Hiiraan Online

by Nur Bahal
Thursday, December 15, 2011

Ismail Nur was born in Jigjiga in 1935. Twenty-three years later, in 1958, Ismail Nur would go on to become the first Somali to graduate from Haile Salasie University. His graduation, however, was eclipsed by his obdurate rejection to bow down to the Haile Salasie during the ceremony. As the king handed him the diploma, Ismail was expected to accept it bowing down in reverence to the king. Instead he walked up to Haile Salasie, extended a firm handshake, accepted the diploma and turned around, his head held high. The king’s cohorts immediately intercepted him and asked him to bow down. In a voice that all could hear, Ismail proclaimed that “he does not bow to any human but the true Lord of the worlds – Allah”. To the astonishment of all, Haile Salasie told them to let him go free.

That early day in the life of Ismail Nur was only a preview of his unwavering adherence to the principles that many in this world so easily squander.

Soon after that Ismail Nur won a prestigious scholarship to Ann Arbor University to do a Masters degree in Microbiology and a minor in Public Health. Having completed that in one year and at the pinnacle of his class, he came back to Ethiopia to begin working at the Pasteur Institute Laboratory. Being a Somali and an English-speaking Somali, the French administrators of the lab snubbed and frustrated Ismail’s efforts to apply his knowledge. Like many of his generation and later generations in the colonial realm of Ethiopia, he was also hypnotized by the simple yet exceedingly appealing and beautiful melody of “Qolaba calankeedu waa cayn, inana keenu waa cirkoo kale”. With that calling ringing in his ears, Ismail Nur took the next logical step and came to Somalia.

He began his career in Hargeisa. A funny but true story has it that the authorities in Hargeisa at the time did not know what to make of his knowledge. They were not familiar with microbiology and public health. He was neither a doctor nor a nurse. So being confused about what he can really do, between 1961  and 1966, he languished as an Assistant District Commissioner of Burao and then Oodwayne and later he became the District Commissioner of Hargeisa. When he came to Somaliland, despite with a Masters degree in an “unknown” field, he was one of only two graduates in British Somaliland.

In 1966 Ismail Nur came to Mogadishu to take over what was then a meager laboratory in Mogadishu – the Central Lab. Under Ismail’s tenure it became a respected institute in East Africa. During this time, Ismail also managed to come back to Ann Arbor and complete a second Masters degree in public health.

In 1975, Ismail won a job in Saudi Arabia. Beginning at Al-qassim and culminating in the Jeddah Regional Laboratory were he was single-handedly responsible for putting together a procedure and the practical implementation of a Public Health Protocol Management of the outbreak of Public Infectious Diseases during the Hajj. For fourteen consecutive years, he stood at Jabal Arrafa and Makka.

In 1992, Ismail came to the US. Still having a lot left in the tank, he set his sights at doing a microbiology license and fulfilled that dream with a record-setting achievement. From 1992 until he retired in Canada, Ismail worked at the Pennsylvania State Labs at Westchester.

Those who knew Ismail Nur will remember his matchless passion for knowledge, his conscientiousness and diligent work ethics, his dignified personality and uncompromising principles. But above all, I will remember him for his unsurpassed humanism and vibrant intellectual deportment. We pray to Allah that his success in life be followed by an equal success in the hereafter.

O Allah Your power brings us to birth,

Your providence guides our lives,

And by Your command we return to dust.

O Allah, we beseech You to absolve the soul of Ismail Nur, your servant, from the bonds of his sins and trespasses.

Aammiin, Aamiin yaa Allah.