A Glimpse at the Life of a Giant

A Glimpse at the Life of
a Giant
Nur H. Bahal
December 15, 2011

I, Nur H. Bahal and my brother Mohamed H.Bahal and both our families are extending our deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies to the family of Ismail Nur who passed away in Hamilton on the 11th of December 2011. May Allah, in His infinite mercy, bless his soul.

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.Continued