And so it continued. Considering that he would call me in for an audience only at around three in the morning, I once reached well after the appointed time of 9.30 pm because I was secure in the knowledge that Huzurala would inevitably call me in last. That night, he must have asked for me right away and had to be told that I was not there.

When I reached and was sent in I told him why I was deliberately late: that anyway he would call me late so I did not see any point in coming early. Why I was able to tell him this was because of his ability, despite his position, to get at a fairly personal equation with people.

I remember an extension of this sequence. One night,Moulana was fairly delayed in returning from a ziyaafat –must have been around two o’clock or so - and since he had asked me to come, I was doubly apprehensive of leaving without meeting him. I must have been one of three or four people still waiting at Saifee Mahal when Huzurala’s car rolled in during the wee hours. When he saw that I had waited patiently for him, he beamed an unforgettable million dollar smile – the kind of smile the memory of which one carries for a life time – and said “Tu hajee chhey?”

Ghani waqat raatey mein jaaoon toh Moulana maney farmave ke tu aajey jhonko layee ne aayo chhey? He would get fairly informal, telling me that he was used to staying awake well beyond 2:30 am every day. During those occasions, one of the things that I noticed was Moulana continuing to talk to us while holding a cup of tea and drinking through spoonfuls – not through the cup directly.The result of these extended visits was that a few weeks later, I voluntarily decided that it would be in the broader interests of the family if I stayed back in India. Huzurala could well have issued a diktat; on the contrary, he not only empowered me to take my decision but also gave me the benefit of his character-influencing proximity.

-         Bhai Yusuf Chitthiwala (since expired), Calcutta