When I was a Judge in Allahabad High Court I had a private secretary called Farooq Ahmad. I also had an orderly ( chaprasi ) called Usman. The latter had a bad habit of often coming to work at my residence in an inebriated condition.
Since Usman was a young man, and was otherwise a fine fellow, I did not want to take any disciplinary action against him, but wanted to reform him.
One day Usman came to my residence in a somewhat inebriated condition. So at the time of namaz, I told Farooq, who was also present at my residence, to take Usman to a nearby mosque for offering namaz. My intention was that offering prayers would have a beneficial influence on Usman.
Later, after the time of namaz was over, I called Farooq and asked him whether he had taken Usman to the mosque for offering namaz. Farooq told me he had not. This made me a bit angry bacause my order had been disobeyed, and I asked Farooq why he did not take Usman to the mosque.
Farooq replied “ My Lord, it is stated in the Quran and a hadees of the Prophet that one should not offer namaz when intoxicated. So I had a choice of obeying Your Lordship’s order, or obeying God and the injunction of the Prophet. I opted for the latter. Now Your Lordship can give me any punishment ”
At this, I patted Farooq on his shoulder, and said ” You acted correctly. God is above me ”
