Ear­ly Life and Aca­d­e­m­ic Foun­da­tion

Born in San Fer­nan­do, Trinidad, on Au­gust 8, 1918, Noor Mo­hammed Has­sanali was the sixth of sev­en chil­dren in an In­do-Trinida­di­an Mus­lim fam­i­ly. He re­ceived his pri­ma­ry ed­u­ca­tion at Canaan and Corinth Cana­di­an Mis­sion Pres­by­ter­ian schools be­fore at­tend­ing Na­pari­ma Col­lege in San Fer­nan­do. In 1937, he formed part of Na­pari­ma’s his­toric first High­er School Cer­tifi­cate grad­u­at­ing class, earn­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in Latin, Ge­og­ra­phy, Eng­lish, and French.

Be­fore pur­su­ing high­er ed­u­ca­tion abroad, Has­sanali served on the teach­ing staff at Na­pari­ma Col­lege from 1938 to 1943 as a French, Sports, and Res­i­dent Mas­ter. In 1943, he trav­elled to Cana­da to at­tend the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, grad­u­at­ing in 1947 with a Bach­e­lor of Arts de­gree in Law. He was called to the Eng­lish Bar as a mem­ber of Gray’s Inn, Lon­don, in June 1948 and was ad­mit­ted to prac­tice law in Trinidad and To­ba­go two months lat­er.

A Ca­reer on the Ju­di­cial Bench

Has­sanali be­gan his le­gal ca­reer in pri­vate prac­tice as a Bar­ris­ter-at-Law from 1948 to 1953. He then tran­si­tioned in­to pub­lic ser­vice, serv­ing as a mag­is­trate across Vic­to­ria, To­ba­go, St. Patrick, Ca­roni, and St. George West dis­tricts be­fore be­ing ap­point­ed Se­nior Mag­is­trate in Jan­u­ary 1960.

His rise through the le­gal sys­tem con­tin­ued with ap­point­ments as Se­nior Crown Coun­sel and As­sis­tant So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al (1965). On March 1, 1966, he was el­e­vat­ed to Judge of the High Court of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and on June 1, 1978, he was ap­point­ed Jus­tice of Ap­peal of the Supreme Court. Fol­low­ing his re­tire­ment from the bench, he served as Mas­ter of the Moots at the Hugh Wood­ing Law School in Oc­to­ber 1985, a mem­ber of the Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, and a mem­ber of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force Com­mis­sions Board.

Through­out his le­gal ca­reer, Has­sanali earned a pub­lic and pro­fes­sion­al rep­u­ta­tion for his com­plete im­par­tial­i­ty, hu­mil­i­ty, and con­sid­er­a­tion to­ward le­gal prac­ti­tion­ers.

The Pres­i­den­cy (1987–1997)

On March 20, 1987, Has­sanali was sworn in as the sec­ond Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, suc­ceed­ing Sir El­lis Clarke. His elec­tion was his­toric: he be­came the first per­son of In­di­an de­scent and the first Mus­lim to hold the na­tion’s high­est of­fice, as well as the first Mus­lim head of state in the West­ern Hemi­sphere.

As a prac­tic­ing Mus­lim, Has­sanali chose not to serve al­co­holic bev­er­ages at Pres­i­dent’s House—a de­ci­sion that was re­spect­ed by the pub­lic for his per­son­al con­vic­tion and in­tegri­ty.

His two con­sec­u­tive terms (1987–1997) were de­fined by his role as a uni­fy­ing na­tion­al fig­ure. Dur­ing the Ju­ly 1990 Ja­maat al Mus­limeen coup at­tempt—when an armed group bombed the po­lice head­quar­ters and held the Prime Min­is­ter and Par­lia­ment hostage—Has­sanali was vis­it­ing Lon­don. He helped re­as­sure cit­i­zens from abroad and worked to re­store de­mo­c­ra­t­ic or­der up­on his re­turn, serv­ing as a steady an­chor dur­ing the cri­sis.

Wide­ly re­spect­ed as a non-par­ti­san states­man, he ded­i­cat­ed his pres­i­den­cy to bridg­ing the na­tion’s eth­nic di­vide and fos­ter­ing con­sen­sus be­tween op­pos­ing po­lit­i­cal par­ties. He was suc­ceed­ed in 1997 by Arthur N. R. Robin­son.

Com­mu­ni­ty En­gage­ment and Ho­n­ours

An ac­tive sup­port­er of youth and civic de­vel­op­ment, Has­sanali served on the Na­pari­ma Col­lege Ad­min­is­tra­tion Board, held ex­ec­u­tive lead­er­ship in the Na­tion­al Scout As­so­ci­a­tion (1975–1977), and was award­ed a Cer­tifi­cate of Ho­n­our by the San Fer­nan­do Bor­ough Coun­cil for his con­tri­bu­tions to foot­ball at Skin­ner Park.

His ser­vice earned him ma­jor na­tion­al and aca­d­e­m­ic dis­tinc­tions:

Trin­i­ty Cross: Award­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s high­est na­tion­al ho­n­our in 1987.

Hon­orary Doc­tor­ates: Doc­tor of Laws (LLD Hon­oris Causa) from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (1989) and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to (1990).

Pub­li­ca­tions & Memo­ri­als: In 2003, he pub­lished a col­lec­tion of his speech­es ti­tled Teach­ing Words with the Naps Char­i­ta­ble Foun­da­tion. In Jan­u­ary 2015, the Fac­ul­ty of Law au­di­to­ri­um at UWI St. Au­gus­tine was of­fi­cial­ly re­named “The Noor Has­sanali Au­di­to­ri­um.”

Per­son­al Life and Lega­cy

In 1952, Has­sanali mar­ried Za­lay­har Mo­hammed, who served as First La­dy through­out his tenure. To­geth­er they had two chil­dren, Khalid and Ame­na.

Noor Has­sanali passed away at his home in West­moor­ings on Au­gust 25, 2006, at the age of 88, fol­low­ing a pe­ri­od of hy­per­ten­sion. He was buried lat­er that day ac­cord­ing to Is­lam­ic rites at the West­ern Ceme­tery in St. James